Help me keep track of my notifications

Daniele Catalanotto
Feb 19, 2022


A new first shitty draft of a service design principle about notifications and messaging

I open a messaging app. I see a message from a friend. Great, some news about how it is going. Until here, everything is fine. But at the end of the message, my friend asks me a question that I can’t answer right now. So I think: I’ll put this message as “unread” so that I know I have to return to it. Wait...

I can’t do that?! Shit, now I’m stressed that I’ll forget to answer my mate and that I’ll disappoint him.

Most email, chat or messaging services let you do things that help us feel less overwhelmed by messages and notifications.

You can either mark them as “done or read” or mark them as “to do or unread”. It’s a simple feature, but one that some messaging services forget and that sadly many notification features of work apps miss.

So if you send messages, requests, bills, and notifications in your digital service, it might help your users if you let them mark those messages as “done” or “to do”.


Little side notes

  • Once adapted even more, this principle will be part of the book "Service Design Principles 201-300"
  • If you have a better idea for the title of this principle that would be a great help. It's not catchy enough and clear yet I think.
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Nemos Kostoulas
Mar 16, 2022
- A remind me later option, or choose later is also an option for any form where users might drop off otherwise. This makes a dead-end a loop that is continued at a later stage and drives completion.
- Might be another followup principle: proactively remind users to fulfil an action, yet respect their attention (adopted from a duolingo teardown from growth.design )
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Daniele Catalanotto
Sep 27, 2022
Thanks Nemos for sharing this feedback :) Based on your feedback and another I got on Linkedin I wrote another Principle called: "Help me finish this later". 
Daniele Catalanotto
Aug 13, 2022

The second draft of this principle


I open a messaging app. I see a text from a friend. Lovely! At the end of it, my friend asks me a question I can’t answer right now. So I think: “Let’s put this message as “unread” so that I know I have to return to it.” Wait...

“I can’t do that?!” Shit, now I’m stressed that I’ll forget to help my mate and that I’ll disappoint him.

Many messaging tools help users feel less overwhelmed by messages or notifications. For example, they let people mark messages as “to do, or “unread”. It’s a simple feature, but not all services have it.

So let me ask you this.

How will you help your users ensure they still have to work on a message or notification?

Daniele's personal notes

  • This is the second draft of this Service Design Principle.
  • I've been able to reduce it's length by -25.84% compared to the first draft.
  • I've decided to take Nemos Kostoulas idea of a follow-up reminder as an idea for a possible future Service Design Principle. Thanks again Nemos ;)
Daniele Catalanotto
Oct 31, 2022

The third draft of this Service Design Principle

In a text message, a friend asks me a question I can’t answer right now. So I think: “Let’s put this message as “unread” so that I know I have to return to it.” Wait...

“I can’t do that?!” Shit, now I’m stressed that I’ll forget to help my mate.

Many services let people mark messages or notifications as “unread” or “to do”. This simple feature helps people feel less overwhelmed by their messages. But not all services do it.

So let me ask you this.

How can you help people know they still must work on a message or notification?

Daniele’s notes

  • This is the third draft of this principle.
  • I’ve reduced the length of this principle by 19 % compared to the previous draft.