Attentive Notifications: Minimizing Distractions of Mobile Notifications Through Gaze Tracking

Abstract

Notifications on smartphones typically appear at the top of the screen, resulting in interruptions caused by content overlaps of toolbars and potential accidental activation of a notification. As returning to a workflow which got interrupted proves difficult for the general user, interface designers should thoughtfully design the visual disruption caused by notifications. We explore possible designs of gaze-attentive notifications to overcome this issue. By placing the notification banner as far from the user's current gazing point as possible they result in less visual overlap and our study participants experienced them as less distracting.

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