Clarify what each submenu is in the new notifications menu

Contribute UX

AI-generated summary

Users discuss the clarity of the new notifications menu, particularly the icons and their meanings. frold suggests adding headers to explain content, but ondrej finds this messy and proposes tooltips instead. volanar questions hover functionality on mobile. Jonathan5 is confused about the difference between the arrow (replies) and the bell with exclamation mark (watched items), which includes replies. Simon_Manning clarifies that the arrow likely indicates replies to the user, while the bell indicates any new post in watched content. Jonathan5 confirms this, noting the tooltips say “new reply” for the arrow and “new post” for the bell, suggesting a distinction between replies to the user and general watched activity.

1

I dont find the icons that intuitive.. did you think about adding a header for the box explaining the content?

Like here where I wrote Replies

image
image750Ă—1334 184 KB

3 Likes
Try out the new sidebar and notification menus!
2

A header would look a bit messy in my opinion. A description on hover over the icon maybe?

3 Likes
3

Something would be good.

For instance, I’m confused about the difference between the arrow (replies) and the bell with the exclamation mark (things you are watching, which includes replies). Maybe the former is replies on topics to which you yourself have contributed. When they weren’t split up it was easier to ignore my ignorance :slight_smile:

4

And how to hover in a mobile phone?

1 Like
5

Maybe hover on desktop or press/touch on mobile? On the icons to the left I mean, as obviously pressing the menu item selects that item.

1 Like
6

I do agree it’s not completely clear but I think the reply arrow is specifically replies to you, while the bellxclamation is just things you’re watching, which might (and probably will) include replies but not necessarily ones to you.

I’m not sure if a reply to you in something you’re watching will appear in both, you’ll probably be able to tell from this reply, assuming you’re watching this topic.

7

I’ve just checked on the desktop (where everything seems easier) and the arrow just shows replies/quotations, and the bell shows any new post in a watched/tracked category/tag/topic. Your reply to me here only appeared in the arrow section.

My confusion maybe arise because the bell section shows one username or “x replies” (x>1). Perhaps if it said “x posts” I’d have understood all right.

I’ve just checked the tooltip text. There are no tooltips for the new vertical list of icons on the right. But the ones on the left of each notification item have tooltips. The tooltip for the arrow is “new reply”. The tooltip for the bell is “new post”. This distinction backs up my observation in the paragraph above :slight_smile: