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As a UX designer, I wholeheartedly disagree. > Modal windows can't be bookmarked or shared as links Why would the user want to bookmark or share a "modal". I

As a UX designer, I wholeheartedly disagree. > Modal windows can't be bookmarked or shared as links Why would the user want to bookmark or share a "modal". I believe the author is confusing a modal with a details page (a customer's details page in a CRM for example) on that we can agree that that kind of content is best shown on a separate page. A modal serves a specific function within a web page, be it a website or a web app. Its main function is to allow the user to perform certain tasks within a page, and those tasks will immediately reflect on the underlying page upon submission (or validation/confirmation ..etc). So I fail to understand why the author thinks a user would want to bookmark that modal. > Modal windows can't be opened in a new tab Nor should they. Modals, as mentioned above, are one layer above an underlying page, and they either show complimentary information related to an element within that page, or they allow to user to performa task. So they should inherently be accessible within the same tab, not a new one. > Modal windows make the Back button confusing Aside from the Close/Abort button inside the modal, a lot of interaction designers and front-end developers are now developing the modals in a way they would close if you press the back button of your browser. No confusion there in my opinion. > Modal windows are hard to get right[...]if you need to support older browsers, good luck. Can't find the date this article was published but I assume it's old because almost all new browsers support at least <dialog> element [1] Modals are a double edged sword, like any UI component or UX pattern really. [1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/dialog#browser_compatibility https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/di... Further reading: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/modal-nonmodal-dialog/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/modal-nonmodal-dialog/

monooso 3y ago
> I believe the author is confusing a modal with a details page It sounds like you agree with the article, at least according to my reading. The author states that you should not use a modal for something “bookmarkable”, such as a details page. They also state that a modal is suitable for performing an action that does not warrant a “resource URL”, such as a “create resource” form.
- teawrecks 3y ago
  The author's thesis is "you don't need a modal window", which the post you responded to fundamentally disagrees with.
twic 3y ago
> Why would the user want to bookmark or share a "modal" Because the modal contains specific information they want to come back to, or share with others. > I believe the author is confusing a modal with a details page The problem against which the author is invecting is precisely the use of modals where details pages would be appropriate.
Cthulhu_ 3y ago
Basically I get the impression that the author has a pet peeve of modal dialogs being abused as detail screens, that is, whoever did the UX was doing a bad job. I haven't seen a modal dialog used to show details in a long time, so I guess I'm sorry the author had to experience it.
micromacrofoot 3y ago
> Modal windows can't be opened in a new tab > Nor should they How about you stop making decisions for me. I very often want to open settings and other various dialogues in a new tab or as a saved bookmark. This is especially useful in customer support (which is a concept a lot of startups are unfamiliar with, to be fair). You are unaware of every use case, so choose standard browser behavior when possible.
ibejoeb 3y ago
>Why would the user want to bookmark or share a "modal" I think you and the author are making the same argument. I'm sure you've encountered one of those everything-is-a-modal apps and thought "I sure wish I could link to this part of the app but I can't." Then you'd wish you could bookmark the modal. I use one every day. An example: to edit a user's account information, I go to the accounts interface, open the filters modal dialog and supply the criteria, and them I'm presented with a list of matches. I select one, and it opens the account information in modal dialog. None of those intermediate states are addressable in any way, so it's a real chore to ever access any resource, and I certainly can't share a link with someone else. This is a truly bad experience directly because of its abuse of modal dialogs.
bengale 3y ago
For bookmarking or opening in a new tab you can do that reasonably easily now anyway: https://nextjs.org/docs/app/building-your-application/routing/intercepting-routes https://nextjs.org/docs/app/building-your-application/routin...
ericyd 3y ago
> a lot of interaction designers and front-end developers are now developing the modals in a way they would close if you press the back button of your browser. No confusion there in my opinion. I'm not sure how this justifies your opinion. The fact that "a lot" of people are following a new design paradigm indicates, to me at least, that the pattern is inherently confusing. As a user, do I know what paradigm was used by the design and engineering team? If not, I'm going to be unsure about the effect of clicking "back"

monooso 3y ago

> I believe the author is confusing a modal with a details page It sounds like you agree with the article, at least according to my reading. The author states that you should not use a modal for something “bookmarkable”, such as a details page. They also state that a modal is suitable for performing an action that does not warrant a “resource URL”, such as a “create resource” form.

teawrecks 3y ago
The author's thesis is "you don't need a modal window", which the post you responded to fundamentally disagrees with.

twic 3y ago

> Why would the user want to bookmark or share a "modal" Because the modal contains specific information they want to come back to, or share with others. > I believe the author is confusing a modal with a details page The problem against which the author is invecting is precisely the use of modals where details pages would be appropriate.

Cthulhu_ 3y ago

Basically I get the impression that the author has a pet peeve of modal dialogs being abused as detail screens, that is, whoever did the UX was doing a bad job. I haven't seen a modal dialog used to show details in a long time, so I guess I'm sorry the author had to experience it.

micromacrofoot 3y ago

> Modal windows can't be opened in a new tab > Nor should they How about you stop making decisions for me. I very often want to open settings and other various dialogues in a new tab or as a saved bookmark. This is especially useful in customer support (which is a concept a lot of startups are unfamiliar with, to be fair). You are unaware of every use case, so choose standard browser behavior when possible.

ibejoeb 3y ago

>Why would the user want to bookmark or share a "modal" I think you and the author are making the same argument. I'm sure you've encountered one of those everything-is-a-modal apps and thought "I sure wish I could link to this part of the app but I can't." Then you'd wish you could bookmark the modal. I use one every day. An example: to edit a user's account information, I go to the accounts interface, open the filters modal dialog and supply the criteria, and them I'm presented with a list of matches. I select one, and it opens the account information in modal dialog. None of those intermediate states are addressable in any way, so it's a real chore to ever access any resource, and I certainly can't share a link with someone else. This is a truly bad experience directly because of its abuse of modal dialogs.

bengale 3y ago

For bookmarking or opening in a new tab you can do that reasonably easily now anyway: https://nextjs.org/docs/app/building-your-application/routing/intercepting-routes https://nextjs.org/docs/app/building-your-application/routin...

ericyd 3y ago

> a lot of interaction designers and front-end developers are now developing the modals in a way they would close if you press the back button of your browser. No confusion there in my opinion. I'm not sure how this justifies your opinion. The fact that "a lot" of people are following a new design paradigm indicates, to me at least, that the pattern is inherently confusing. As a user, do I know what paradigm was used by the design and engineering team? If not, I'm going to be unsure about the effect of clicking "back"