Personally, I'm a big fan of opening links in a new window or tab BUT
the important usability issue here is that I am not a good
representative of the end user of the sites I build and I would
imagine the majority of people on this list, as well as most of their
colleagues, aren't either.
Obviously this depends on your end user but one of the main usability
reasons for not opening links in new windows is that it confuses
inexperienced users - it makes the back button useless and they
don't know how to close new windows and get back to where they were.
It does sound a bit insane ('People don't know how to close windows
in 2008??!') but I think given our work environments and personal
knowledge, it's easy to forget that there are heaps of people out
there who do not have our level of experience and general computing
confidence! I recently did some usability testing in Scandinavia and
one of the testers mentioned that he helps a lot of people shop
online because they cannot do it on their own - they have access to
the internet but are scared of e-com for various reasons. To give you
some context, this man heads up a society for an illness and the
internet is the easiest way for these people to get products but they
phone him and ask him to talk them through the process... my point
being people who are confused by new windows are probably less, but
definitely still exist!
Another thing to consider, Carolyn Snyder mentions a geographic
effect... I don't think the article has been updated in a while but
I wonder if anyone has been able to gather more information on this?
'The geographic effect
It's possible that non-technical users in high-tech areas such as
the Silicon Valley may learn these tricks sooner than users in other
places. I don't have proof that this geographic effect exists, but I
became aware of the possibility when comparing notes with another
usability specialist from San Francisco. She'd been conducting
usability tests for years, and had never seen some of the problems
I've described. We theorized that she was drawing her test
participants from a pool of people who had an unusually high
probability of learning Web-browsing tricks from tech-savvy friends
or family.
Suggestion: If you're located in a high-tech area, it's a good idea
to screen out usability test participants who have anything to do with
Web site development unless they actually are your target market. And
talk to people who are developing and testing sites in other parts of
the country (or world) to hear what they're finding. '
http://www.snyderconsulting.net/article_7tricks.htm
After a discussion with a group of usability folk a few years ago, I
work along these lines:
- formatted files such as a PDF always open in a new window... most
users (me included!) close the 'Acrobat' window and then they've
lost the site
- when help pages are accessed from a contextual link (for example
'Delivery charges' whiIst in the payment process) these info pages
open in a new smaller window so that the user doesn't lose the info
they have typed in so far and they can keep the help information
visible while moving through other pages in the site
- if a link will open in a new window it has an icon with alt text
:-)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=31169
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