Projects/Usability/HIG/Notifications

Purpose

A notification is an information that is not directly relevant to the user's current task. It is displayed via a certain notification mechanism on a panel above/below the taskbar notification area. Notifications inform users about non-critical problems, but they don't prevent them.

Guidelines

Is this the right control

• Use a notification to inform about a non-critical problem that is not directly relevant to the user's current task.
• Do not use notifications for user assistance (consider to use tool-tips for short information, or refer to help system for extended text).
• Do not use notifications for context relevant information that might interfere with the actual workflow (consider to use a message dialog).

Behavior

• Notifications disappear automatically after a short period (unless the cursor hovers over them), but can be closed by the user at any point (KNotification::NotificationFlag == CloseOnTimeout).
• Stack multiple notifications vertically.
• Provide access to the configuration for each notification per button next to the close button.
• Do not add more than three actions to a particular notification. And take care about limited space for labels. For instance, Skip, Info, and Buy in case of Amarok's "Now playing" notification.

Appearance

• Make sure to make the origin of the notification clear from the notification title. For instance: "Amarok: Now playing" or "Konsole: Event".
• Keep the notification content concise (no more than about three simple sentences).
• Provide actionable information (e.g. "Low battery power: Approximately 13 min (2%) capacity remaining.").