34 ms·

One thing not mentioned was the excessive use of fixed elements that would have probably been rendered as frames back in 1999. They're not exactly the same, but

One thing not mentioned was the excessive use of fixed elements that would have probably been rendered as frames back in 1999. They're not exactly the same, but most of the usage for fixed elements is replicating what a designer or developer would have used frames for, such as affixing a menu to stick to a certain area of the page no matter where the user scrolls. Edit: Also modal popup windows everywhere, even where they aren't really needed (Twitter and the Chrome Extension Web Store are 2 that are questionable) instead of those js popup windows we used to see as browsers tend to block those. Maybe it's just me, but when you get to the point of having to put an entire page's content into a modal window, maybe it should be a separate page.

bru 13y ago
Good point on the modal popup windows! That could be a whole part of the article. alert() was, after all, a standard way to notify the user about something (overused, yes). Then we switched to pop-in alerts. Accessibility-wise, I think it is a big loss. The appearance is no more standard, focus management and navigability suck, its semantics are lost, and you cannot block it any more ("prevent this page from opening more pop-ups"). Most of the time the content of a pop-in will be as irrelevant as the past pop-up's, but with full HTML available: welcome colours, pictures and videos!
quotha 13y ago
lol that is too true!
joonix 13y ago
The worst is the new USA Today redesign. Each article page is presented to seem as if it were a modal popup, but it's not. They have an "X" button in the upper right corner that just begs you to click it, and when you do it just sends you to the home page. It's a neurotic design.
acabal 13y ago
These drive me absolutely crazy. I hate them, and they're literally everywhere now. Every website I go has some shitty fixed bar at the top that obscures text and is constantly nagging me to like their page or whatever. Developers, please just say no. Iframes died last decade for a good reason.

bru 13y ago

Good point on the modal popup windows! That could be a whole part of the article. alert() was, after all, a standard way to notify the user about something (overused, yes). Then we switched to pop-in alerts. Accessibility-wise, I think it is a big loss. The appearance is no more standard, focus management and navigability suck, its semantics are lost, and you cannot block it any more ("prevent this page from opening more pop-ups"). Most of the time the content of a pop-in will be as irrelevant as the past pop-up's, but with full HTML available: welcome colours, pictures and videos!

quotha 13y ago

lol that is too true!

joonix 13y ago

The worst is the new USA Today redesign. Each article page is presented to seem as if it were a modal popup, but it's not. They have an "X" button in the upper right corner that just begs you to click it, and when you do it just sends you to the home page. It's a neurotic design.

acabal 13y ago

These drive me absolutely crazy. I hate them, and they're literally everywhere now. Every website I go has some shitty fixed bar at the top that obscures text and is constantly nagging me to like their page or whatever. Developers, please just say no. Iframes died last decade for a good reason.