> Opening a window without navigation elements doesn't > actually stop you from going back in the browser's > history. > You can either: > A. Hit the backspace button to go "back" > B. Right-click and choose "back"
This is all when and good, but many users are still only just getting the concept of clicking the back button - these keyboard options are definitely not on the radar. During usability tests, I have seen users get quite lost when new windows pop up. "I can't go back!" (in a panicky voice). At the end of a session I have seen these users closed the current browser window and then be quite puzzled about the other windows underneath. "Ahhh, there's that page! How did it get there?". I've also seen a vision impaired user who use screen magnifiers set at high degrees of magnification loose a popup window completely. The popup occurred off-screen and caused a great degree of confusion. "I've clicked on the link again but nothing happened". David Woodbridge, the blind tech. specialist from the Royal Blind society recently talked about how popup windows can sometimes stop screen readers talking completely - the sound simply stops and the user had no idea where they are. The question might be better put the other way around... "Knowing that pop-ups can cause usability and accessibility issues, is there a real need to make this page pop up?" Russ ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
