Overlays, Modals, and the Cost of Interruption

Utility flows are interrupted often: camera permission for a QR scan, a prompt to enable notifications, a seasonal campaign modal. Those overlays are separate visual layers with their own assets, animations, and dismissal logic.

In reports we time the underlying screen to first interaction, then time the overlay arrival and dismissal. A home that is ready in under a second still feels broken if a full-screen promo blocks taps for another two.

Product and growth teams can keep campaigns; engineering needs a budget for how heavy those layers may be and when they may appear. Without that budget, every new overlay quietly taxes the same first session.

If you are preparing a brief for us, list every system and marketing overlay that can appear on the journeys under review. Surprises in the middle of an assessment waste everyone’s calendar.