People don't like pop ups

We've all seen them, and according to studies 90-95% of us either close them without even reading them, or simply go straight to another site.

Many marketing and sales people still advise businesses to include pop ups on their websites, claiming that it helps to grow email distribution lists and can encourage website visitors to visit your Facebook page and 'like' your company.

However, adding pop ups goes against UX (User Experience) guidelines. We know people hate pop ups. Years ago you could visit a site and within seconds half a dozen pop up windows had opened, and this got so annoying that specific software (Pop up blockers) was introduced.

Nowadays these pop ups get around pop up blockers by opening in a modal window (A window in the same webpage rather than opening a separate window. Modals have their place, but shouldn't be used as a substitute for pop ups). Some of these can be instantly dismissed, but some (particularly on mobile devices - and remember that is now over half of all internet usage) either cannot be dismissed or are so large they effectively take over the browser window.

As part of the testing process for a recent project I spoke to some web users about pop ups, and the general consensus was that they were either annoying or confusing. As it turned out, the people who said they found pop ups confusing thought they had to sign up to the newsletter in order to get back to the website. Most of these planned to either mark the newsletter as spam or unsubscribe as soon as the first one came through.

So the pop up advocates see an increase in subscribers and take this to mean that pop ups are successful. What they're not taking into account is that this is creating a false impression, and besides, what's better; a few more Facebook likes and email addresses on a distribution list, or a site that doesn't make 90-95% of visitors go elsewhere?

So what do you think of pop ups?

Love them

Hate them

Submit