unity-design team mailing list archive

[Chris Wilson <afrowildo@xxxxxxxxx>]

Most notifications on most platforms allow the user to interact with
it so some extent, even if it's only to dismiss it. In particular, the
notifications produced by MSN messenger on Windows, has people trained
to click on notifications to open the application that spawned them.

On 19 Nov 2011, at 03:01, Ryan Prior <ryanprior@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I've noticed that some people, when being introduced to modern Ubuntu
> systems, instinctively try to click on notifications when they pop up.
> A certain amount of exploration of the notification area is to be
> expected of a new user, but some are really persistent and find the
> blurring behavior vexing. Could we detect that the user has been
> dwelling the mouse in the notification area significantly more
> frequently than is expected, and display a simple explanation?
>
> I'd propose this language, to get us started: "This is just a friendly
> notification. You don't need to click it, and it fades when you move
> your mouse near so that it can stay out of your way. Try exploring
> (display various indicator icons here) above."
>
> The purpose of that language is to assure the user that they are not
> doing something wrong, that this is how notifications are supposed to
> work. Users who "get" notifications quickly and don't try to click
> them won't be bothered by the message, and people who don't "get" it
> at first hopefully won't be bothered by the message very many times
> before they clue in. Since it's only triggered by a basically
> pointless user action, and provides the user a reason not to repeat
> that action, it wouldn't be annoying in the same way that Clippy's
> suggestions were, since those were triggered by expected and useful
> actions.
>
> Thanks,
> Ryan
>
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