From a web developers point of view, are Pop-up windows bad?

[ANBU_Ghost]

I have a site I'm working on and all the quotes I've had from programmers are out of my small budget. My design has a home page and 4 sub pages, but 3 of those sub pages have very little information on it, an almost copy and paste job of sorts for the programmers, but they still insist I'd get charged the same as a full page .

So I was thinking since those 3 pages could each easily fit on a small pop-up window of their own, something like a 300 x 300 sized window, would that be a cheaper solution, and would this even be a good idea now with everyone having pop-up blockers I'd hope having this on my page wouldn't confuse first time users. Thanks for your help!

 

[Web Master]

Pop-under with newsletter subscription or a free offer is not bad.

 

[Bill36]

Some people get mad when ever they have pop up windows all the time. But if its not constant pop ups i dont see why it would be bad.

 

[weblord]

exit popup is ok with me just a little window on top right should do the trick, I can't overall remove them since I also put them on my site(s) to stress or remind a point.

 

[Keral_Patel]

I hate popups and I love revenues

It is a dilemma.

But they are okay as long as they aren't popping up on every page load.

 

[Achaias]

Pop-under with newsletter subscription or a free offer is not bad.

I would agree here. Pop-unders are less annoying, notice I didn't say not annoying. Pop-ups wouldn't be my first choice .

 

[uswebdev]

I would advise against using any pop up/unders for the reasons you mentioned. And you may consider a new developer that charges by the hour or project, not by the page.

 

[mywebbie]

As long as they offer freebies they are less annoying. Don't put pop-ups on every page. Make them also relevant to the content of the webpage.


:hehe:

 

[Skinny]

Pop-ups of any kind are very annoying and users do have pop-up blockers which might prevent them from seeing stuff.

Skinny

 

[user-7256]

Ask them if they'd do it the modern way, with Ajax. Chances are, it could be a good replacement. Popup windows are good only sparingly and if the user requests them individually (e.g. clicking a link). That's just IMO.

And, maybe slightly off topic, but I always disagreed with programmers charging a certain rate per page on a small and static website.

Good websites have a uniform style (same design template per page, generally). So separate designs for the pages rules out extra costs. And if the content fits in a 300x300 (approx.) pixel box, and it's mostly copy and paste, then there's no justified reason in my eyes to charge 4x as much.

Either find some developers (HTML != 'programmer') that won't charge by this rate... w/o a design, your project probably shouldn't cost more than $20 to $50. (Unless it's gonna make you a ton of money.)

PS. Never do a pop-under.

 

[shaelheart]

Webmasters hate pop-ups but ordinary Internet users don't know even know about Firefox, pop-ups, etc.

 

[Alan Glennon]

If you want people to return to your site, do not use popups or popunders.

 

[dncafe]

I would stay away from popups and do a flash overlay or something similar if you want to go that route.

 

[buyauthority]

Here you go. I'll let Michael Jackson explain everything about ShadowBox at

>>>> http://mjijackson.com/shadowbox/ - hello?

 

[Rob J]

From a usability and design standpoint, you should never use popups or popunders ..

 

[rafaelrls]

You should do pop up in flash. pop up html windows are very boring. All of my friends have pop ups blocker.

 

[BitcoinDK]

"If you want people to return to your site, do not use popups or popunders."

Applause - Hear - Hear - Applause

I totally agree

 

[Bill]

Are pop ups bad? Yes....IMO they turn people away from your website. Most people have a program or browser add on that will block pop ups.

:imho:

-Bill