Patrick - A practical example which will serve to illustrate my point. Go to the Microsoft.com site, and decide whether to install any update. (Choose any of them, they're all just as bad as each other.) In order to install this update, you have to have this other update installed. Oh... do I have that installed? Better click on that link to read what it was about. Nope. Never heard of that one. But before I can install that update, I have to have this other one installed. Have I got that one installed? Who the hell knows. Better click on this link to find out what this previous update was all about. But there are implications with installing that update, because there's a link to read this before installing this update. Click on that link. Now where are you? Can you install that first update or not?
Navigating anywhere in Microsoft's site is a nightmare. You go down a maze of links until its almost impossible to work your way back where you came from. You mention the 'back' button. What about alt-tab? I use that far more than 'back'. The issue is not as clear-cut as you seem to say. I'm not saying my way is the 'right' way and others are 'wrong'. Just that it's like most things on the web- there are several ways to do anything and pros and cons for each. In my case, I get someone into my site, and I don't want to see them heading off again by just clicking on a tool my site gives them to leave. Cheers Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia AFP Webworks http://afpwebworks.com -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Patrick Griffiths Sent: Sunday, 18 April 2004 8:20 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [WSG] target="_blank" substitute > You're right, Patrick, but life is a series of compromises. I spend a lot > of effort in getting users to my site, and I don't want to go sending them > away again with a link on my site. If they want to click on a link > external to my site, they get a new window so their existing window stays in > my site. > > It's not accessible, that's true, but if they stay inside my site, no new > windows open. And I'm not going to go sending 97% of users out of my site > with a link, just so 3% can have an accessible access to that one or two > links. > OK. Let's forget about accessibility for a moment then. The back button is one of the most commonly used navigational tools. By opening new windows you disable that feature. You're hindering usability and actually making it more effort for people to come back to your site. It's just not possible to lock people into your site. If they want to go away from it, they're going to. If they want to come back to it, that's great but keeping your site in the background isn't going to help that at all - they know they should be able to reach it by a 'click' or two of the back button. ---------------- Patrick Griffiths (PTG) http://www.htmldog.com/ptg/ http://www.htmldog.com ***************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help *****************************************************
