Projects/Usability/HIG/Notifications

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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.

Examples

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.

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.").

Implementation