Analysis on the notification system of Android 4.0

Through the mobile phone notification system, you can inform the user of some important information about the application. Fluent, comfortable, and friendly applications are inseparable 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 should I 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 you not use the notice? The official advice is:

Information that is not directly directed at the user or is not urgent. For example, SNS and users have no direct relationship with the new. Path may have made this mistake.

The information that is being 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 simple action that the system can perform on its own 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, otherwise they will only be objectionable to users. 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.

Second, the design guide for the notice

1. Privatization of the

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 will let the user know how many notices (number Pending) have been merged altogether.

3. Time stamp on time-sensitive events

The default system notification will have 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, then 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 explains it in detail.

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 previews for notifications

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 a different icon

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 notices are merged, if the 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 displays a reminder of several events, where the "return" key will return to Gmail, but if the user clicks on an event reminder, it leaves This intermediate interface and opens the calendar application to show 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.