Are mobile pop-ups bad?

[mikey_w]

I am pretty sure that pop-ups are seen as “bad” when it comes to regular websites, because they can pose accessibility issues and simply annoy users.

However, is it bad to have pop-up messages in a mobile app?

[ralphm]

It depends on what they’re for, imho. If they are directly relevant to helping you do what you need to do, then they are OK. More often than not, though, they are a pita. (You are trying to do something, and the app pops up a message asking a question you don’t want to know about. Grrr, go away. It’s frustrating. “You are not connected to the web. Do you want to be?”—“No you eejit machine. If I wanted to be, I would be! Leave me alone!”—“But I’m stuck in this phone, and you’re the only person I have to talk to.”—“Awww …”)

[mikey_w]

@ralphm

It depends on what they’re for, imho. If they are directly relevant to helping you do what you need to do, then they are OK. More often than not, though, they are a pita. (You are trying to do something, and the app pops up a message asking a question you don’t want to know about. Grrr, go away. It’s frustrating. “You are not connected to the web. Do you want to be?”—“No you eejit machine. If I wanted to be, I would be! Leave me alone!”—“But I’m stuck in this phone, and you’re the only person I have to talk to.”—“Awww …”)

Can you give me some examples of where a pop-up would be okay?

I am reviewing a friend’s wire-frames, and I believe he has some pop-ups in there. When I heard “pop-up” I immediately thought, “Need to be re-designed!”

One place he wants to use a pop-up is when a person registers and they need to click on a link in an “activation email”.

For me, I just tend to display lots of confirmation pages when I design regular websites.

So you register, and then I would display a new page (or screen) saying, “Please check your email for an activation email, and…”

Thoughts?

[ralphm]

A popup in that scenario is more common in an app. You are probably thinking too much in terms of websites here. Apps are not websites.

There are, of course, “web apps”, which are basically websites that behave like native apps. But still, an app is often a sort of “one page experience”, so to speak. I recommend you get a bit of experience with mobile devices, tbh. Maybe get an old smart phone (v. cheap) and just use it via wifi at home to get a sense of how it all works.

[mikey_w]

@ralphm

A popup in that scenario is more common in an app. You are probably thinking too much in terms of websites here. Apps are not websites.

There are, of course, “web apps”, which are basically websites that behave like native apps. But still, an app is often a sort of “one page experience”, so to speak.

So taking a user from a registration page to a page that says, “Please activate your account by clicking on the link in the activation email” might be more annoying than a popup?

@ralphm

I recommend you get a bit of experience with mobile devices, tbh. Maybe get an old smart phone (v. cheap) and just use it via wifi at home to get a sense of how it all works.

Good advice if I had a job and $$$, and I hope in a few months I can.

In the mean time I am winging it and trying to learn from you guys here on SitePoint.

If I can come up with a good slideshow for tomorrow morning, maybe I can make a couple of bucks?

[ralphm]

@mikey_w

So taking a user from a registration page to a page that says, “Please activate your account by clicking on the link in the activation email” might be more annoying than a popup?

I find navigating apps less convenient than a desktop website, so ideally, if you’ve signed up, you’d want to land on a page where you can do something useful—maybe with a popup message that you can easily dismiss. Landing on a message page in an app doesn’t sound great to me, as I’ve then got to work out where to go next, how to get somewhere useful etc. which isn’t ideal.