Designing simple status-check interfaces for non-technical users

I’ve been thinking about how people interact with everyday systems that are actually quite complex under the hood, and how small design or logic choices can make a big difference to usability.

Recently, I ran into a very basic real-world problem. I needed to quickly confirm fab bank balance (coz right now i'm in uae ) while planning a few things, but it wasn’t a working day and I didn’t have access to a branch. What struck me wasn’t the banking part itself, but how unclear the “status check” experience felt from a user point of view. For something as simple as “what’s my current balance right now,” the feedback loop wasn’t obvious or reassuring.

That got me thinking from a maker / electronics angle. When we design microcontroller projects, IoT dashboards, or even simple Arduino + display setups, we usually try to make system states very clear: LEDs for status, screens for live values, logs for updates, etc. We obsess over things like latency, refresh timing, and how trustworthy the displayed value feels to the user.

For those of you who build interfaces with sensors, ESP32 dashboards, or small LCD/OLED displays, how do you usually approach designing a clear “current state” readout?

Do you prioritize real-time updates, or is delayed but confirmed data sometimes better?

How do you communicate uncertainty or syncing delays to users in a simple way?

Any good examples from your own projects where a small UI or logic tweak made the system feel much more reliable?

I’m interested in this from a general design and engineering perspective, especially where hardware meets everyday human expectations.