5 key elements make notifications friendlier

Have you ever noticed how many notifications and warning messages you receive every day in a variety of web services and apps? How many of them do you really care about? This is a growing concern because we are using more services, but our time and attention remains limited.

We receive so much "tick Tock" and "pop-up windows" during the day that we are not only distracted, but also very hard to get back to what we have. In the end, we leave these distracting services blank, or limit the notifications as much as possible. Why? Think about it. When you start using a Web service, or when you install a mobile app, you expect a specific purpose, or meet your initial needs, and you don't mind all kinds of notifications, as long as they have enough "interrupting value", meaning they are useful or interesting enough to distract you. The problem is that only a few notices follow this rule.

As a user, I hate it, but from the point of view of the product side, the notification has greater potential than just informing users of major errors, app crashes, or new http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/11030.html > Instant Messaging. This is a powerful marketing tool, you can directly communicate with the user, at the appropriate time and place to convey the appropriate information to enhance the user's viscosity. But how to turn this way of violating the user experience into something that is meaningful and useful to both the product side and the user?

Before delving into the design of the notice, ask yourself, "Do I really need a notice?" "It sounds absurd, but some notices should not appear on the user screen at all." Sometimes, we follow the "visible system state" of ease of use, every error is designed, but the user really need to know? If this message is simply information and does not require the system to respond to it, it may not be that important. On the other hand, if a major error occurs, the performance of the service or app depends on the user's actions and may result in significant data loss, which is convenient for both the user and the product side. Google Chrome's crash page notification is a good example.

The best way to keep notifications relevant is to make good use of previous user data analysis. There is nothing more reflective of user information than actual behavioral statistics. When designing a notification, pay attention to the product usage data and collect information about any other target audience. This helps to make the notification closely related to the user, increasing the chance of generating a conversation. Relevance is also timely, and you have to give notice when the user is least likely to ignore it. Obviously, night is not the best time to send a notification. User statistics are helpful when it comes to capturing user time zone data and when they are more inclined to view messages.

Customized product features are a good idea, especially when it comes to notification. This is not to say that users turn off all types of notifications (although that's what everyone likes), but rather make the customization of participating content. When users choose which notifications to receive or reject, they will be delighted to see their choice. If your product has just come out, the design of the notification system does not have enough user data to rely on, customization is a good choice. After a while, you'll see clearly what notices are useful, relevant, timely, and need to rethink.

Whatever the content of the notification, make sure it matches the user's language habits directly and visually. Keep the information simple and understandable. Avoid using "you earned it!" "or" 100% free "spam-like vocabulary. Try to make the information concise but easy to understand. Don't let the wording of the message reminder frustrate the user. After all, the notice is also a channel of communication; you have to be consistent with your brand image and message tone while staying friendly and creative.

There are a lot of different types of notification and communication methods: SMS, email notification, mobile app push message, Web notification, window tips and so on. To manage these notifications and make better use of them, we need to divide it into two groups based on the type of interaction: "Product notification to users" and "user notification to users." Depending on the type of service and the target of the user, the two groups of notifications may have different priorities. For example, a Instagram user might be more interested in knowing which photos he or she has, or what new Facebook friends they are joining, rather than scoring the app.

Knowing which type of notification and how to communicate is more user-aware is the key to any application that tells the whole body about the experience.

Source: http://article.yeeyan.org/view/418335/406968