I am making an app now that is specifically designed for tablets. Users are firefighters / incident response. Failsafe and get the job done with a minimum of room for uncertainty and fuzz is much much more important than looks.
So when the virtual keyboard suddenly pops up over half the screen anyway...I end up reaching for the modal all the time. Like, want to just change a name? Click the name and a modal with a single input box pops up for that one field.
I am sure every UI designer will tell me how it is so wrong, but I find the keyboard popping up just so incredibly disrupting anyway, it just feels safer and better to have a modal up while the keyboard is up, than to mess around with making sure the UI allows scrolling the field into view, making sure user understand the context after the jump to get the field in the top half of the screen, etc
I think there might be a difference here for using modals in a website and in an application.
Modals in a website rarely have a place. Modals in an application can be very useful if you have an isolated task that needs input or if you want to clearly communicate whether or not a particular state has been updated.
I don't really understand the problem with "stacked" modals though.
Indeed. “No modals” has been a rallying cry since Larry Tesler and the Macintosh, but I haven’t seen a useful dissection of the problems with the other extreme.
As you point out, VSCode in particular is loaded with ever-changing user feedback and prompting, spread throughout the interface with no rhyme or reason as to how attention should be distributed.
The irony is that VS Code also frequently replaces traditional modal dialogs with "pseudo modal" command palette flows, where you can click outside the palette alright - it will just kick you out of the flow so you will have to do everything again.
I honestly don't understand what's the problem with modals is in the first place. Most "issues" listed on that page are either subjective or could be argued against.
Not sure opening a new tab would be viable, as they are sometimes blocked unless you tap a small permission button. Becomes much more confusing and unfriendly
I am making an app now that is specifically designed for tablets. Users are firefighters / incident response. Failsafe and get the job done with a minimum of room for uncertainty and fuzz is much much more important than looks.
So when the virtual keyboard suddenly pops up over half the screen anyway...I end up reaching for the modal all the time. Like, want to just change a name? Click the name and a modal with a single input box pops up for that one field.
I am sure every UI designer will tell me how it is so wrong, but I find the keyboard popping up just so incredibly disrupting anyway, it just feels safer and better to have a modal up while the keyboard is up, than to mess around with making sure the UI allows scrolling the field into view, making sure user understand the context after the jump to get the field in the top half of the screen, etc
I find that page incredibly hard to read. I cannot fathom why someone would lecture others about UI/UX and do it using that as the UI/UX.
Are modals/dialogs perfect? Absolutely not but completely eschewing them is also a mistake. In all things, moderation.
Exactly. The font is hard to read.
I think there might be a difference here for using modals in a website and in an application.
Modals in a website rarely have a place. Modals in an application can be very useful if you have an isolated task that needs input or if you want to clearly communicate whether or not a particular state has been updated.
I don't really understand the problem with "stacked" modals though.
That would explain a lot of the design in VS code, which seems to take all those suggestions by heart.
It's of course horrible.
Indeed. “No modals” has been a rallying cry since Larry Tesler and the Macintosh, but I haven’t seen a useful dissection of the problems with the other extreme.
As you point out, VSCode in particular is loaded with ever-changing user feedback and prompting, spread throughout the interface with no rhyme or reason as to how attention should be distributed.
The irony is that VS Code also frequently replaces traditional modal dialogs with "pseudo modal" command palette flows, where you can click outside the palette alright - it will just kick you out of the flow so you will have to do everything again.
I honestly don't understand what's the problem with modals is in the first place. Most "issues" listed on that page are either subjective or could be argued against.
Related:
We use too many damn modals (2018) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23645447 - June 2020 (120 comments)
very ironic that this website made to lecture webdevs is hideous, inaccessible, and borderline unusable
> hideous
That's just, like, your opinion, man. I disagree. Don't imagine yourself as the universal subject.
> inaccessible
I have no trouble whatsoever navigating and understanding the page with VoiceOver, and it obviously passes contrast and color rules for readability.
> and borderline unusable
Completely disagree. It's literally arranged text on a page. There's nothing to "use".
Not sure opening a new tab would be viable, as they are sometimes blocked unless you tap a small permission button. Becomes much more confusing and unfriendly
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