Introduction: Design and Evaluation of Notification User Interfaces

Notification systems attempt to deliver current, important information to the computer screen in an efficient and effective manner. All notification systems require that the user attend to them to at least some degree if they are to succeed. Examples of notification systems include instant messaging systems, system and user status updates, email alerts, and news and stock tickers. The benefits of notification systems are numerous, including rapid availability of important information, access to nearly instantaneous communication, and heightened awareness of the availability of personal contacts. While the popularity of these systems has skyrocketed in recent years, the effects of incoming notifications on ongoing computing tasks have been relatively unexplored. The investigation of the costs, benefits and the optimal display of instant messages and all notifications in the context of desktop or mobile computing tasks falls in the general arena of psychological research on alerting and disruptions, but also requires research contributions from design, computer science and information visualization. To date, much of the psychological research on interruption leverages abstract of theoretical task constructions. In this special issue, we will focus on the nature of interruptions such as messaging while computing and how to optimize the user experience.