Notifications/Feature requirements

'''This document is a work in progress. Comments are appreciated but this is not a final draft.'''

This page describes feature requirements for a new notifications system for Wikipedia, code-named Echo. Features below are for the first release of Echo, with a target date of January 2013. Features for follow-up releases may be added to this page at a later date.

Overview






Echo is designed to replace and augment existing notification systems on MediaWiki sites, as well as provide significantly more control to both users and developers as to how their notifications are handled, read, and deleted. This new notifications system seeks to unify the delivery of interaction messages in MediaWiki core, through a common API that can provide a uniform interface for users, as well as a scaleable, high-performance platform for developers. For a quick visual overview of this project, check the.

Problems and Solutions
We aim to solve these core problems:
 * There is no central notification system on Media Wiki sites
 * The current ad-hoc approach is inefficient
 * Users are not notified of key events
 * Users are confused by current notices

Echo will be developed to provide these solutions:
 * Provide a unified user experience
 * Help developers add it to their code
 * Promote editor engagement

Key features
Key features for Echo's first release include:
 * link
 * flyout
 * all-notifications
 * preferences
 * email notifications

For an overview of how these features work together, check the (see thumbnail to the right). In phase 1 of this project (Oct. 2012-Jan. 2013), we will create a simple version of these features, as described below. Other features under consideration for later development may be added in separate sections below.

Link
The first visible touchpoint for users will be a 'notifications link' in the top menu that appears after the user's name in the upper right corner of any web page (referred to below as the 'top menu' or 'growler').

It is likely that this link will be called "Notifications." (though we are exploring ideas which could lead to notifications being added to other links, such as talk or watchlist).

If the user has "unread" notifications, the number of these unread notifications will appear next to the link as a 'badge' with a red background. This will most likely be a red rectangle with a number ranging from 1 to 999, to match best practices. This badge will auto-update (see below). Clicking on the "Notifications" link or the badge will display the Notifications Flyout (clicking on it again, or anywhere outside of the 'notifications flyout', will close that flyout, possibly marking all notifications as read).

Flyout
The flyout will feature a short list of notifications, shown in reverse chronological order.

Notifications in the flyout may be grouped by category, if we determine this is necessary to match the user's mental model. If notifications are grouped by category, it is possible that some notifications listed at the top may contain be older than those contained in groups beneath it.

Email notifications
... to be continued ...