2.22 Provide useful notifications
Ensure any required notifications or alerts are clearly explained before activation, and that the user can both control and change them.
Criteria
- Need for notification: Human-testable
Remove non-essential notifications. Justify and reduce email, text message (SMS), and other invasive or energy-intense notifications to what is strictly necessary. Useful notifications, such as alerts for new content should be used with care and restraint, having both the users understanding and informed consent.- Biased By Design
- GPF – General Policy Framework (PDF) – 4.13 – UX and UI (Notifications)
- GPF – General Policy Framework (PDF) – 6.6 – Front-End (Sensor Requests)
- GR491 – 4-7046 – Notification Necessity
- How To Design Notifications For Better UX
- Indicators, Validations, and Notifications
- Push Notifications
- Notification settings: Human-testable
Let the user adjust their own notification and messaging settings. Ensure the options to unsubscribe, log out, and close an account should be available and visible. Ensure it is possible for the user to change their contact details.- Can I email?
- Carbon Footprint of Email Spam Report (PDF)
- Five Mistakes in Designing Mobile Push Notifications
- GR491 – 5-3034 – E-mailing Necessity
- GreenIT – 109 – Avoid sending heavy and redundant emails
- GreenIT – 111 – Reduce emails size
- Notifications
- The Ultimate Guide to Not F#!@ing Up Push Notifications
- Prompts and responses: Machine-testable
Clearly explain the result of a potential input through helpful prompts and messages that explain errors, next steps, and other relevant information. This will help to manage user’s expectations.- Client-side form validation
- Creating Error Messages
- Designing Better Error Messages UX
- Error-Message Guidelines
- GR491 – 9-3064 – Error Management
- How to Create Better Error Alerts
- How to write error messages that actually help users rather than frustrate them
- Humane By Design
- Privacy UX: Better Notifications And Permission Requests
Benefits
- Accessibility
Signposting individuals to information through helpful notifications or error messages will reduce abandonment. All information must be presented in a way that does not discriminate, as this could exclude many potential users. - Environment
Notifying users about important events can reduce the need to constantly refresh pages. These notifications provide a shortcut, ensuring content is loaded when it becomes available. This can save emissions. - Privacy
Using notifications appropriately ensures personalized content is only displayed on specific devices, reducing the risk of information exposure.
GRI
- Materials: Medium
- Energy: Low
- Water: Medium
- Emissions: Low