"I have to disagree that they are not suitable for the 'non technically savvy'."

I agree. That's why I said "may." It depends both on the nature of the notification, as well as on the sophistication of the user.

The sort of system you described sounds interesting. I'm trying to imagine how turning the whole web page reddish would work for common error/warning notifications. I've got a feeling that it wouldn't work well for the web, but it might be worth experimenting with.

Thanks for the idea!