Exploring user's experience of push notifications: a grounded theory approach

Purpose This paper aims to provide a holistic understanding of the user experience of push notifications, and the challenge brands face in managing them effectively. Design/methodology/approach A grounded theory (GT) approach was chosen to analyze the subjective interpretations of the 21 participants in the study. Unstructured interviews were conducted with the help of a set of nine intentionally developed push notifications prototypes. Findings Push notifications are a powerful communication tool with great scope to deliver value to the user that would consequently increase brand attachment. However, the risk of mismanagement due to inappropriate timing of message delivery, lack of perceived value, inappropriate content or excessive frequency of messaging can make them intrusive, annoying and unwelcome, thus reducing brand attachment. Research limitations/implications GT has the ultimate goal of building a theory based on the data obtained. To improve theoretical sensitivity throughout the analysis related theories have been considered to obtain a deep and broad understanding of the phenomenon under study. Practical implications The design of user experience with push notifications is both a tactical decision focused on timely content and a strategic decision that may influence users' brand attachment. Social implications A better understanding of user experience with push notifications is strongly needed since users receive an average of 63 push notifications per day being eventually disruptive and distractive. Originality/value A user experience model of push notifications is proposed and expressed in a set of tentative hypotheses contributing to the scarce and fragmented literature on this subject.