The Politics of Pop-Ups, Pop-Up Blockers and the Pop-Up Error Message

Pop ups are dead- so what?

First of all, let me just get this out in the open: there is nothing wrong with pop-ups per say.

Next, let me qualify what I just said: Pop-ups are ineffective as an advertising tool and are not recommended on the web since pop-up blockers are ubiquitous. E.g. Every browser and search engine tool these days has a pop-up blocker: AOL pop-up blocker, Google Toolbar pop-up blocker, Yahoo Toolbar pop-up blocker, Firefox built in pop-up blocker, third party free pop-up blocker tools...etc.

Google Killed the Pop-Up

From the late 90's to the early 00's Google quietly used it's simple and easy to use design (read great user experience) to hijack the pop-up as a form of web advertising. If you remember every credible large and small website used pop-up windows for advertising and more. Google's text advertising (right column block short phrase with a link) wiped out the pop-up since the click through rates (CTR) for text based advertising (or contextual advertising) were higher: under .5% CTR for pop-ups to 2-3% CTR for text ads.

Back to "There is Nothing Wrong with Pop-ups"

Pop-ups are not the problem. It is the forcing of them on your users without telling them, which also violates the permission-based marketing model. This issue is rarely understood I find due to the culture of pop-up hating. Yeah, I hate them too.

However, if it is appropriate to provide more detail such as help text, or larger images or diagrams- then by all means use a pop-up dialog! Just be sure that it is self-selected. In other words the user clicks to activate. Remember, pop-ups became hated because they forced themselves on users, got in their face, redirected their attention and cluttered up their train of thought.

The Pop-Up Blocker Error Message

Alas, with so many pop-up blockers (thank you to all the pop-up blocker tools) there is a need for a new kind of error message to help users orient to that which is supposed to be happening which isn't happening.

You've done it right? Clicked on a link, page, image and then...(nothing). What happened? Oh it's the pop-up blocker that ate it. So while you figured that out, the average user who is not savvy to browser features and functionality (such as pop-up blocking) will probably blink and miss the hidden "aha"...and then move on.

(Click image above to see an example of a good pop-up blocker error message)

The American Automobile Association website has a great example of a user-friendly pop-up blocker error message. Bottom line- anyone using pop-ups on their site needs one. Leaving the recovery from a pop-up blocker's work to chance is not enough.

Usability Guidelines for Using Pop-ups?

So if you must use on of those pesky pop-ups (either self-selected or forced) be sure to follow the following usability guidelines for pop up dialog windows:

1. No intensive scrolling. Pop-up information (tables, images, text) should be short and sweet. e.g. 150-200 words max.

2. No left to right (horizontal) scrolling! Pop-ups are a limited attention adjunct to information. They serve the purpose on the web of the ellipse (...). We have seen pop-ups used that have long scrolling tables, buttons down, left, right, outside of easy reach. Our usability testing experience shows that users hate to scroll your pop-ups.

3. Tabs work well with Help Pop-Ups. A few tabs to help organize HELP information seems to work well. Again be careful the length of content. If you have that much to say, say it on a web page.

4. Use the pop-up blocker error message (above). No brain-er, but rarely used. Nice work AAA!

5. Let the user self-select a pop-up always. Unless you are doing some kind of intercept (for a survey or exit email capture offer).

So, next time someone says "I hate pop-ups" and everyone grumbles and says "yeah, me to" you can smile and say to yourself "yeah, but..."

Now, let me go close some of those pop-ups ;-)

Best Wishes,
Frank Spillers, MS

Comments

[Frank]

PriceGrabber.com - the comparison ecommerce shopping site has a bold pop-up free policy. I think it's a good stand they are taking.

They even offer their Pop-Up Free logo for others to use.

Check it out!
http://www.pricegrabber.com/info_popupfree.php

[orz]

So do you feel that this site http://www.philipfogarty.com is taking things too far with regard to placing its content in pop-ups, or is it a step in the right direction...? Your comments please.

orz

[Nizami]

There seem to be some sites out there where, if you are running e.g. google toolbar pop-up blocker, you have to CTRL-click to produce the new window. Other sites (e.g. http://www.lloydstsb.com/contact_us.asp - click 'General Enquiries')seem to overcome this issue, and the new window pops up with no intervention. Why is this?

N

[Josh]

Another problem I have seen with pop-ups during usability testing is that "the average user who is not web saavy" has also been abused by these things so much that many have developed a conditioned response, pop-up opens and and they close it before they even read it. Even on self-selected pop-ups.

That drives me crazy since, as you said, there are a plenty of great reasons to use popups.

[Zephyr]

Why not use a standard messagebox instead of a popup window? Or have the error message itself in the page by design?

Few people will take the effort of turning of the popup blocker because of some site's insistence to use popups for error messages... whether you tell them about it or not.

[Ryan Nichols]

I totally agree with you. I've ran across a number of conversations in which people evangelized 'No pop-up's...ever!'. I disagreed because inevitably those same people were thinking in terms of ads or external links on a new window, and NOT contextual information like help or terms of service descriptions.

Thanks for standing up and advocating smart use of contextual windows rather than those misleading new developers with misinformation.