Jaideep Godara

Silent Signals: A Peripheral Desktop Notification System (2005)

Organization: Center for HCI, Virginia Tech
Duration: 2 months

Design Brief:
Design a peripheral utility to notify the user only when there is a change/update of information.

Design Solution:
A balance between high reaction from the user and low interruption was achieved through customization. User can define the priority-level of a particular notification, and add new levels and corresponding notification styles. low-priority notifications are displayed in an unobtrusive manner with a slow and small frequency of fading-in, resulting in a window with a translucent low-opacity window. High-priority notifications are displayed in a higher and faster frequency of fading-in, resulting in a window with a fully solid and high-opacity.

Notification System Prototype

Design Process:
A scenario based design approach was used through out the project. We started off with a problem scenario based on data collection results. It was followed by a PICTIV based activity scenario and different claims were identified.

This was followed by a think-aloud protocol to find out the task performance details, usability problems & severity ratings of these problems. The results of these usability test sessions were presented using Ishikawa charts (to ascertain the cause-effect relations); revised process-flow charts & wireframes to propose alternate designs.

PICTIV based Activity Scenarios

Ishikawa Diagram to Diagnose Usability Problems