Lightbox effect for contact form

[social_experiment]

I'm thinking of using a lightbox effect for a contact form; is this a good idea or bad in terms of usability? The effect will work with jQuery but i will have a back-up contact form in place should javascript be disabled.

To my way of thinking a user might be annoyed if they got to the contact page and had to click another button to display the contact form; any other thoughts about this?

[Eric!]

Why don't you detect if javascript is disabled and redirect to the form automatically to avoid the extra button click?

[social_experiment]

So if i accessed the contact page the form would be in a lightbox already, without having to click a button; assuming javascript is enabled

[Eric!]

I guess I don't know what you mean. Detect if javascript is turned off and don't present the lightbox version. If it is enabled, then show it. Where are the extra clicks?

[social_experiment]

If the user clicks on the contact page the contact form won't be displayed; for the user to see the contact form they need to click something (button, image, text link) to display the form, this is the click i am refering to;

[Live24x7]

The user clicks on the contact link - if js is enabled - a lightbox pops up else he is redirected to a plain html contact page.
Everything happens in just one click.


On a sidenote - why are developers going crazy over lightboxes ?
How does it improve usability ?
It used to have a novelty feel when it was new.
but now with every other site employing light-boxes - one could look different by using plain html forms

[social_experiment]

On a sidenote - why are developers going crazy over lightboxes ?
How does it improve usability ?
It used to have a novelty feel when it was new.
but now with every other site employing light-boxes - one could look different by using plain html forms

No idea but it can become very annoying very quickly; hence my question; Personally i feel if you have one in a specific area (a single form, or in a gallery) it won't detract from the site's overall usability. After some contemplation (and testing) i've decided to go with a for contact form without lightbox.

[Live24x7]

Some good points made here:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2053 ... box-effect

[social_experiment]

The 'immoveable and modal' point is what bugs me the most about lightboxes; good find on the article.