IBM: Diverting in-house pop ups

Attempts to stop a questionnaire interfering with the main purpose of the site risk distracting visitors.

The Site

IBM, the global business IT and consultancy giant, was using an online survey at the start of this week to invite visitors’ help in making its website “easier to use and more effective”.

The invitation was made in a pop-up window that appeared when users logged on to the site. Opting for “continue” rather than “no thank you” brought up a new window instructing the user to complete their visit before continuing with the survey. Attempts to finish the survey first were met with a pop-up within the pop-up insisting that you confirm your visit is over.

While completing the visit, the survey window is sent to the background, to reappear when you quit the main site.

The Takeaway

IBM is not unusual in using an online questionnaire to harvest user feedback. But its attempts to stop the questionnaire interfering with the main purpose of the site risks diverting the visitor from a journey of more direct value to them and IBM.

The company was clearly worried that visitors would miss or ignore the survey if they saw it only when they left the site, which is why they are presented with the pop-up when they arrive. But they are forbidden from completing the survey until they have visited the site proper – presumably because they then will have something more useful to contribute, and also because IBM wants them to start engaging with the real site as soon as possible.

The problem is that pop-ups are moving up the scale of website irritants – they could well be following the same path as banner ads, which are now ignored by the vast majority of the internet-using public. The currently fashionable way of solving this is by using “pop-under” boxes that are only seen when the visitor quits the browser; but even these are becoming tiresome. Maybe an entirely new approach to online surveys is needed: bring on the lateral thinkers.

First published on 16 September, 2003