No(te) to Notifications!

Why can't we have a world without any distractions & people living & working with complete focus? I guess that wouldn't work. Some alert would come. Some alert always comes… ~Adapt from one of Charles M. Schulz quotes (Perhaps that's how most of us fell in love!)

Does a new site that a user opened have the permission or enough brand love to ask the user to like (subscribe) before even knowing the offerings?

We look at our devices ~150 times a day i.e. around once per 6 min (assuming one is not sleeping with the phone). Some notifications/alert does pop up…Some age-old subscription or some spam message or some awaited communication for a partner (professional, personal or potential!)

 Studies reveal we would be ~20-25% more efficient if we didn’t have micro distractions. (Nirvana spoiler!)

These notifications & alerts come in different shapes & sizes - web notifications, subscription mail alerts, app notifications, social alerts &mostly because of settings we agreed to (Superhuman fallacy!)

What could be done:

For Brands

Brands usually love the concept of notifications. Done thoughtfully they are definitely meaningful.

For web notifications, however, one would wonder - In a race of cutthroat customer experience, why would every site want to send a web notification to the user & in return increase the user journey by one extra click

(usually to say no!) - "From a Mozilla study - Not even 3% of these prompts got accepted by users. Most prompts are dismissed, while almost 19% of prompts caused users to leave the site immediately after being confronted with them,")

Some Opportunities:

• Use the right tone, time, type & frequency for your category (news / PR, social networks, event & travel updates may need more)
• Give users easy discoverability & choice to change the notification settings & automatic settings be moderate (risk at the side of lower frequency)
• Segment the users to make notifications contextual & interesting - include offers, images, vernacular language, CTA, sharing links accordingly

For Technology / Browsers

• Let the consumer have the option to manage notifications at the browser level
• Permit web notifications after the user has engaged with the website in some way (some experimentation has already happened in this space. Recent Mozilla browsers shifted this as an icon next to the address bar)

For Individuals

• Dedicated time off-screen or off the internet. (use apps to stop you from using apps! Really? Refer: 'Strict workflow' google extension)
• Skip the devices in the bedroom. Smartphone lights suppress our melatonin, & makes our brains think it’s morning. (lets you have a sleepy-dreamy next day though!)
• Adopt 20-20-20 rule (By Jeffrey Anshel) for every 20 minutes of screen time, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. Excessive screen time leads to reduced blink rate & thus muscle weakness and dryness in the eyes.
• Choose browsers that care for your experience more.

What's Next:

Just like password managers have become popular of late. Consolidated notification managers should be on their way…

Your points of view in comments could help mankind evolve from how it is handled today (Not Mankind!)

Signing Off! - Kulshreshtha Gaurav - https://twitter.com/kulshreshthag 

Disclaimer: I have recommended in favor of web notifications in the past :/

References:

https://blog.nightly.mozilla.org/2019/04/01/reducing-notification-permission-prompt-spam-in-firefox/

https://stephaniewalter.design/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-not-fck-up-push-notifications/

https://zapier.com/blog/stay-focused-avoid-distractions/

https://www.moengage.com/blog/firefox-hides-web-push-notifications-2-step-combat-plan-for-brands/

#NOtifications