Ideas/Mockups for Mobile System Tray (GSoC)

[Diego Moya]

On 4 April 2010 20:53, Chani wrote:

> On April 4, 2010 05:25:22 Yuen Hoe Lim wrote:
> > Would greatly appreciate some feedback and comments on my ideas, as well
> as
> > on the proposal as a whole in case I'm missing something in there :)
>
> as for more computer-like devices...
> I like the way the n900 does IM notifications - the little tiny bubble in
> the
> corner that has just a few words in it.
>
> I'm not sure about the "mode" thing, though.
> I mean, even if I'm using it like a computer, when a phone call comes in it
> needs to be answered or dismissed right away, I can't just go check on it a
> minute later. so maybe the intrusiveness of the notification has more to do
> with the application it's coming from than what the device in general was
> designed for.
>
> There's an interesting article that provides a solution to the problem of
intrusive notifications: growing pop-ups.

"Reducing the Cost of Interruption Using Gradual Awareness Notifications"
http://groups.csail.mit.edu/lapis/projects/slowgrowth/slow-growth-technote.pdf
(short version)
http://groups.csail.mit.edu/uid/projects/slowgrowth/gradual-awareness.pdf
       (longer article)


You might want to experiment with this idea. Gradual growing notifications
only interrupt the user's conscious flow at natural task breaks, when the
user is ready to process the notification. The article shows evidence that
this technique is less intrusive than pop-ups: in the experiment, users
tended to be interrupted by the notification mainly when finished typing
words, instead of while typing (as pop-up notifications did).

It has some advantages over other techniques for notification typically used
in the system tray:
- it doesn't depend on color, so it works for accessibility
- it is not a flashy but a subtle effect
- the growing speed can be used to signal the relative importance of the
notification (fast growing alerts take less time to be noticed).
- semantic zooming provides progressively more information: just icons when
the notification is small, more text as the panel grows.

Maybe you could use this kind of growing animation for bubbles, and try it
on some test users? I for one would prefer this style to the popups in the
N800/N900. I hate having one of those interrupting my reading every minute
when I am low on battery. Having a subtler animation would be better for me.

Diego Moya
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