Mobile UX Design: What Makes a Good Notification?
by Nick Babich
Have you ever paid attention to the number of notifications and alert messages you receive on a daily basis from various apps? How many of those notifications do you actually care about?
Everyday, users are bombarded with useless notifications that distract them from their day-to-day activities and it gets downright annoying. It is not surprising that:
Annoying notifications is the #1 reason people uninstall mobile apps (71% of respondents).
Designing notifications to be useful and relevant for your users is extremely important. Let’s see how to turn this anti-UX pattern into something meaningful and valuable both for your product and for your user.
Key Elements of User-Friendly Notifications
Notifications are a privilege because users allow you to send messages directly to them, and you must not abuse that privilege.
Here are five moments to remember when crafting a user-centric notifications.
1. Avoid sending too many notifications
The most common mistake, and the most damaging from a long-term point of view, that you can make while sending push notifications is sending your users more notifications than they can handle. Too many direct conversations with users may lead to “notification overkill” and may result in users either tuning out mentally or opting-out altogether.
Learn your audience, their lifestyles, their needs and wants and figure out the frequency of notifications that you will send out.
2. Push the Value
When user start using your app she don’t mind getting notifications as long as they carry enough “value-for-interruption,” meaning notifications are both useful and valuable to users. Strive to send personalized content because it inspires and delights users.
Bad Example: Some notifications shouldn’t ever make it to a user’s screen. AppStore software update notification most probably was designed to follow the usability heuristic “Visibility of system status,” but does the user really need to see it? Since the notification doesn’t require any action for the user side, then maybe users don’t need to see it.
Another bad Example: Facebook app routinely sends users notifications to connect to suggested people(“Find more of your friends of Facebook”). This is a poor attempt to engage users and bring them back into the app. Not to say it interrupts users with irrelevant alerts.
Good Example: Netflix does a great job of personalizing their push notifications. Netflix uses push notifications to let users know when their favorite shows are available.
Rather than sending every user a notification every time any new show or season is released, Netflix understands the personal preferences (based on information that users are watching), and only sends a notification to a user when one of their favorite shows has a new season available. The result:
App sends users personalized and highly relevant information.
Takeaway:
- Do not send notifications just because you can.
- Users appreciate content that is directly related to their personal interests.
3. Time Your Notification
Tailoring your notifications to your users isn’t just about what you say, it’s about when you say it. Do you like to be woken up in the middle of the night by a vibrating cell phone and a push message saying something random?
It’s true that users can turn on the settings on their device to DND, but that’s not a solution. A real solution would be sending a notification out at a reasonable time that would be most effective to your users, unless it’s critical to inform them of something happening right now. In general, mobile usage peaks betweek 6pm — 10pm.
Takeaways:
- Don’t send push notifications at weird hours (generally, between 12 and 6 am).
- Always send push notifications to users in their local timezone.
- Tailor message time to each user. Pay attention to where your users arein their day, and schedule appropriately.
4. Test Rigorously
How do you make a great push notification even better? Test it! A/B testing can be valid in push notifications. But unlike an A/B test of a change in the design of your site, testing messaging notification requires speed and determination.
Interesting practical example from Adam Marchick: Approaching Valentine’s Day, 1–800-Flowers prepared to A/B test two very different messages. They tested up two versions of one message to a small sample of users who had added an item to their shopping carts but had not completed their purchases. First message was a simple reminder:
But second one variant included a 15% off promotion code.
Contrary to what was expected, the message that performed best was a first variant — the variant that did not include a promotion code. In fact, the message without the promotion code generated 50 percent more revenue and resulted in fewer app uninstalls than the variant with the promotion code. That’s why you need to test everything.
But a tendency to track only positive metrics (e.g. sign-ins) is a big mistake. You should have a big picture and track all major metrics:
- Goal-driven: “Does the notification drive users to take a particular action?” Examples: purchases, sign-ins, etc.
- User engagement: “Does the notification enrich the user’s app experience?” Validate that the notification is user-centric, not business-centric.
- App uninstalls & push opt-outs: The number of app uninstalls or push opt-outs that have been generated as a result of the notification. Monitor push notification campaign in real time and adjust it.
5. Establish a Messaging Strategy
The best way to establish an effective mobile app messaging strategy is to use different message types — push notifications, email, in-app notifications, and news feed messaging.
Diversify your messaging — your messages should work together in perfect harmony to create a great user experience.
Conclusion
Mobile is all about making every message count. Notifications should both add real value to your users’ lives and help you solve business tasks.
Thank you!
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