Popups: Not What they Once Were

It used to be a policy that any potential customer that made mention of popups during discussions about how their website should work would be politely steered away from and such thoughts. But now, things have changed.

While the use of popup windows themselves are still very much frowned upon, there are viable alternatives that do not cause as much inconvenience to the users. These are blocks of text and images that can overlay the content on the site and appear within the browser windows of the website visitor. This is the key factor that makes them different from popup windows, which open in a new browser window and therefore can appear anywhere on the screen of the user, even underneath the browser window that they are looking at (so called "pop unders").

Indeed you've more than likely come across these in your surfing. Whether you're being invited to participate in a survey, asked to give feedback about the site, an extention to a smaller advert on the page or just to give you more information they are now everywhere.

For your own site they are certainly an option, no long being a pariah of the design world. However, as with all things they should be used only when necessary and when they do not interfere with the thought process of the website visitor. They should be used to enhance and add to the goals of the website.

If you feel as though a website review of your business would be beneficial then please let us know and we'll take a look, including consideration of these new style popups.