1. Notifications Saul Greenberg

2. What are Notifications? A Notification is a timely message or information delivered to one or more recipients Notification systems attempt to deliver current, important information to the user in an efficient and effective manner. 1 1 http://research.cs.vt.edu/ns/

4. A fundamental issue with user interfaces is how to help users stay aware of information without being overly intrusive or distracting. -from Sideshow: Providing Peripheral Awareness of Important Information. MSR-TR-2001-83

5. Notification Strategies Polling interfaces people repeatedly check or “poll” informaton e.g., visit the avalanche forecast site to see if conditions have changed Problems easy to miss important events and critical updates memory burder: remember to poll, remember previous state excessive time and energy: have to find it, start it, navigate, etc. opartial solution: summarize results in one place -strategies taken from Sideshow: Providing Peripheral Awareness of Important Information. MSR-TR-2001-83

6. Notification Strategies Alerts intentionally interrupt person when something important happens e.g., fire alarms, reminder windows, email updates… Problems interruptions are also potentially distracting interface design: odecide how we interrupt people odecide when to interrupt people odecide if interruption is warranted given current context -strategies taken from Sideshow: Providing Peripheral Awareness of Important Information. MSR-TR-2001-83

7. Notification Strategies Peripheral awareness fills our peripheral attention with information that envelopes us without distracting us works - we have innate ability to stay aware of peripheral things e.g., othe weather outside (if working by a window) ocolleagues who are around owhat others are doing… Problems how do we create peripheral (or ambient) displays? how do we artificially find a balance between peripheral awareness and distraction? -strategies taken from Sideshow: Providing Peripheral Awareness of Important Information. MSR-TR-2001-83

8. Lets Ask Again: What are Notifications? Information delivered to you about events ‘You have mail’ Ringing telephone Postits placed on your screen Upcoming events (ads) in public places… Notifications vs Information attention-getting directed to you relevant to you small units attract attention, and you can optionally take action on it

9. Notification systems Computer systems that attempt to deliver current, important information in an efficient and effective manner that can be queried further Can come from various sources Can be presented in many different ways

10. Examples Email notifier #1 permanently on screen graphical change of state sound dinggggg

11. Examples Email notifier #2 permanently on screen animated state

12. From: Saul Subject: Extension I’ve moved the deadline to Wed. instead of Mon. to give you more time to…. Examples Email notifier #3 pop-up toast with subject and first line, fades after a few moments…

13. Examples Email notifiers work when: email is relevant delivered in a timely way gives just enough ‘at a glance’ information to help you make a decision balances distraction from your main job They stop working when: # of notifications become overwhelming bad notifications overwhelm good ones ospam, inconsequential emails The effort of making decisions increases oe.g., having to open your email system to see if the email is relevant ointerpretting a notification (e.g., lots of text) From: Saul Subject: Extension I’ve moved the deadline to Wed. instead of Mon. to give you more time to….

14. Examples Instant Messenger several cues blinking, color, popups text descriptions, actual contents… flashing status bar transient popups contact list status

15. Sideshow designed to help people track pertinent,multiple sources of information

16. Sideshow I have a meeting in 23 minutes There are 6 unread and 10 total messages in my inbox. 2 of my buddies are online, 4 are online but unavailable, and 19 are offline. Anoop is online (indicated by the icon and the picture of Anoop looking at me). Gavin is online but unavailable (indicated by the icon and the picture of Gavin looking away from me).

17. Sideshow Current information on how the stock market is doing. There are 90 bugs in my bug database. 6 are high priority, 19 are medium priority, and 61 are low priority. Current 5-day forecast for my region. Snapshot of the traffic on the bridge I have to use to get home. Map of the status of all the traffic in my region. I can click the new button to add tickets to my sidebar.

18. Sideshow Alerts fades in with summary of information

19. Sideshow Tooltips quick detailed info access

20. Sideshow Design principles make it always present obut at the periphery minimize motion oso its visually calm and not distracting make it personal oso its personally relevant support quick drilldown and escape oso people can retrieve highly detailed information and then quickly return to what they were doing make it scalable oso one can track many items (dozens?)

21. Sideshow concept now popular Google SidebarVista SidebarYahoo Sidebar

22. Twisting the theme: Group Notifications Can notifications be generated and seen within a small group of people Audience Intimate collaborators: people with a real need and desire to stay connected owork colleagues, friends, social groups… ocommon goals, purpose, work products, coordination…

23. Example. Casual interaction Whose around and how can I contact them? Peepholes version 1 graphical change of state, sound (of someone typing)

24. Example. Casual interaction Peepholes version 2 fading photos over time bar chart (motion in office) as better predictor of presence

25. Example. Casual interaction Peepholes version 3 video snapshots

26. Example. Casual group communication Ticker tape (U Queensland) subscribe to messages appears as a marquee fades out over time animation, color, motion, temporary persistence…

27. Example. Casual group communication Ticker tape (U Queensland)

28. Example. Casual group communication Mime attachment Group (event producer ) Username Text Tailorable

29. Example. Encourage physical interaction How to get people into the physical coffee rooom CoffeeBiff (U Queensland) click when going for coffee graphical change of state shows: oat least one person in coffee room onumber (of people) gone for coffee ocycles through names… Allows for easy decision making for coffee meetings increase chance of social engagement ambushes (one-person initiated enagement) plausible deniability of ambush

30. Example: progressive interaction Physical but digital surrogates offload notifications onto physical, peripheral display physically situated can naturally act on notification to move into conversation With Hideaki Kuzuoka, Tsukuba

31. Examples Hideaki Kuzuoka

32. Notification Collage People video Information photos, web Communication char by char texting