I’d welcome a challenge to this rule or trying to find an exception to it!
I actually think about this a lot. I try to keep mental track for every notification I get and they’re all either:
1. A person contacting me
2. The response for some action I took, and is typically just a chime or small transient notification (a download finished, etc)
3. Something that shouldn’t exist at all (“try new feature” dialogs, etc)
4. The grey area: Something I wanted to know, but could have been implemented in a better way.
The “other way” things should be implemented in case 4 varies, but here are some examples:
- Xcode shouldn’t alert me with a modal popup when something fails, it should just put the failed status in a multi-item notification drawer that can be ignored
- That thing telling me my password is incorrect shouldn’t be a modal popup, but just a small status text on the UI I’m already using
- The “tips”/“what’s new in X” information should be in the app’s menu in a section that can have some level of prominence so long as it’s reasonable (bold, highlighted, etc, but never in a dialog that I have to dismiss to continue using your app.)
I was clumsily pointing out the oddity of saying "ever" in a rule ostensibly "general" aka with exceptions. Otherwise, it just looks like a preference to me. Why should (3) never exist at all? I've definitely found features that have existed for a long time in a product and wished I somehow new earlier. Does it mean they could have designed it better? Perhaps. An app driven nudge is a hammer, sure, but it's not a sacred violation.
I actually think about this a lot. I try to keep mental track for every notification I get and they’re all either:
1. A person contacting me
2. The response for some action I took, and is typically just a chime or small transient notification (a download finished, etc)
3. Something that shouldn’t exist at all (“try new feature” dialogs, etc)
4. The grey area: Something I wanted to know, but could have been implemented in a better way.
The “other way” things should be implemented in case 4 varies, but here are some examples:
- Xcode shouldn’t alert me with a modal popup when something fails, it should just put the failed status in a multi-item notification drawer that can be ignored
- That thing telling me my password is incorrect shouldn’t be a modal popup, but just a small status text on the UI I’m already using
- The “tips”/“what’s new in X” information should be in the app’s menu in a section that can have some level of prominence so long as it’s reasonable (bold, highlighted, etc, but never in a dialog that I have to dismiss to continue using your app.)