## 4 Results
### Notification Perception
#### 4.1.3 Perception and Reaction Characteristics
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{p{142.3 pt} p{142.3 pt} p{142.3 pt}} \hline \hline
**Name** & **Description** & **Quotes** \\ \hline Overwhelming—React (n = 10) & This describes a day in which users indicate they are overwhelmed. This overwhelmingness can be caused by the number of notifications users receive as well as a busy schedule in their agenda regarding that particular day. Notifications particularly cause disruption and distractions as they are deemed to irrelevant or unimportant to them in the given context. They also mention that they are planning to use notification management strategies but have not yet implemented any, resulting in a reactive stance towards notifications. & \"Both notifications were distracting me continuously from my main daily tasks during the day\". (P36) \\ \hline Overwhelming—Proactive (n = 51) & This day is high in notification volume. It causes distractions with many irrelevant notifications and this causes frustration from the users. Although there is no notification management in place, it does not seem to help support users’ wants and needs. Therefore, these users have a proactive stance in attempting to manage notifications. & \"There were many work slack messages. These are high priority notifications during the workday. But if you have to focus on tasks to do then a bit stressful\". (P123) \\ Proactive (n = 51) & By nature, there are a few notifications in volume that fall into this category. Not many distractions are present and most notifications are considered to be relevant. No mentions of notification management systems usage, so they fit into a reactive standpoint. & \"I did not receive a lot of notifications. Calm day\". (P57) \\ Calm—Reactive (n = 19) & By nature, there are a few notifications in volume that fall into this category. Not many distractions are present and most notifications are considered to be relevant. No mentions of notification management systems usage, so they fit into a reactive standpoint. & \"Most of it was from WhatsApp but it was not that worthy. I barely took my phone\". (P2) \\ \hline Canm—Proactive (n = 27) & This is represented in a way where users receive average or few notifications. They are not easily distracted as they are utilizing notification management strategies. Most of the notifications they receive are relevant. & \"I did not interact that much today with notifications. It was a productive day away from the phone\". (P18) \\ Unexpected—Reactive (n = 6) & This showcases unexpected occurrences which are out of the ordinary. Users indicate a high volume of notifications, and that results in distractions. However, they are considered to be relevant and also important. There is no explicit mention of notification management systems in place. & \"It was an unusual day (notification-wise). It happens sometimes when there is a problem that needs to be sorted with someone who is in a different location\". (P32) \\ \hline Expected—Proactive (n = 17) & This day is a rather expected day in terms of notifications. Users have mentioned that they are not necessarily surprised with the number of notifications received and is rather a usual and regular day for them. They have mentioned a selective notification engagement which indicates they are rather utilizing notification management strategies. & \"Just normal day...a lot of messages, some newsletters/posts via notifications\". (P52) \\ \hline N/A (n = 5) & Insufficient Data & \"Just normal day...a lot of messages, some newsletters/posts via notifications\". (P52) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Categorization of Notification Experiences. hand, when notifications are not expected and their volume is high, they cause a more immediate response, thus being reactive. Last but not least, N/A consists of diary entries that were not able to be associated with any particular category. This was due to insufficient or unclear data in the diary entries. Thus, we kept them separate and excluded them from the upcoming stages of analysis.