Notifications on a website

Question

I am looking for different ways of how to display notifications. I was looking at the way Palms webOS does it and woundered if any one had done it like they did it but for a website.

What do you think is the best way to display notifications?

Edit: The notifications will be stuff like "you got a new mail", "you have an appointment" etc

I forgot to mention that I want to show multiple notifications at once.

Answer 1

i think the way they're implemented on SO is great - hard to miss, easy to dismiss.

Answer 2

I like how CNN.com does it for breaking news - large red or yellow stripe across the top of the page that is easy to dismiss by means of a close button. It is similar to StackOverflow but it seems to be more inline with the page.

Answer 3

In addition to the ones SO uses, there are two other alternatives too consider. One is a 'Growl' like notification, that pops up in a corner or center of the screen, and fades away either on a timer or on a user interaction. Another method is the transparent message, as you can see in this humanized blog post (scroll down for a demo). It displays a transparent alert that disappears when any user action occurs.