Modal windows are a great way to save screen real estate and grabbing a user’s attention to important information throughout a site, but it should be used sparingly. Modals have become today’s version of a pop-up window and can create bad user experience if used excessively.
When to use a modal window:
- To get a user’s attention when you want to interrupt a user’s current task to catch the user’s full attention to something more important.
- Getting the user’s input (Ex. Sign up or login form).
- Use when you want to show additional information without losing the context of the parent page (Ex. Larger images or videos).
- Use when you want to show information that is not directly related to the parent page or other options that are “independent” from other pages (Ex. notifications).
All modals should include a close button and a descriptive title.