Okay, I have just visited the umpteenth site that is suddenly using the lightbox effect for something. Can we get past that now?
Yeah, it was kind of cool a year ago. But you know what? It actually takes longer for me to log in or download or submit (or whatever I want to do) because I have to wait for your lightbox to load.
And on an older computer, it takes even longer. So unless you’re trying to convince me to upgrade my machine (which won’t happen), a simple login form will do.
Remember: If it’s not important, don’t use it. I don’t need a lightbox just to log in. You’re putting too much lipstick on your pig.
So that’s what that thing is called. I think it’s good for pictures (when not over done) and online games. I like it a lot better for logins than having to load a separate page.
Ah, I forgot the link!
Thanks for reminding me.
I don’t care for it unless it’s really worthwhile. Photos are good, but just to login I think I’d rather have a simple form on the home page or something. Logging in is a chore, not a feature, so playing it up with a lightbox gets in my way.
I hate Lightbox. The worst is having to wait for the box to actually unfold. The worst implementations are the ones doing it with sign-in and search forms.
It is evil for pictures also. When I view pictures in a gallery, I usually just middle click bunch of them at a time and let them load in the background as I scan the rest of the page. Then I jump through the tabs to see full sized images.
Lightbox forces me to look at the pictures one at a time. So essentially if you use it, you are forcing your ideas on how one should browse your page on me. And I don’t like that.
It’s pointless eye candy that is cool for 5 seconds until you figure out how much does it hurt general usability of your site.
At least some sites show it the normal way with middle-clicking and the Lightbox on single. Can you guess which is better?