Joe Workman's Blog

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Apr 30
Where Usability in iOS Notifications Fail I have been going through an exercise over the past few weeks trying to trim down all the junk that is spewed at me throughout the day in an effort to tame the squirrels. As I was going through the tons of apps that I have on my iPhone and iPad, I came to realize a major flaw in the usability of Notifications in iOS. As you can see from the image above there are tons of ways that we can now have our apps notify us. Notification Center: This allows you to display or not display an apps alerts inside Notification Center Show: The number of items that will be shown in Notification Center. Alert Style: The style of the alert that will come in if we are actively using our phone. None: Don’t display any alerts at all Banner: Display a non-intrusive banner alert at the top of the screen that will not interfere with the app that we are currently using. If you want to act on the alert simply click on it and you will be taken to the app in question. Alerts: These are the traditional iOS alerts that we have had since day one that. They will basically take over your device until you acknowledge it. Badge App Icon: This is the red badge that will be displayed at the top corner of your app icon on the springboard. It will display a number to inform you how many messages/alerts you have waiting for you. Sounds: This plays a sound at the time the alert occurs. View in Lock Screen: This will display alerts in the device’s lock screen so that you can view them when you continue to use your device in the future. Let me first say that I love all the customizations that we are allowed for each app. I am a geek and love to have the ability to customize things exactly to my liking. However, as I was going through the process of disabling notifications on my apps, I quickly discovered that this screen is completely inefficient. My assumption at first was that if I disabled Notification Center (the top setting) then all notifications for said app would also cease. Sadly this is not true. :-( In order to disable all notifications for an app, you need to go through each and every setting and disable it, for every app! That is a total of 5 taps for every app. I easily have 50 apps that show up in my Notification settings. Since a majority of these apps have all notifications enabled, that is in the upwards of 200+ taps that I needed to make in order to reduce all the noise that I did not want. To me that is just completely unacceptable. I feel that Notification Center should be the central dispatcher for all notifications. If it is disabled for an app, then all subsequent notifications should also be disabled. I think that Apple really needs to make this happen so this process can be more streamlined. I am happy that I took the time to go through and disable most of the notifications from my apps. Its saved me from countless number of distractions throughout the day that have allowed me to stay a little more focused during then day. It’s really been a big step in taming the squirrels. For those curious, here is the short list of apps that still have notifications enabled. If you notice, Mail is not on that list. Mail (and twitter) are by far the biggest distractions that we can have throughout the day. Phone Messages Reminders Calendar OmniFocus Witness Undercover MLS Matchday

Where Usability in iOS Notifications Fail

I have been going through an exercise over the past few weeks trying to trim down all the junk that is spewed at me throughout the day in an effort to tame the squirrels. As I was going through the tons of apps that I have on my iPhone and iPad, I came to realize a major flaw in the usability of Notifications in iOS. As you can see from the image above there are tons of ways that we can now have our apps notify us.

  • Notification Center: This allows you to display or not display an apps alerts inside Notification Center
  • Show: The number of items that will be shown in Notification Center.
  • Alert Style: The style of the alert that will come in if we are actively using our phone.
    • None: Don’t display any alerts at all
    • Banner: Display a non-intrusive banner alert at the top of the screen that will not interfere with the app that we are currently using. If you want to act on the alert simply click on it and you will be taken to the app in question.
    • Alerts: These are the traditional iOS alerts that we have had since day one that. They will basically take over your device until you acknowledge it.
  • Badge App Icon: This is the red badge that will be displayed at the top corner of your app icon on the springboard. It will display a number to inform you how many messages/alerts you have waiting for you.
  • Sounds: This plays a sound at the time the alert occurs.
  • View in Lock Screen: This will display alerts in the device’s lock screen so that you can view them when you continue to use your device in the future.

Let me first say that I love all the customizations that we are allowed for each app. I am a geek and love to have the ability to customize things exactly to my liking. However, as I was going through the process of disabling notifications on my apps, I quickly discovered that this screen is completely inefficient. My assumption at first was that if I disabled Notification Center (the top setting) then all notifications for said app would also cease. Sadly this is not true. :-(

In order to disable all notifications for an app, you need to go through each and every setting and disable it, for every app! That is a total of 5 taps for every app. I easily have 50 apps that show up in my Notification settings. Since a majority of these apps have all notifications enabled, that is in the upwards of 200+ taps that I needed to make in order to reduce all the noise that I did not want. To me that is just completely unacceptable.

I feel that Notification Center should be the central dispatcher for all notifications. If it is disabled for an app, then all subsequent notifications should also be disabled. I think that Apple really needs to make this happen so this process can be more streamlined.

I am happy that I took the time to go through and disable most of the notifications from my apps. Its saved me from countless number of distractions throughout the day that have allowed me to stay a little more focused during then day. It’s really been a big step in taming the squirrels.

For those curious, here is the short list of apps that still have notifications enabled. If you notice, Mail is not on that list. Mail (and twitter) are by far the biggest distractions that we can have throughout the day.

Posted 1 year ago

iOS, Apple, Squirrels,