CMS blog pages as lightboxes help

Hey does anybody know how to open up blog pages as lightboxes in Webflow similar to this site? https://marketingexamples.com/

Thanks :slight_smile:

Hey @jamesdigital – welcome to the Webflow Forum, glad to have you here!

Webflow doesn’t offer a native modal element, and the current lightbox doesn’t offer support for dynamic content. You can create a modal using Interactions or custom code, but I wonder if the modal UX is the best way of making your content available to everyone in your audience.

Putting long-form content (i.e. blog posts) in a modal popup actually makes a website less accessible to the full spectrum of users. Even if you manually fix issues with keyboard focus, users that use assistive technologies and tools (screen-reader, magnification, alternative hardware) might have a hard time using your site.

I know you didn’t ask for this specifically, but here are some UX considerations I wanted to share with you if you’re open to learning more:
(1) the article is hard to see with all that content behind it and it’s distracting;
(2) the modal popup is too unexpected (blind screen reader users experience confusion caused by modals opening when you expect a new page);
(3) it’s hard to use (magnification users wouldn’t be able to easily find the boundaries, and focus management on dialogs is difficult to implement correctly for keyboard users);
(4) it was unclear that I had to scroll down to notice that the article continues (which may be hard for folks to catch it immediately;
(5) sites with dual scrolling are hard for people who aren’t using a mouse nor keyboard (e.g., voice dictation users).

In the end, you choose how to represent your content, Webflow offers that level of flexibility. But the UX choices we make may exclude others from experiencing your site. Being aware of those considerations will help you create better designs for everyone (and maximize your reach)!

Hope you found some of that information helpful!