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Possible iOS Notifications System

Bendy Walker

Bendy Walker

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 29, 2008
109
1
Manchester, UK
I've just spent the last hour in my graphics lesson drawing this up. It's what I think would be a cool implementation for a notification system in iOS. What do you guys think?

EDIT: I realise now that I forgot to put the dock on the homescreen, and so for clarification: The screen on the right of the diagram is your standard homescreen that you see when you unlock your phone. Swiping right from there will take you to the Spotlight Search screen (which is seen on the left-hand side of the diagram). As you can see, I am proposing that the notifications pane be displayed underneath the Spotlight bar to minimise the wastage of space. Tapping on the Spotlight bar will cause the notifications pane to fade away and for the keyboard to slide up from the bottom, allowing you to perform a standard Spotlight search. The number displayed in the status bar (where the time and battery are located) is just a count of how many unread notifications you currently have waiting (so that you know to visit the notifications pane). Notifications will not be marked as read unless you either tap on them (to open the corresponding app) or swipe over them to mark them as read.

EDIT EDIT: I have attached a mock-up of what the UI would look like on the phone. It borrows heavily from the spotlight search UI, keeping things consistent in the window. The main text of the notification is displayed in bold, and the subtext tells you a bit more about the notification. The icon tells you which app the notification pertains to. What do you think to it now guys?
 

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Good ideas. Apple, if they're going to change anything at all, probably already have something in the works. How long will it be before this huge dinosaur that moves at glacial speeds makes the change? We've got one chance a year to see (June/July)
 
I think tapping the notification indicator in the menu-bar may be hard since it would have to be so small maybe Apple could use some fancy programming to compensate for that though.

Also I don't see why you should throw it into Spotlight, Spotlight has nothing to do with notifications if anything it should be its own "homescreen" would also make sense to see them at the lock-screen instead if the user hasn't unlocked its phone.
 
fishmoose said:
I think tapping the notification indicator in the menu-bar may be hard since it would have to be so small maybe Apple could use some fancy programming to compensate for that though.

Also I don't see why you should throw it into Spotlight, Spotlight has nothing to do with notifications if anything it should be its own "homescreen" would also make sense to see them at the lock-screen instead if the user hasn't unlocked its phone.
Click to expand...

But means locking phone to see notifications.

Spotlight is the best implementation location, I rarely use spotlight too!
 
GollumBoy said:
But means locking phone to see notifications.

Spotlight is the best implementation location, I rarely use spotlight too!
Click to expand...

No no, I mean when the phone is locked and you press either the sleep/wake button or the home button you should be able to see the notifications. He hasn't proposed that. In the OS itself there should also be a way to see them and I like his idea with a "homescreen" just for that, I just don't think it belongs into Spotlight.
 
fishmoose said:
I think tapping the notification indicator in the menu-bar may be hard since it would have to be so small maybe Apple could use some fancy programming to compensate for that though.

Also I don't see why you should throw it into Spotlight, Spotlight has nothing to do with notifications if anything it should be its own "homescreen" would also make sense to see them at the lock-screen instead if the user hasn't unlocked its phone.
Click to expand...

If you looked at the diagram closely, you'll see that you swipe to where the Spotlight Search screen is now to access the notifications pane - you don't tap the notifications icon in the status bar.

I chose to put it in Spotlight because if it was located on a separate homescreen, then it would mean two swipes to get to either your notifications or Spotlight Search. As it stands in iOS 4.2, Spotlight is massive waste of space (literally speaking). The search bar takes up a tiny portion of the screen and there is plenty of unused space underneath. As you can see in the diagram, simply tapping the Spotlight Search bar will bring up the keyboard and allow you to perform a search instantly. The only difference is that notifications are displayed if you don't tap on the search bar.

Having them displayed on the lock screen would be fine when your phone is locked, although I think that it may clutter up the homescreen. The way notifications are dealt with at the moment is fine for the lock screen - I just find it annoying when I've got two mentions on Twitter, three notifications on Facebook, two texts and a missed call, and I have nowhere to view them all in one location.

I'm sure Apple will implement a notification system that no one had speculated on before, but I think this implementation here would be perfectly usable. I'd certainly welcome it.
 
Sorry, little confused, if you hit the number there will be a drop down list of current notifications or will it bring up icons à la the folder view?
 
Interstella5555 said:
Sorry, little confused, if you hit the number there will be a drop down list of current notifications or will it bring up icons à la the folder view?
Click to expand...

The number is just an indicator as to how many unread notifications you have. You need to manually swipe to the left screen (notification/spotlight screen) to view the notifications.

I believe that's how it would work.
 
efp1 said:
The number is just an indicator as to how many unread notifications you have. You need to manually swipe to the left screen (notification/spotlight screen) to view the notifications.

I believe that's how it would work.
Click to expand...

Ahhh, makes more sense, thanks.
 
I actually like this idea. I don't think i've ever used spotlight... I would probably use it more often if something like this was implemented since I would have a reason to swipe right lol.
 
very nice looking, i would hope the notification page goes on the lock screen to. and for the bar at the top what if you do separate icons. one for email, one for calls, one for sms, and one for all other apps, so if you have an email and sms you see those icons. you can press either icon to open up the notification menu. does that make it seem to cluttered at that top bar? i just thought it would be nice to see what you have before you open it.
 
it is a VERY GOOD implementation of a revamped notification system! and THANK YOU!!! someone is agreeing with me on the whole space wasted for spotlight!! I really hope Apple takes this into consideration somehow!
 
Really impressive, I think this is the best notification system i've seen!
 
Really like this idea. Great implementation! I too think the spotlight page is very much wasted space and this is a great way of keeping spotlight and introducing a much more improved and desperately needed notification system.
 
nunes013 said:
very nice looking, i would hope the notification page goes on the lock screen to. and for the bar at the top what if you do separate icons. one for email, one for calls, one for sms, and one for all other apps, so if you have an email and sms you see those icons. you can press either icon to open up the notification menu. does that make it seem to cluttered at that top bar? i just thought it would be nice to see what you have before you open it.
Click to expand...

I understand where you're coming from Nunes013, but like you said yourself - I think the status bar would become too cluttered if there were seperate icons for phone, email and SMS. Keeping it simple like this is more in the mindset of Apple in my opinion.

And to everyone, thanks for all the positive feedback!
 
Bendy Walker said:
I understand where you're coming from Nunes013, but like you said yourself - I think the status bar would become too cluttered if there were seperate icons for phone, email and SMS. Keeping it simple like this is more in the mindset of Apple in my opinion.

And to everyone, thanks for all the positive feedback!
Click to expand...

i think your 100% right will Apple being simple. I would love for this to be the new notification system. iOS needs it asap :D Now all the hardware needs is a little LED to flash. There was a thread that talked about the square in the home button being an LED it was a really nice idea but now with the ending home button rumor that might be out of the question.
 
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