Modal

Modal boxes are generally pop-up windows that appear on the screen rather than opening a new tab/window. They usually darken the background to bring attention to the popup. In short, modal boxes are used to show information to the user on the same page without reloading the page and by that, improving the usability.

Modal boxes found their origins from Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux, but they quickly spread out to web applications and other usages.

There are five common usages when using a modal box:

• Error: To alert users of an error
• Warning: To warn users of potentially harmful situations
• Collect information: To collect information from users
• Confirm or Prompt: To ask users to confirm an action
• Helper: To help users when using the interface

Modal boxes are not to be confounded with modeless components such as sidebars, accordion menus, toolbars, and so on, as they allow users to interact with the parent windows.

The following are some examples of Modal boxes:

Modal boxes used when composing a tweet on Twitter.com:

Modal boxes are also used to get people's emails or attention when landing on their website such as the preceding at Getflywheel.com.