Notification dot system
Duration
Appx. 3 months
Role
1 UX designer, 1 UI programmers, 1 QA
Tools
Communicate with UR, Competitive analytics, Prototype
Background
Notification dots are a basic component indicating new information. However, overuse can be annoying to users.
In games, notification dots represent a wider range of statuses, including new info, and available rewards & gear upgrades. From an HCI perspective, these should be intuitively distinguishable to the player.
Challenges
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Previous notification dot system used three colors (red, green, blue) with classification rules, but UR and newly hired employees showed poor comprehension and confusion.
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As a transversal system, it has dependencies across nearly all features in the game.
Feature Highlights
Unified dot color mapping
considering mobile human factors, to allow monetization specialists greater flexibility in displaying diverse offers.
(Refe — Vertical layout guideline based on Mobile human factors)
Classified into 2 states for clear signal
New info (disappears) and important interaction (remains)—with differentiated behaviors to ensure critical info is not missed (e.g., claimable items)
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Benchmarked 6 games and 2 non-game digital products
Established a priority rule
with multiple dot states (e.g., Shop shows only the highest-priority state)
Defined clear context-based rules for when notification dots disappear
for consistent and seamless experience
Outcomes
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Due to resource constraints, the improvement could not be validated through UR, but the same issue did not reoccur in subsequent playtests and internal play sessions.