I think I've finally cracked the Windows Phone Notification Centre, but you'll have to visualise :P

[Gaichuke]

How about utilizing the free space above our Live Tiles? In this free space, there can be a "special" Live Tile, one that is as thin as, say, the IE URL bar. This tile will be a drop-down menu essentially, with the word "Notifications" being shown by default. Now, when you click this tile, the most recent notification will be the first option, followed by the others from newest to oldest. When you click on a notification, it takes you to the spot in the corresponding app where you got that notification. I think that would look sweet.

It would be pointless to offer notifications together with Live Tiles. Why would people then bother using Live Tiles? Notification center (if any) function should be complementary to the Live Tiles, not parallel.

What ive been thinking recently is why not just use the top of the screen thats usually reserved for signal/wifi/bluetooth/battery/time.

That sounds actually quite complex to me.

- If the icons would be persistent until notification is dealt with = visual noise in apps, status bar likes to go away to avoid it.
- The hit targets for individual notifications would be way too small if you could access them straight from the status bar.
- Notification icons would block the original purpose of the status bar if too populated with them = not good

 

[martinmc78]

Apologies for the crudeness but you get the idea.

 

[martinmc78]

It would be pointless to offer notifications together with Live Tiles. Why would people then bother using Live Tiles? Notification center (if any) function should be complementary to the Live Tiles, not parallel.



That sounds actually quite complex to me.

- If the icons would be persistent until notification is dealt with = visual noise in apps, status bar likes to go away to avoid it.
- The hit targets for individual notifications would be way too small if you could access them straight from the status bar.
- Notification icons would block the original purpose of the status bar if too populated with them = not good

Your missing the point
Status bar can be persistant, it is when your charging your phone
There are no hit targets the icon just serves to notify
Thats the point you want to see that you have a notification. Be honest how often do you need to see if you have signal?

Thinking about it some more your more than likely to have a live tile for phone, messaging, email at the top of your start screen anyway as the majority will use those constantly so you dont need notifications for those as live tiles already do the job. The notifications can just be used for apps probably not in the top portion of your startscreen - facebook - linkedin - twitter - espn - xbox

 

[Gambit11B]

Why couldn't the notification center work just like the lock screen? When a notification status appears at the top of the screen, you simply pull it down to open, and swipe it back up to close (just like if you press the lock button, then press it again to get the lock screen, and when you swipe up the app resumes). This seems like it'd be too easy to implement, since the basics of it already exist.

The only catch is the notifications that you'd receive would be limited to those that you give the lockscreen access to.

 

[Dadstar0410]

I was also thinking this: as I saw the triple-dot option bar, I came across another way to show notifications.

In a corner (most likely top-left) of the screen will be a universal O. This O, when double-tapped, will view either all notifications when on the Start Screen or app-specific notifications when accessing from an app. The menu would come up the same way as the triple-dot menu. This maintains the simplicity of WP8 while still providing functionality.

 

[azaright]

Windows phone doesn't need notification center that's why it has toast+tile notification,toast as it comes in and tile for viewing it. I dont understand the obsession with notifcation center for wp,just because android has it doesn't mean wp should and fyi android doesnt have tile notifications.

 

[Dadstar0410]

Windows phone doesn't need notification center that's why it has toast+tile notification,toast as it comes in and tile for viewing it. I dont understand the obsession with notifcation center for wp,just because android has it doesn't mean wp should and fyi android doesnt have tile notifications.

It doesn't matter if we don't need it. It's a matter of whether or not the majority wants it. Don't use it if you don't want it.

 

[CSJr1]

I swear, this is the exact same post that is over in The Verge forum.. Is that you dbannor?

I have reservations about the top down approach for some of the same reasons a5cent mentioned earlier. Also I don't think WP needs to use the same paradigm as Apple and Android.

I see the points people mention about it not being necessary, but I think it wouldn't harm the OS and sometimes Live Tiles are not on the main screen that represents an event.

 

[germcevoy]

Just give me a notification tile that I can pin where I want it. All it needs to show me is how many toasts I've missed and when I launch the tile to show me the toasts listed from most recent to oldest. As a luxury maybe tapping the toast would bring me to the associated app.

Or just allow a left swipe from the home screen to see your most recent toasts. Im know huge advocate of notification centers per se but I am sick of missing auctions on ebay because I wasn't looking at my phone for the ten seconds that the toast came through alerting me to an item ending soon.

I am no developer but for Microsoft this really should be a doddle. They could knock something up overnight surely. I don't buy the 'we ran out of time' excuse that the fella with the silly haircut pawned us off with after WP8 was launched. Just do it.

 

[Lichenologic]

hey, how about this? when you hold the back button and swipe to the left? found it on some other forum idk which one.

 

[AngryNil]

I had almost exactly the same idea a while ago, a notification center what you could access by swiping down from the status bar with a twist that it does not cover anything, it just sort of pushes the current open application away from the screen and shows the information that seems like it has always been there, the screen just wasn't positioned to display it. It could even leave the app you came from visible in the bottom so that you absolutely could not get lost. I think I tossed this idea in the end because I didn't like the swipe gesture accessing it, swipe down from the top is a very cumbersome gesture to do one-handed with a big screen device.

As much as I prefer the home screen approach for the notification centre, your concept is beautiful and gels well with the UI (similar to the task switcher). If Microsoft has to do a notification shade, I hope they use your version.

 

[Gaichuke]

hey, how about this? when you hold the back button and swipe to the left? found it on some other forum idk which one.View attachment 31609

That's my concept I made for a while ago for My Nokia Blog. You can see the full idea in here, there's also QR codes in there to try it for yourself.

 

[Neo Nuke]

I just dreamed of this last night!

 

[Dadstar0410]

How bout this?
Tilting the phone a certain way will tilt the app frame, revealing app logos for the apps that have notifications. Clicking on one of them takes you to a different screen where you select the specific notification you want from that app. It's innovative, intuitive, and unique to Windows Phone to make people go "Wow!".

For example, tilting the phone right would tilt the frame right. The notifications would be revealed on the far right of the screen, essentially "behind" the tilted app. However, it can work from any angle, except tilting up, because that would intrude the status bar. What do you guys think?

 

[nehvada]

hey, how about this? when you hold the back button and swipe to the left? found it on some other forum idk which one.View attachment 31609

i really like the style of this solution, BUT it doesnt show any additional informations, so not very usefull. it should show at least a preview of the messages, a one-liner or something. because the way its shown here it actually shows the same info what the life tiles allready do (well, besides the names of hohn and jane)

 

[Gurggles]

Why not pull the Start Screen right (finger swipe from left to right, away from app list) and reveal a notification center? It fits within the Metro (I hear a German helicopter full of lawyers flying this way) theme, and gives the feeling of "pushing" apps away to see notifications. We already have an arrow at the bottom of the Start screen that directs the user to the app list, why not have a little text bubble, or a bird (tweet)? Heck put the symbol at the top of the start list to show there IS a notification. Although that last idea sounds kind off android ish (eck!!!)