Notifications#
Notifications are used to inform users about events that are relevant to them. Examples include:
when a download or other long-running operation has finished
when new content is available
when a message has been received
Because they are shown by the system, notifications are a useful way of communicating with users while they are using other apps. If a message is only relevant while the sender app is being used, toasts are a better option.
General Guidelines#
Be careful not to needlessly distract users with notifications, and question whether users really need to be informed about the events you want to communicate.
- Apps that deal with lots of events, such as email or social media messages, run a particular risk of distracting users with too many notifications. In these situations:
It is often desirable to place restrictions on how frequently notifications are shown. For example, instead of showing a notification for each new message, periodic notifications can show a summary of messages that have been received.
Provide an option for users to disable and/or reduce the number of notifications.
Ensure that your app removes notifications that are no longer valid. For example, a notification for a weather warning that has been revoked, or for emails that have been read.
Don’t rely solely on notifications for communicating something, as they might not always be seen. The app window should independently communicate all the information contained in notifications.
Notification Elements#
Notifications in GNOME have a number of standard elements:
Element |
Description |
|---|---|
App Icon |
Indicates which app sent the notification. |
Title |
A short and concise summary of the event that triggered the notification, written in header capitalization. The notification should be understandable from the title alone. |
Body |
An optional sentence which gives extra detail about the notification, written in sentence capitalization. |
Default Action |
The action that is triggered when the notification body is clicked. This should dismiss the notification and show the relevant part of the source app window. |
Actions |
Each notification can include up to three buttons. |
Notification Actions#
It is possible to add buttons to notifications, to allow users to quickly respond to them. Guidelines for these:
Only use notification actions when the functionality that they provide is often required.
Notification actions should be related to the content of the notification.
Actions should not replace user interface controls elsewhere — it should be possible to take the same actions from your app’s windows.
Notification actions should not duplicate the default action. For example, a new email notification does not need to include an Open button, since the default action should already perform this action.