My thoughts on WP Notification centre

[JustinXinLiu]

Hi guys, my name is Justin Liu and I am a WP designer/developer. For the last couple of months I've seen a lot of posts about the 'missing' WP notification centre. I personally think live tiles are enough for notifications, however I do understand why some people would still love to have one.

Here are a couple of problems I've found with my live tiles.

First problem is, the default live tile design for 3rd party apps is just not nice. C'mon a tiny number inside a black circle? Sigh...

Second one is that because WP restricts 3rd party apps so they can only update their tiles every 30 mins (also note that the tiles won't be updated at all if the corresponding background task is turned off by the user or when battery saver is on and battery is low). This will cause the live tiles to give incorrect numbers. For example, I cleared all my notifications on my Facebook 20 mins ago but my phone still shows me there are 4 unread notifications.

If, there is a notification centre coming, I think swiping from the left might not be a good idea to bring it to front. Here is why.

Notification centre should be accessible within an app, right? So you actually need to do the swiping from the left edge of the phone. But please don't do it! This feature should be saved for quickly switching apps! Think about how you use a Windows 8 tablet. It is such a cool feature and it should become a standard for Windows products.

I don't like notification centre, I don't like it because it's boring, it's got everything vertically aligned just like a list of unread and read emails. If each pinned app's tile can be properly designed, also maybe reduce the gap between live tiles, have less important apps use small tiles, more important ones use normal or wide tiles, we can create some really nice start screens with unbalanced, modern design...*)#*#$#^$#$%&^*(!!$ (alrite it's late and I've already started dreaming LOL)

Anyway, it's just my 2 cents. Night guys

PS. Just realised this is my first wpcentral forum post...

 

[Muri Muffins]

hey justin, this also is my first post/reply, because i think you are worth replying/registering for!
i personally think that a notification center is NOT necessary for WP.

i am an android developer, but i personally use a windows phone.
i think that startscreen is the notification center. if you want to access your notification from anywhere, just press to homebutton. want to go back? press & hold back button. what annoys me about android is the constant gesture of swiping down from the top part of the screen for notifcication. it really grows tiresome. blackberry has a gesture from the bottom, I think that is better, but may grow tiresome too.

i also agree that swiping to the left might not a good idea to show notifications. i think swiping left in the homescreen should show quicksettings such as wireless.

thats my 2 cents

 

[juan6996]

Welcome to the forum! I also don't like the swiping down gesture, specially on the huge screen in my Lumia 920. I would like quick settings in the multitasking view, on the bottom of the screen. I think notifications are best put on the left side of the start screen, and make that a proper panorama with 3 pivots, start, apps, and notifications.

 

[pjs37]

If they do a notification center I want them to do it right not like how Apple did it where you have to remember to customize the program defaults buried in the settings screen with a thousand apps all who like to think they need to notify you when snoggleberries are now only $49.99 to buy 1000. I want something like my lock screen where I can specify maybe like 5-6 apps that can notify me in the notification center and the only choice I maybe get is if I want to see a preview of the message or not.

 

[dainla]

If they do a notification center I want them to do it right not like how Apple did it where you have to remember to customize the program defaults buried in the settings screen with a thousand apps all who like to think they need to notify you when snoggleberries are now only $49.99 to buy 1000.

That was by far my biggest problem with the notifications center on Android. I found it more annoying than useful

 

[simonnyc]

What do you guys think the best implementation of a notification center should be? Should the notification center be accessed by swiping left on the home screen? Or should there be a notification center tile (perhaps giving the total # of notifications waiting). Clicking on this tile will take you into the notification center. 2 different ways to get to the same place but the tile would alert you of any notifications before to the notification center.

 

[rockstarzzz]

I think if anything WP8 MUST get gestures from Windows 8 i.e. close apps = swipe down (X button - NO NO NO!), from left pull open apps like OP suggested ie multitask view, may be that frees up long press back button - use that for notification aka design-nightmare-android-version for those who crave it so bad and for everyone else, let 3rd party live tiles behave like first party live tiles! Also, charms menu is my dream that will never come true on WP!

 

[Blkacesvf41]

How about a dedicated notification center tile within the lock screen. That way you would have option of making it larger and see previews of notifications before accessing the center. The other thing is, either an blinking LED would be nice or a ring tone that goes off every few minutes to let you know you have something new.

 

[Mystictrust]

A notification center doesn't have to be a "boring vertical list" - whatever Microsoft is probably working on will hopefully be designed just as well as the rest of the system.

That being said, having heard many notification alert sounds and scouring my start screen for notification alerts - when there are none - has put me squarely in the "Give me a notification center" category. I got 6-8 loud notification alerts in my ear while on a long phone call yesterday... going to my start screen, I saw 2 new notifications on one app, and 3 existing from a previous tile I knew about before I took the call. But where did the other 4-6 notifications go? Sometimes I'll see nothing at all. Not all notifications/toasts correspond to a tile update either... sometimes there is no notice on the tile (or the tile isn't pinned).

I'm not sure what the best way could be to implement it... Microsoft will come up with something nice though I'm sure

 

[jmerrey]

There are some apps that will give a toast notification without a tile notification (espn is one), which is just one more reason for a notification center. Also, every time I get a calendar notification, I wonder why all notifications can't be that way. It doesn't go away until you interact with it, and it has a bit more info.

 

[rockstarzzz]

There are some apps that will give a toast notification without a tile notification (espn is one), which is just one more reason for a notification center. Also, every time I get a calendar notification, I wonder why all notifications can't be that way. It doesn't go away until you interact with it, and it has a bit more info.

Just because devs are lazy to use proper tiles, OS needs notification centre?

 

[Blkacesvf41]

Just because devs are lazy to use proper tiles, OS needs notification centre?

Dude, come on. That kinda accusations are uncalled for don't you think? We need more devs to jump on board and this ain't the way to attract them. All we're doing here is putting ideas/wish list together.

 

[anthonyng]

We need SOMETHING. So many notfications are sounded and I don't know where it came from and I don't want everything on my start screen. There just needs to be something that collects them and I can view them

 

[TheJoester09]

I don't understand why a toast notification can't just stay until it's dismissed. Right now they disappear after a few seconds automatically, but you can dismiss them by swiping them off to the right. Why can't they just stay up there until you're ready to select it or dismiss it? If you have more than one notification, it can just show up after the most recent one has been dismissed, like it does when you get multiple text messages at one time. That would eliminate the need for a notification center, but would still keep you up-to-date on those apps that you don't have pinned.

 

[Jazmac]

My thoughts are it needs a notification center more than it needs a place set aside for children to play. Its why they make Nintendo, Sega and the iPod touch. Besides, I read somewhere that either Microsoft or Nokia said they were bringing notification but they didn't have time in the Portico drop. Nokia needs it as well as they need call block. How this continues to be missing on the Nokia is puzzling.

 

[jlynnm350z]

I think if anything WP8 MUST get gestures from Windows 8 i.e. close apps = swipe down (X button - NO NO NO!), from left pull open apps like OP suggested ie multitask view, may be that frees up long press back button - use that for notification aka design-nightmare-android-version for those who crave it so bad and for everyone else, let 3rd party live tiles behave like first party live tiles! Also, charms menu is my dream that will never come true on WP!

 

[astraith]

What do you guys think the best implementation of a notification center should be? Should the notification center be accessed by swiping left on the home screen? Or should there be a notification center tile (perhaps giving the total # of notifications waiting). Clicking on this tile will take you into the notification center. 2 different ways to get to the same place but the tile would alert you of any notifications before to the notification center.

That is the only way to do it. It's the Windows way really.

 

[a5cent]

from left pull open apps like OP suggested ie multitask view, may be that frees up long press back button - use that for notification

Interesting idea. It would allow people to call up the notification center directly, i.e. without having to go through the start screen first.

Using long-press-win-key to open the notification center may also be an option (move tell me to long-press-search-key).

 

[rockstarzzz]

Dude, come on. That kinda accusations are uncalled for don't you think? We need more devs to jump on board and this ain't the way to attract them. All we're doing here is putting ideas/wish list together.

How is it uncalled for? Would you rather suck up and just use whatever junk is shoved on your phone as an app?
Look at whatsapp. Its music streaming api. Its not how any IM app works. But they choose to be lazy and do it. Most apps that don't work aren't because only of OS shortcomings. Look at Draw something - an android port, no dev efforts AT ALL. Look at words with friends, android port.
Point being, devs are lazy and at the end of the day, we ARE paying them, higher than other platforms either for their app or adverts. We do need dev support, but not so desperate that they can shove their laziness on my phone and so I need an OS overhaul to match that!

 

[Mystictrust]

How is it uncalled for? Would you rather suck up and just use whatever junk is shoved on your phone as an app?
Look at whatsapp. Its music streaming api. Its not how any IM app works. But they choose to be lazy and do it. Most apps that don't work aren't because only of OS shortcomings. Look at Draw something - an android port, no dev efforts AT ALL. Look at words with friends, android port.
Point being, devs are lazy and at the end of the day, we ARE paying them, higher than other platforms either for their app or adverts. We do need dev support, but not so desperate that they can shove their laziness on my phone and so I need an OS overhaul to match that!

Okay. So they're lazy. Their app is still not getting any better on its own (particularly with the way it might display notifications). You can't stop lazy devs (on all platforms) or devs who don't conform to design standards or devs that forget to implement things... and in the meantime, there are apps out there that display toasts and notifications without updating the tile. Some apps its by design (Words by Post displays tile notification for when it's your turn... but absolutely nothing for messages)

A place to aggregate things that might be missed is a good thing. Mentioned above the option of having to manually dismiss toasts is a solution too... but it doesn't matter anyway. A Microsoft presenter has already stated a notification center is something they couldn't get out on time. Microsoft thinks it's a good idea now.