Design and Applications of GLANCE: GLanceable Alarm Notification for a User Centered Experience

Abstract

The trade-off between awareness and interruption is a crucial aspect in network fault notifiers: Low severity alarms should not distract operators from other primary tasks, however it might be crucial that operators promptly react to critical notifications. A notification system should hence determine when a particular interruption is appropriate and how it should be presented. In this direction, this paper presents a multistep design path beginning from the objective of designing a proof-of-concept for a glanceable alarm notification component for telecommunication network management systems based on a peripheral display approach. In particular the goal was a notifier guided by severity-based strategies and offering the information expressiveness of a one-notification-at-the-time perspective while enriching it with overview capabilities to guarantee (possibly subliminal) long-term local and global content comprehension and prompt reaction only when the interruption from the foreground task is dictated by the fault severity. A first design macro-phase led to the simple yet effective GLANCE (GLanceable Alarm Notification for a User Centered Experience) model, based on a visual coding technique oriented to comprehension and reaction, and a transition strategy oriented to interruptions and reaction. A second design macro-phase studied the application of GLANCE to a personal customizable multichannel notification tool and to a service-oriented fault monitor for digital terrestrial television broadcasting networks.

Impact of incidental visualizations on primary tasks

“…5,7,15,16 Furthermore, these devices do not require people’s attention as notification systems do. 17…”

“…5,7,15,16 Furthermore, these devices do not require people's attention as notification systems do. 17 One particular branch of research that emerged from glanceable displays is glanceable AR, where the focus is to convey glanceable information using augmented reality head-worn devices. 9,18-20 Feiyu Lu et al, for example, has been studying how people could interact with glanceable widgets 20 in AR, and how could that information be part of people's daily routine.…”