Notification Preferences
Best practices for creating a clear and user-friendly screen to manage notification settings.
A dedicated "Notification Preferences" screen is a critical component of a trustworthy application. It provides users with a central place to control how and when they receive communications from you.
Giving users granular control is the best way to prevent them from disabling all notifications at the OS level—an action that is often difficult to reverse. This screen is where you empower your users, respect their choices, and give them a clear path to re-engage with recommendations they may have previously disabled.
Key Components of a Notification Preferences Screen
Your preferences screen should be simple, clear, and organized into logical sections. We recommend including the following components.
Master Push Notification Control
This section should transparently reflect the app's overall permission status at the operating system level.
If Permissions are Enabled
Display a clear status indicator: Push Notifications: Enabled
Provide a button or link that deep-links the user directly to your app's notification settings within their phone's OS. This gives them a quick path to the system-level controls if they need them.
If Permissions are Disabled:
Display a clear status indicator: Push Notifications: Disabled
Provide a brief, helpful message explaining the value of notifications (e.g., "You are missing out on important alerts about your energy usage and potential savings.").
Provide a single, prominent button like "Enable in Settings" that deep-links the user directly to your app's notification settings in the phone's OS. This is the only way to allow a user to re-opt-in after denying system-level permission.
Category-Level Toggles
This is the most important part of the screen for long-term engagement. It allows users to opt-out of some recommendations instead of all of them. These categories should directly correspond to the types of rules you have configured (e.g., using Tags).
Functionality: Each category should have a simple on/off toggle.
Best Practices for Design and UX
Use Plain Language
Avoid technical jargon. "Cost-Saving Tips" is much clearer to a user than "Rule Category 7B."
Make it Easy to Find
This screen should be accessible from your app's main "Settings" or "Profile" menu. As recommended, you should also place a direct link (e.g., a settings icon) to this page from the Notification Center.
Provide Immediate Feedback
When a user flips a toggle, the setting should be saved immediately. There is no need for a "Save" button on this type of screen.
Respect User Choices
This is paramount. If a user turns a category off, your system must honor that choice without exception.
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