[Sigia-l] how user-initiated pop-ups affect the user experience

[Katherine Lumb]

Hello all:

I'm putting together a POV on the use of pop-ups to display relevant information within a process path.

I need to know:

1. Up-to-the-minute numbers on user attitudes toward *non-advertising* pop-ups. I've got tons of information on how much people hate pop-up and -under ads... but are they as frustrated with "legitimate" pop-ups in other contexts? Is there any evidence of transference; that is, is annoyance with pop-up ads affecting users' tolerance for pop-ups in legitimate contexts? Is there any qualitative/quantitative data on how user-initiated pop-ups affect the user experience?

2. Is any research available on what happens when users w/ pop-up blockers try to navigate sites w/ pop-ups intergrated into the process path, or use tools/features that are pop-ups? Google, Yahoo, etc. say their pop-up blockers spare "legitimate" pop-up windows, but has anyone heard of pop-up blockers rendering tools or processes unusable? What percentage of pop-up blocking tools are not intelligent enough to discriminate between legitimate, user-initiated pop-ups and ads? If so, are there any trends yet as to how sites are handling this growing issue? 

I'll be grateful if anyone can point me to good sources for this data.  I'll share my POV document when it's completed.

Thanks much!

K

Katherine K. Lumb   Experience Planner
p 646.756.8976    f 646.756.8951 klumb at semaphorepartners.com

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