Dominik Weber

Design Guidelines for Notifications on Smart TVs

Notifications are among the core mechanisms of most smart devices. Smartphones, smartwatches, tablets and smart glasses all provide similar means to notify the user. For smart TVs, however, no standard notification mechanism has been established. Smart TVs are unlike other smart devices because they are used by multiple people - often at the same time. It is unclear how notifications on smart TVs should be designed and which information users need. From a set of focus groups, we derive a design space for notifications on smart TVs. By further studying selected design alternatives in an online survey and lab study we show, for example, that users demand different information when they are watching TV with others and that privacy is a major concern. We derive according design guidelines for notifications on smart TVs that developers can use to gain the users attention in a meaningful way.

Towards Smart Notifications using Research in the Large

Notifications are a core function of current smart devices. They inform users about a variety of events, such as new messages, comments on social networks posts or application updates. As such, notifications are the main mechanisms to proactively communicate with the user. Focusing on individual device types such as PCs and smartphones, previous work showed that notifications can be distractive and disruptive. The ongoing wave of smart devices makes it possible to reach the user through multiple devices at once -- amplifying the effects of notifications. What is missing is an understanding of notifications in a multi-device environment to enable the smart management of notifications across devices. In this paper we present a system that is able to share notifications across smartphones, tablets, PCs, and smart TVs. It can further reach users through connected devices such as smart watches and smart glasses. The system currently distributes 5.3 million notifications by almost 30,000 users every day. It is not only intended to provide a holistic notification mechanism but also serves us to conduct large scale user studies to gain a deeper understanding of notifications in a multi-device environment.

Exploring notifications in smart home environments

Notifications are a core mechanism of current smart devices. They inform about a variety of events including messages, social network comments, and application updates. While users appreciate the awareness that notifications provide, notifications cause distraction, higher cognitive load, and task interruptions. With the increasing importance of smart environments, the number of sensors that could trigger notifications will increase dramatically. A flower with a moisture sensor, for example, could create a notification whenever the flower needs water. We assume that current notification mechanisms will not scale with the increasing number of notifications. We therefore explore notification mechanisms for smart homes. Notifications are shown on smartphones, on displays in the environment, next to the sending objects, or on the users body. In an online survey, we compare the four locations in four scenarios. While different aspects influence the perceived suitability of each notification location, the smartphone generally is rated the best.

Smarttention, please!: 2nd workshop on intelligent attention management on mobile devices

Today, many users of mobile devices are continuously confronted with a huge variety of information: notifications from Facebook, new application updates, won badges, or reminders. This leads to an information overload, which makes it hard to stay focused. This workshop will investigate approaches towards smart attention management systems. We will discuss the fundamental challenges of smart notifications and the design of proactive notification mechanisms. We invite submissions that focus on the understanding of users and their current, mobile information handling. We further appreciate contributions that propose design concepts for the interaction with smart attention management systems. The expected workshop outcome is a summary of emerging challenges in the design and development of smart attention management systems as well as approaches to address them.

UbiTtention: smart & ambient notification and attention management

Users of digital devices are increasingly confronted with a tremendous amount of notifications that appear on multiple devices and screens in their environment. Today many users own different ubiquitous devices such as a smart-phone, a tablet, a notebook and a smartwatch. If an email client is installed on every device an incoming email produces up to four notifications -- one on each device. In the future, we will receive notifications from an increasing number of ubiquitous devices. Therefore, we need smart attention management for incoming notifications as well as novel ways to present and interact with notifications. One way for a less interrupting attention management could be the use of ambient representations of incoming notifications. This workshop brings together researchers and practitioners from academia and industry to explore how the flood of notifications on different computing devices and in smart environments can be managed, to avoid information overload.

Envisioning an ambient smart calendar to support aging in place

The worlds population is aging, and this shift in demographics will place a high burden on the worlds healthcare systems. Smart technology provides a potential method of addressing the demands of these changing demographics. In this paper, we describe the design for a smart calendar that supports elderly people in their daily tasks and activities with the use of ambient notifications. We describe a typical day in the life of a target user, and how the smart calendar system would support the user in living self-sufficiently as she ages. We then discuss design challenges for implementing the persuasive technology. These challenges include correctly detecting a change in behavior and their urgency, the effectiveness of ambient notifications to create health behavior change, and privacy concerns with data collection and sharing.

Towards Notifications in the Era of the Internet of Things

Today, the smartphone is the main device for notifying the user, for example, about incoming messages or upcoming appointments. However, we envision that in the near future Internet of Things (IoT) devices will become an additional source of notifications. The resulting increase in notifications needs to be tackled to allow users to perceive all notifications without overloading them. In this paper, we report on two focus groups exploring how notifications in the era of the Internet of Things could be visualized. We derive design implications from the results of the focus groups which could influence how in the future smart devices notify users.

Understanding User Preferences towards Rule-based Notification Deferral

Mobile devices generate a tremendous number of notifications every day. While some of them are important, a huge number of them are not of particular interest for the user. In this work, we investigate how users manually defer notifications using a rule-based approach. We provide three different types of rules, namely, suppressing, summarizing once a day, and snoozing to a specific point in time. In a user study with 16 participants, we explore how users apply these rules. We report on the usage behavior as well as feedback received during an interview. Last, we derive guidelines that inform future notification deferral systems.

Caloo: an ambient pervasive smart calendar to support aging in place

Many countries are confronted with aging societies. With the increasing need for elder care, it is necessary to investigate how technology can support aging in place. In this paper, we propose an ambient smart calendar system that supports the self-sufficiency and activeness of older adults. We report the results of a survey of older adults on their use of physical and digital calendars. Based on the results, we developed Caloo (Calendar of opportunities) - a prototypical smart wall calendar which supports older users by generating awareness about their daily schedules as well as supporting them in remaining active in their lives through event suggestions. We evaluated Caloo in a study with retired older adults. Overall, we received positive feedback and identified data sources for events, which the smart calendar can suggest to the user. Our results indicate the potential of deploying an ambient and pervasive smart calendar system that supports aging in place.

Towards smart notification management in multi-device environments

Notifications are a core feature of current smart devices and are used to proactively communicate with users. However, notifications are known to cause disruptive effects. With the increasing number of smart devices, these negative effects are multiplying. With mobile devices, like smartphones and smartwatches, being always connected and always with the users, it is necessary to find a balance between notifying users while respecting their attention. In this work, we provide an overview of our research on smart notification management in multi-device environments. We present our research questions, research conducted so far, and planned efforts. The expected outcomes are guidelines and models to manage notifications in multi-device environments.