Alerts changes: "Information" and "Summary"

[Developer at MBTA]

Dear developers,

We’re making some changes to values that can be returned from alerts fields in the API we wanted you to know about. These changes are planned for the evening of this Thursday, August 3rd.

Severity=”Information”

We’re adding a new severity level, “Information.” This could be considered below "minor." If an alert has severity of “Information,” the information in the alert should be available to users, but it should not be pushed to the user, and it should be presented with less urgency than if the service has another kind of alert. That might mean using an information symbol (i) instead of an alert symbol (!).

Here’s an example of an alert that currently has severity "minor" but will be downgraded to “information:" a “Station Issue” affecting Forest Hills with the text “All Orange Line train service will board on Track 2 at Forest Hills through September 2017, due to the Casey Overpass Project.”

Effect_name=”Summary”

We’re adding a new effect_name, “Summary”. Summary alerts summarize what’s being said in several other alerts.

"Information" and "Summary" combined

Most commonly summary alerts will have banner_text, a severity of “Information,” and apply to an entire mode(s) of service. But doesn't that mean it's both very important (because it has banner_text) and unimportant (because its severity is "Information")? How does that work?

Since a summary alert has banner_text it should be shown broadly to any user. For example an app might show the alert to anyone when first opened. But since a summary alert has severity of “information” it should be shown with less prominence than other alerts in other contexts.

An example may make this clearer. Imagine the following four alerts:

Effect	Severity	Affected	Text
Summary	Info (has banner_text)	Subway	Winter storm update: Red Line experiencing severe delays. Green Line B-branch shuttle from BC to Packard’s, C-branch shuttle from Cleveland Cir to Kenmore.
Delay	Severe	Red	The Red Line is experiencing severe delays due to a frozen switch at JFK/UMass.
Shuttle	Severe	Green-B (stops...)	Buses replacing Green Line B-branch service between Boston College and Packard’s Corner due to a fallen tree.
Shuttle	Severe	Green-C (stops...)	Buses replacing Green Line C-branch service between Cleveland Circle and Kenmore due to flooding.

When users open the application the app shows them the summary alert (since it has banner_text.) If they look at Red Line service information they see the delay alert. They may also see the summary alert associated with the Red Line (or the Orange Line, or the Blue Line), because it affects subway service, but it only has a severity of "information" so the app doesn't show it prominently in that context -- viewing Red Line alerts users first and foremost see the delay alert.

So how should someone use these?

Consider the amount of detail your users want and decide how much prominence an "Information" alerts should have, or if it should be shown at all. If you use banner_text to show a message to all app users, keep doing that, even if the severity level of that alert is "Information."

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Let us know what questions you have!

Sincerely,

developer@mbta