As they say in the home of my favourite kind of music - bluegrass - "you go to your church and i'll go to mine, and we'll walk along together."
What counts is whether or not the site succeeds at what it's supposed to do. If it's supposed to sell things, and it does, terrific. If it's supposed to inform, and it does, terrific. If it's supposed to support software, and it does, excellent!
If not, BOO!!
Cheers
Mike Kear
AFP Webworks
Windsor, NSW, Australia
--------- Original Message --------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: "wsg" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: RE: [WSG] target="_blank" substitute
Date: 19/04/04 12:12
Hi Michael
> 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.
Is this an argument against the usefulness of the back button (or the
navigation metaphor entirely)? If Microsoft chose to open links in new
windows you'd end up with a mess of windows, rather than a messy
history. This is not an improvement.
Microsoft's site is poorly designed. How is this relevant to the
argument? :)
> 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.
Not only are you working against the navigation metaphor, you're working
against yourself when you force links to open in new windows. Example:
1. User finds your site, browses around it, finds external links.
2. User clicks link, fresh new window is opened.
3. User is done with your site, and closes your window.
4. User browses site opened in new window, realises there was something
else they wanted to use your site for.
5. Uh oh. Is your site so great that they're going to do the work to get
back to it (by Googling for it, or braving their history), or are they
just going to go some place else?
If a user really wants to open a new window for a link, she can:
right-click, Open in New Window, or middle-click if it's available. If
you're forcing new windows to open when links are clicked, there is no
way for the user to choose to open the links in the original window and
maintain the metaphor. You are taking a meaningful choice away from the
user.
Granted, there are pros for the behaviour that you're arguing for -- but
there are so many cons!
Cheers,
--
Andrew Taumoefolau
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