267:– thus alleviating those problems. Jakob Nielsen states as an advantage of modal dialogs that it improves user awareness: "When something does need fixing, it's better to make sure that the user knows about it." For this goal, the Lightbox design provides strong visual contrast of the dialog over the rest of the visuals. The Lightbox technique is now a common tool in website design.
232:, elements with invalid data might acquire a red border, and so on. With this approach, users actually benefit from seeing many input elements at once — they can enter data in a way that makes sense to them, instead of having all the other unrelated elements blocked until a predefined data-entry sequence is completed.
278:
For users using virtual work areas larger than their actual screens, modal windows can cause further undesirable behavior, including creating the modal on a portion of the virtual screen not currently on the display, or abruptly switching the display from what the user was working on to an entirely
184:
panels called "Sheets" on Mac OS X. Transient windows behave similarly to modal windows – they are always on top of the parent window and are not shown in the window list, but they do not disable the use of other windows in the application. Sheets slide out of the window's title bar,
323:
Using a semi-transparent dark background can obscure information in the main window, so it is best used only when that information would be distracting. A semi-transparent background can be made less intrusive by having the whole background area function as a close button: this is standard on most
254:
dialogs that allow users to operate with other windows. Modal windows are intended to grab the user's full attention. Users may not recognize that a modal window requires their attention, leading to confusion about the main window being non-responsive, or causing loss of the user's data input
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facilities. This can interfere with the use of their parent applications by blocking access to other windows and data within the same application, particularly in cases where the modal window is requiring the user to input information only available in one of the windows it's covering.
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However, many interface designers have recently taken steps to make modal windows more obvious by darkening the background behind the window or allowing any mouse click outside of the modal window to force the modal window to close – a design called a
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and usually must be dismissed before the user can continue to work in the window, but the rest of the application stays usable. Thus they create a mode inside the window that contains them, but are modeless with respect to the rest of the application.
133:
Drawing attention to vital pieces of information. This use has been criticized as ineffective because users are bombarded with too many dialog boxes, and habituate to simply clicking "Close", "Cancel", or "OK" without reading or understanding the
295:(or stealing focus) can compromise privacy and security practices, as well as capture inappropriate, out-of-context input that can cause undefined, arbitrary results in the program that generated the modal window.
152:
Collecting application configuration options in a centralized dialog. In such cases, typically the changes are applied upon closing the dialog, and access to the application is disabled while the edits are being
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in pasted input) as a cue to accept the input and process it—or, in rare cases, may intercept a mouse click intended for a different application that has suddenly been covered. Such interception, called
259:). In severe cases, the modal window appears behind another window controlled by the same program, potentially rendering the entire program unresponsive until the modal window can be located manually.
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Modal windows are commonly implemented in ways that block the possibility to move, minimize, iconify, or push that window back, and they grab input focus, which often prevents use of a system's
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with potentially severe consequences. Usability practitioners prescribe that dangerous actions should be undoable wherever possible; an alert box that appears unexpectedly or is dismissed by
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Modal windows tend to create an abrupt diversion of text input, especially typed input intended for other programs, into themselves. Further, modals usually interpret actuation of the
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contends that the importance of requiring the user to attend to important issues justifies restricting the user's freedom and that the alternative would increase user frustration.
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is increasingly seen as preferable to a dialog box because it does not interrupt the user's activities, but rather allows the user to read extra information in their own time.
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interaction, guided by its own specific requirements rather than by the global state of the entire application. For example, required elements might be preceded with an
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Modal dialogs are part of a task flow, and recommendations are given to place them where the focus is in that flow. For example, the window could be placed near the
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for modal dialogs, but some usability experts criticize it as ineffective for its intended use (protection against errors in destructive actions) due to
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mobile operating systems, avoids making the user feel trapped, and makes modal windows feel less like malicious pop-ups.
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User interfaces typically use modal windows to command user awareness and to display emergency states, though
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that disables user interaction with the main window but keeps it visible, with the modal window as a
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540:"Sheets - Presentation - Components - Human Interface Guidelines - Design - Apple Developer"
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Many features that would typically be represented by modal windows are implemented as modal
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Design should follow common practices in the platform the program is running on.
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Depending on the specifics of implementation, modal windows can violate the
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One proposed approach is to design every input element as a self-contained,
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On the Web, they often show images in detail, such as those implemented by
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in the top-level program until the modal window is closed, as opposed to
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Modal windows are common in GUI toolkits for guiding user workflow.
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argue they are ineffective for that use. Modal windows are prone to
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Designing for People Who Have Better Things To Do With Their Lives
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with affirmative action buttons being the right-most command.
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interact with the modal window before they can return to the
173:"Sheet (computing)" redirects here. Not to be confused with
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on the main window. Modal windows are sometimes called
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doesn't protect from the dangerous action. A modeless
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About Face 2.0: The
Essentials of Interaction Design
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Mode (user interface) § Design recommendations
516:The default answer to every dialog box is "Cancel"
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242:Assessment of modes in computer interfaces
1157:List of graphical user interface elements
499:, User Interface Design for Programmers:
149:to open and save files in an application.
384:"Never Use a Warning When you Mean Undo"
129:Frequent uses of modal windows include:
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61:window. This avoids interrupting the
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286:(or in rare cases the presence of a
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435:"Nitpicker / The Humane Interface"
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255:intended for the main window (see
16:Subordinate user interface element
14:
1224:
1213:Graphical user interface elements
413:. United States: Addison Wesley.
331:uses standard controls for modal
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619:"How to Use Modality in Dialogs"
246:A modal window blocks all other
38:subordinate to an application's
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629:
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564:Cooper, Alan (March 17, 2003).
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112:between them, treating them as
659:"Modal Panel - Implementation"
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520:
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320:that triggers its activation.
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459:Quince UX patterns explorer.
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145:process. Another example are
73:because they often display a
904:Head-up display in computing
526:Jeff Atwood, Coding Horror:
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7:
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300:principle of least surprise
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209:are particular culprits of
189:Control of interaction flow
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753:Graphical control elements
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484:"10 Best Application UIs"
482:Jakob Nielsen, Alertbox.
318:graphical control element
102:The opposite of modal is
95:library, or are used for
45:A modal window creates a
36:graphical control element
201:Unexpected interruptions
169:Modal sheets in Mac OS X
19:Not to be confused with
1192:Zoomable user interface
663:quince.infragistics.com
641:quince.infragistics.com
997:Client-side decoration
528:Teaching Users to Read
53:in front of it. Users
1075:Breadcrumb navigation
514:, The Old New Thing:
439:nitpicker.pbworks.com
82:interaction designers
594:The Humane Interface
591:Raskin, Jef (2000).
410:The Humane Interface
407:Raskin, Jef (2000).
272:cut, copy, and paste
686:developer.apple.com
353:Application posture
279:different section.
158:interaction pattern
934:Progress indicator
909:HUD in video games
711:has generic name (
623:Oracle Corporation
597:. Addison Wesley.
1200:
1199:
1047:Window decoration
1002:Disclosure widget
806:Data input-output
767:Adjustment handle
329:Microsoft Windows
120:Relevance and use
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1145:Related concepts
1126:Inspector window
1111:Alert dialog box
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1007:Frame / Fieldset
787:Hamburger button
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388:alistapart.com
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637:"Modal Panel"
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1131:Modal window
1130:
1063:Navigational
939:Progress bar
899:Balloon help
858:Radio button
853:List builder
828:Cycle button
818:Color picker
777:Context menu
691:18 September
689:. Retrieved
685:
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667:the original
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645:the original
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547:. Retrieved
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512:Raymond Chen
507:
497:Joel Spolsky
492:
465:the original
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443:. Retrieved
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391:. Retrieved
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341:modal sheets
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147:file dialogs
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51:child window
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32:modal window
31:
25:
1152:File viewer
1121:File dialog
1070:Address bar
833:Date picker
709:|last=
549:7 September
215:habituation
211:mode errors
205:Unexpected
195:Alan Cooper
175:spreadsheet
162:habituation
86:mode errors
40:main window
1116:Dialog box
980:Containers
961:Status bar
868:Search box
445:2015-10-09
393:2015-10-09
364:References
310:See also:
257:Mode error
240:See also:
75:dialog box
30:design, a
21:Dialog box
1177:Scrolling
1172:Mouseover
1080:Hyperlink
1054:Workspace
992:Tree view
987:Accordion
863:Scrollbar
838:Grid view
823:Combo box
570:. Wiley.
441:. Rule 1a
284:enter key
248:workflows
182:transient
125:Use cases
97:hover ads
1207:Category
1100:Special
1012:Menu bar
949:Throbber
883:Text box
848:List box
813:Checkbox
797:Pie menu
701:cite web
347:See also
337:Mac OS X
265:Lightbox
252:modeless
236:Problems
230:asterisk
139:password
134:message.
105:modeless
93:Lightbox
63:workflow
1102:windows
1037:Toolbar
1022:Popover
971:Tooltip
956:Sidebar
919:Infobar
878:Spinner
288:newline
219:infobar
1042:Window
1027:Ribbon
873:Slider
772:Button
601:
574:
417:
59:parent
1017:Panel
966:Toast
924:Label
339:uses
153:made.
143:login
141:in a
110:focus
34:is a
1187:WIMP
914:Icon
792:Menu
713:help
693:2018
599:ISBN
572:ISBN
551:2022
415:ISBN
55:must
47:mode
1032:Tab
69:or
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