An analysis of the Android 4.0 notification system (with Android 4.0 design Guide full text translation)

Through the mobile phone notification system, you can inform the user of some important information about the application. Fluent, comfortable, and friendly applications cannot be separated from well-designed message alerting mechanisms. But not all of the notices are users want to see, otherwise it will only cause harassment to users, so be cautious to use the notice.

In translation of the Android design, I found that the Android system has put forward some suggestions about the notification message, so we share it here.

When to use the notice?

Notifications are used primarily for time-sensitive (time sensitive) events, especially for synchronization events involving others (involve another person). For example, the following Gtalk and calendar notifications are time-sensitive and human-related events.

So when should not use the notice? The official advice is:

not directly to the user, or not urgent information. For example, SNS and users have no direct relationship with the new. Path may have made this mistake. Information that is currently displayed on the current screen does not have to create a notification. When chatting, you no longer have to create notifications about chat messages. A system can perform its own simple actions without user action, such as saving, synchronizing, or updating an application. If there is an error, but the application can recover quickly, there is no need to use notifications to interrupt the user, or even can not let users know the error. You do not have to use notifications for services that users cannot start or stop manually. Do not create redundant notices to make users deeply impressed with your brand. The best way for users to stay focused on your application and provide a small amount of content is to provide widgets to the user so that they can put it on the home page.

Ii. Design Guidelines for notifications

1. Privatization

Notifications from other users should include the user's Avatar (icon/photo) in the notification, as well as the caption (title) of the notification, message content (Messages), timestamp (Timestamp), and the icon for the application (secondary icon).

2. Merger of similar notices

If an application sends multiple notifications of the same type and none of the notifications have been processed (the processed notifications are removed from the notification drawer), merge the same type of notification into one.

The merged notification will have a summary description and let the user know how many notifications (number Pending) have been merged altogether.

3. Time stamp on time-sensitive events

The default system notification has a timestamp in the upper-right corner of the notification, and if you think that displaying the timestamp to your notice is meaningless, you may want to reconsider whether it is worthwhile to create a notification for this message. If this notice is really important enough, decide whether to show the timestamp.

The common need to display a timestamp is a notification of communications, such as Email, SMS, chat messages, the user needs to use the timestamp to understand the context of the message.

4. Notification of relevant navigational mechanisms

If the user clicks on a notification, the relevant application should be opened to the state that can operate on the content mentioned in the notification. However, if a user clicks on a merged notification, he or she should go to the list page (the previous level of the content page) and the third chapter in the following section.

5. Self-cleaning

Some notices may appear at some point in time to inform the user of some relevant information and hints, but if the time is over, this notice may not be important to the user, at this time should consider automatically delete this notice.

Similarly, the chat messages or messages that the user has viewed should also allow the user to remove these notices without having to manually operate.

6. Provide a preview of the notification

A preview of a short text as a notification allows the user to get a general idea of the content of the notification, thereby helping the user decide whether to view the notification immediately.

7. Let the user decide whether to display the notice

Users may be bored with frequent notifications, so users should be allowed to decide whether to display notifications. Therefore, the user should be allowed to cancel the notification in the application's settings.

8. Use different icons

In order to allow users to look at the notification bar to know which application issued the notification, should use its own characteristics of the icon. So when designing an application's icon, it should be noted that there is a distinct difference between the notification icons for other Android apps.

However, it should be noted that you do not use color to differentiate, because the notification icon is usually black and white.

III. Guidance mechanism for notification

1. Single notification and merger notice

If the user clicks on a notification, the relevant application should be opened to the state that can operate on the content mentioned in the notification. For example, a user receives a notification of a new e-mail message, and the user should go to the content page of the message when the notice is opened.

Because similar notifications are merged, if a user clicks on a merged notification, they should go to the list page (the previous level of the content page). In the following example, the user points to a merged new mail notification and enters the Inbox interface.

2. Indirect notification

If your application needs to display information about multiple events at the same time, you can use a single notification to direct the user to an intermediate interface. This interface shows these events and provides users with access to the application. This type of notification is called indirect notification.

For example, a user in Gmail received a Calendar issue of an indirect notice. Click on this notice to open an intermediate interface (Calendar interstitial), which shows a reminder of several events, the "Back" button in this interface will return to Gmail, but if the user clicks on an event reminder, it will leave the middle interface and open Calendar application to display the details of this event. In the context of the details of this event, the point "up" and "back" will go to the first page of the Calendar application.

The intermediate interface point "return" in the indirect notification returns to the interface that triggered the notification, and the return path will not be inserted into another interface. Once the user has entered the application through the intermediate interface, the logic of "up" and "return" is the same as the standard notification: Navigating between applications without returning to the intermediate interface.

For more information on indirect notification, please check out the "Android Design" patterns--navigation navigation chapter of Baidu MUX translation.

3. Pop-up notification

The pop-up notification will bypass the drawer notice and appear directly in front of the user. In general, it is rarely used, only in situations where timely feedback is required and users must be interrupted. For example, the Talk application uses this form of notification to remind the user that a friend has invited him to join a video chat, because the invitation will automatically expire in a few seconds.

For navigation behavior, pop-up notifications strictly follow the navigation logic of the intermediate interface of indirect notification. Click Back to turn off pop-up notifications. If the user enters the notification application from this pop-up notification, the "Up" and "return" logic is consistent with the logic of the standard notification, navigating within the application.

For more information on indirect notification, please check out the "Android Design" patterns--navigation navigation chapter of Baidu MUX translation.

IV. Notification related Interactions

1. Notice drawer

By default, pending notifications are displayed as icons in the status bar, and you can open the notification drawer by sliding down the screen.

The most recent notification is at the top, and clicking on a notification opens its application to the interface associated with the notification.

You can remove the notification by crossing it to the left or right.

In the Android 4.0 tablet, the notification bar is integrated into the bottom of the system bar, clicking anywhere in the notification area to open the notification drawer.

2. Ongoing notification

There are some notifications that let the user know what process is running in the background. For example, the music player that is playing, the power saving program running in the background, the security software that is protecting the system, etc. You can also provide feedback on tasks such as downloading, uploading, and video coding. This ongoing notification cannot be removed.

3. Dialog and Toast used as feedback

If an application is not running on the current screen, it should not eject the dialog box (Dialog) and the cue Bar (Toast). dialog boxes and cue bars should be used to provide immediate operational feedback when the user performs an action under the current application. For example, a dialog box lets the user know the dangerous consequences of an action, and the cue bar lets the user know that an operation has been executed successfully.

V. Summary

When you design an application's notification message in the Android platform, you should be clear about which scenarios to use the notifications for, and what types of notifications to display for different scenarios. In the design of the time also pay attention to the privatization of the notice, navigation logic, cleaning mechanism, the merger of similar notices, the design of icons. To avoid causing harassment to users, you should also increase the settings for whether to display notification messages in your application's settings.

From an earlier version of the Android system, it has a more mature notification system, the new IOS system also reference similar design. So taking advantage of the ANDROID notification system will make it possible for users to have a good grasp of your application.

Another attached MUX translation of the latest version of "Android design", Welcome to download reading.

: http://mux.baidu.com/img/97/AndroidDesign-BaiduMUX.pdf
Original: http://developer.android.com/design/

Source: http://mux.baidu.com/?p=3183