Hello,
I wonder when it is really useful to use a modal form instead of a plain window form ?
For example I began using modal forms for very little forms when I have just one input field. But I think that I've become bulimic using now an excessive amount of modal forms, in reality for all my forms now.
Is there a right equilibrium between no use of modal forms and always use of modal forms ?
Some documentation explains that the first aim of a modal window is to draw attention of the user. But is it really very useful for a form ? I mean the attention of the user is also focused on the form if I display only a form on the screen (plain window form).
When do you use modal forms ?
Thanks for sharing your experience ;).
V
Use when you want to bring attention to something, and user cannot click (OK or Submit form) until they see the message.
An example:
Are you sure you want to delete this record?
Or other types of warnings.
I many times use for "Lookup Tables" instead of a dropdown.
Just suggestions.
I'm not a ui expert. But for me it's any single action. Move user to another team? Modal. Delete user? Modal. Remove ban. Modal. Edit user data. Not modal. Edit team information. Not modal
I use them for forms on pages where the user is likely to want to remain on the page after the form action is done. (I.e. editing a row in a table).
Well. The form this site uses for discussions is a modal. And if I remember correctly the thinking behind the attachment to footer is to allow you to still see the discussion that you’re replying to. I really think it depends on what the ux is and whether the “modal” disrupts or enhances the experience for the user. As a developer. I think sometimes it can be faster to implement one form or another. Pun intended.
@webrobert on this site it's an annoyance. On smaller devices it obscures a lot of the content and is totally unusable when trying to cut copy paste on touch devices. I would prefer the option of a regular online textarea
as @ben taylor
consider a long paginated list, the worst sites take you to a new page to edit and forget search, ordering and pagination when you return to the index page
Plus of course alerts and confirmations
@jlrdw @sinnbeck @ben taylor @webrobert
Thank you for your answers, it's very interesting for me.
I keep in mind that I could reserve the modal forms only for situations where the modal form odes not disrupt the UX, especially, as @ben taylor said, when updating a row in a datatable.
That's effectively very interesting to limit the modal form to specific usage.
But as @snapey said, when using small devices like smartphone, is there a real impact of using modal forms ? The screen size is so small that IHMO it's not so interesting using modals comparing to desktop screen, because the modal covers the whole screen and it's exactly like showing an entire new view.
Are you using modals for smartphones ?
Please or to participate in this conversation.