I think it is really dependent on the context of the form. A registration form? No, I don't think you should use modal dialogs. But in that case, I also think the form should be as simple and minimal as possible, because your goal is to get them to register for your site, not to get them to provide their life story to you.
To me, modal popups should be limited to things where the action is not really a part of the flow that the user is trying to accomplish. For example - asking someone to log in to post their comment on a page. Logging in isn't really part of the flow; the flow is typing the comment and submitting it. After they've clicked submit, if they aren't logged in, popping up a small box to log them in rather than taking them to another page to log in is a good user experience. Popping up a box to ask for the user's State after they select United States as their country is not a good user experience, but changing the State/Province/Region text box to a dropdown with all US states after they select their country is. Charles Boyung Owner & Software Architect Nexus Technologies, LLC. http://www.nexustechnologiesllc.com Phone: 414-467-8019 Skype: charles.boyung -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Oleh Kovalchuke Sent: Tuesday, January 12, 2010 2:17 PM To: Michael Caskey Cc: IXDA list Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Web: Modals on a form Inline, in dynamic expandable panel. Modal for legal, license etc. agreements. Oleh Kovalchuke On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 2:11 PM, Michael Caskey <[email protected]> wrote: > > What are your thoughts on employing modals on a form. > > In addition, should modals be used for inputs that are required for one > particular context of the form, whether certain criteria is met? (In which > case, the modal would be shown automatically, based on the user's context > and input.) > > Might it be better to just put the fields inline with the form, but grayed > out, depending on the context? > > Or better to insert the fields inline, near the UI elements that might > trigger the need for those fields to be present? > > Any options I might be missing here? > > Thanks! > > Mike Caskey > > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [email protected] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
