Nagging

Office Assistant

"It looks like you're writing a letter. Would you like help?"

Clippy is a funny example here, but it hints at a larger problem. Capital interests don't always align with user interests. As mentioned in the Confirmshaming section, companies will often push features that are in their best interest, even if they are not in the best interest of the user.

This is how you get pop-ups. They suck, they're annoying, and they're intrusive, but they do capture your attention. Let's say you're serving your site to 100,000 users. Capturing the interest of even 1% of your users gives you 1,000 users that are interested in your product. That's a lot of potential revenue sitting on the table.

Of course, this can be a double-edged sword. If you go too heavy on the nagging, you'll alienate users and force them to leave the site. It's a delicate balance. Annoying your users just enough that they will sit through their grievances to access the content they came for.