Reducing Notification Induced User Dissats

Context

Notifications are a critical feature for any product that requires timely user intervention or attention, and Microsoft Edge is no exception. In Edge, notifications serve two primary purposes:

1. Feature Notifications: These are functional notifications designed to inform users about activities directly related to product features. They may prompt users to take action or provide updates on actions taken on their behalf. For instance:

   • Informing users when a site is blocked for being unsafe.

   • Asking users for permission to save a password.

2. Upsell Notifications: These are informational, non-functional notifications that highlight features users might find helpful in specific contexts. For example:

   • When a user is shopping, a notification might suggest trying the “Express Checkout” feature.

However, users often dislike upsell notifications as they tend to be irrelevant, overly frequent, and inconsistently designed. This leads to dissatisfaction and frustration. The team focused on reducing this dissatisfaction while still enabling partners to effectively upsell valuable features.

Research

The process began with secondary research, analyzing competing and analogous products’ notification systems. Key focus areas included:

• Mode and nature of notifications.

• Content relevance.

• User control over notifications.

• Frequency and consistency.

This research informed the development of a comprehensive strategy for improving Edge’s notification ecosystem.

Vision

Although Microsoft Edge already had backend technology to moderate notifications through the Edge Notification Platform (ENP), the system lacked the following:

1. Clear guidance on notification usage and timing.

2. Governance and accountability mechanisms.

3. Design guidelines and templates.

4. An onboarding process for more partners to adopt the platform.

To address these gaps, I advocated for the development of a framework and design templates for partners. This framework was built on three key pillars to ensure the appropriate use of notification surfaces:

1. Relevance to User Context

2. Time Sensitivity

3. Prominence

For instance:

• A notification that is neither contextually relevant nor time-sensitive would use a low-prominence surface.

• A notification that is both contextually relevant and time-sensitive would use a medium- or high-prominence surface.

A database of low, medium, and high prominence notification templates was created and is continuously updated based on validation, user testing, and experimentation. There was a lack of low prominence surfaces in the system. This was also leading partners to resort medium and high prominence solutions. To overcome this challenge, selective low prominent surfaces were designed. New surfaces are added only after thorough testing and cross-team validation.

Step 1: Determine type

Step 2: Determine prominence

Step 3: Choose surface

Surface scope

Execution

To ensure successful implementation, we supplemented the framework with:

• Regular office hours and consultations for partner teams.

• A governance model where senior leaders from each feature team were made accountable for implementation and exceptions.

• Specific design templates.

• Specific langiage guidelines.

• A playbook and guidelines for internal use.

As the framework and playbook were rolled out, the engineering team onboarded more teams to the platform. This scalable approach ensured consistency and alignment across features.

Impact

Thanks to the robust design, technology, governance, and support:

• Notification NSAT increased to 90%, a significant improvement over previous ratings.

• Previously negative OCVs (open customer verbatims) turned positive, highlighting the success of the revamped notification strategy.

This project not only improved user satisfaction but also empowered teams across Edge to deliver timely, relevant, and well-designed notifications.