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I just came to a very known website that I found pretty weird and confusing because of its onload behavior. You can see it at https://wetransfer.com and what I mean is the image below:

enter image description here

Just in case it's not noticeable, what I mean is that the page has a scrim which provides a quite low legibility, and behind that scrim you can see the form WeTransfer had for years. So basically, it's like a "veil" behind which you can see the content with which you will want to interact, but first you need to perform an action (accept, manage cookies or a quite cryptic "No, thanks" which, despite what the copy says, if you click it takes you to a page where you have to accept Terms of Service). In a way, it's a modal without the modal background.

Anyway, I'm not interested in the interaction possibilities or accessibility, but this sort of "veil", and would like to know if it has a name so I can look for more examples.

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  • 3
    If it has no name, I propose "soft modal"...
    – Luke Sawczak
    Commented Nov 7, 2023 at 4:28
  • 1
    I'm curious to see what other examples will emerge. For now, it seems like an "invention" of a WeTransfer designer. Or even worse, a requirement from management or marketing to still have the form visible. I would call this a "sneak peek overlay" or something like that, because it seems like it is designed to trick people into accepting the cookies so they can immediately access that form. A dark pattern perhaps?
    – jazZRo
    Commented Nov 8, 2023 at 14:14
  • Which criteria for a modal window does this design not meet, in your opinion?
    – Crissov
    Commented Jan 19 at 14:08
  • @Crissov It has no scrim, no container, and no close button (nor can it be closed). Essentially, there's nothing that resembles a modal window or allows user interaction as in a modal window.
    – Devin
    Commented Jan 19 at 16:44
  • Okay, then it’s a modal overlay, I guess. A true modal requires a user decision and the X/Close button is much like the “no, thanks” option here: selecting the default.
    – Crissov
    Commented Jan 22 at 18:28

1 Answer 1

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I want to quote and example analogous to this.

Sometime ago before Adobe went on to cloud, I used to use its products. I used to see the UI (Menu, tools etc ) in background that is disabled but - may be in this case it is masked by the overlay modal. If I never opened a file the options never get enabled. The question was why to show it then? I assumed it is due to tech constraints of how the app is built on the framework.

Recently about 2 months ago, while working with redesign of a software application that uses legacy MFC framework, I saw the same thing. One of the interesting point one of my team member raised was

"May be give the user the hint of what is going to come up next because of complex UI structure"

This could be the possible reason why it is shown.

I am really unsure of the pattern but @devin, may be we call it "veil pattern"

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