A preliminary investigation of the mismatch between attendance order and desired display order of smartphone notifications

Abstract

Research shows that smartphone users often attend to phone notifications that are in the middle of the notification list. This suggests a mismatch between the display order and the users' attendance order on the notifications. Yet, we know little about how users would like their notifications to be sorted and presented. This paper presents the preliminary results of a mixed-methods study of the difference between smartphone users' attendance order and their desired display order of smartphone notifications. Our preliminary results show that a mismatch between attendance order and desired display order existed in nearly half of cases. Specifically, many users desired certain categories of notifications to be placed higher in their notification drawers than their actual notification-attendance behaviors would tend to suggest. Additionally, while our participants felt that some notifications have low-attractiveness senders or content, such as shopping-related ones, they would want the system to give them a higher priority.