Design creep

Well, isn’t this interesting—just one day after I happened to be discussing annoying web practices, I was doing some research on events management and came across something else that I’m seeing more frequently: online stalking.

I’m referring to the practice of having invitations to chat (or take some other action) not only pop up when you’re trying to ingest their content (in fact, before you’ve had a chance to read it), but also stalk you as you scroll down the page. Viz.:

And

I do not know what designers and companies are thinking with this, but I wish to hell they’d stop.

Yeah, okay—I do know what they’re thinking: they’re so eager for you to engage with a sales rep that they don’t care if you read their content; perhaps they don’t even want you to read it. I mean does anything shout “We want to sell you something NOW before you even know what it is” more clearly than blocking your access to the content, and continuing to block it as you try to move away from the damned box?

Not only that, it’s downright creepy to have that thing follow you about. It’s the online equivalent of Alex Forrest, and it does not encourage me to stick around your website, much less buy anything from you.