Opening links in new windows is not an evil thought, no, but it is
best avoided in most circumstances.
We should never use "Experienced Users and shift+ctrl+alt" as a
benchmark as I would assume these are about 1% or less of most site
traffic and thus a very tiny minority which shouldn't be leading the
design. (See Krug's "Don't make me think!").
External links are best sign-posted as such.
Joe
On Jun 20, 2008, at 08:57, Jason Ray wrote:
I would tend to argue the opposite (though not entirely). Links to
external sites opening in new windows are not a bad idea in certain
circumstances such as when external material might end up inside a
frame, as might happen inside a Learning Management System... it
might be advisable at that point to have the link appear in a new
window (or tab) so as not to confuse the user and make it clear that
this is not your site's material.
Experienced browsers will know to use their shift or ctrl + click to
force external links into new windows or tabs, or they may have
already have it set up to do that in their browser options using a
tab control extension, but novice users or those who just don't do
so well with computers likely wouldn't know to do this and could get
confused by external material showing up inside a frame, or being
taken away from the website they were viewing. I personally prefer
to have external links open in new tabs, sometimes even internal
links if I want to finish reading the page but also want to view the
contents of one or several links afterwards, and I frequently use
ctrl + click when clicking on links.
As an extra consideration, I just went to a copyright training
seminar yesterday where this (external links inside frames) was
discussed in terms of the danger of copyright infractions, and other
nasties. I think forcing external links to open in new windows is
not an entirely bad idea (depending on the circumstances and your
users)...
Jason
On Thu, Jun 19, 2008 at 5:51 PM, Brad Pollard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
Thanks Nate for the links.
I really want to focus on the usability impacts of pop-ups.
I'd love to see the AGIMO research that was done - do you have the
name of someone within the organisation that I could contact with
regards to sourcing this?
~ brad
Ward, Nathan wrote:
Hi Brad,
I don't have any test data that shows this, however, below are a
two articles from Digital Web Magazine that mention the topic.
I'm also fairly sure that AGIMO has some research on the topic but
I couldn't find it this afternoon.
You could also check out the Vision Australia website (http://www.visionaustralia.org.au/
).
http://www.digital-web.com/articles/accessible_by_design/
Avoid using links that create a new browser window. If you do use
them, warn users. Users may not be aware of the shift in their
system's focus. It may disorient or confuse them. This is also a
usability issue since users can't use the Back button to navigate
back and revisit pages. It's easy to accidentally close the wrong
window and lose what you want to access. Add a text warning
message or place a small icon (with a warning in the ALT attribute)
before links that will spawn a new window.
Avoid "pop-up" windows, when possible. This has problems similar
to creating a new window, but also has JavaScript complications.
Access to the "pop-up" should be device independent. More
importantly, make the content in the "pop-up" accessible if
JavaScript is turned off.
http://www.digital-web.com/articles/designer_user_partnership/
The other area designers overstep is in controlling the user
environment. The Web behaves in ways that are predictable to users.
For example, when a user clicks a link, the browser requests the
page from the Web server, the Web server sends the page to the
browser, and the Web browser renders the page. Sometimes designers
get involved in this transaction by moving the cursor directly to
the search input field or opening links in a new window. We, as
designers, use these methods because we want to be helpful. We
assume that most users will want to use the search feature on
arrival; to make things easier, we put the cursor in the search
input field. We assume that most users will want to keep in contact
with our site while exploring other sites; to make things easier,
we open external links in a new window.
But sometimes these helpful interventions wind up causing usability
problems because they violate expectations. People expect to begin
listening to or tabbing through a Web page from its beginning and
will be disoriented if the cursor focus is not at the top of the
page. People expect to use the "Back" button to retrace their
navigation path and will not be able to return to the originating
site if it is not in the window history. While these actions may be
helpful to some, they will create usability problems for others.
Moving the cursor and opening a new window are functions of the
user environment and should be performed by the user.
Cheers, Nate
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brad Pollard
Sent: Wednesday, 18 June 2008 16:44
To: wsg@webstandardsgroup.org
Subject: [WSG] User testing results to reinforce 'no popup'
recommendation
A dear client is holding us over a barrel.....
Does anyone have some user test data/video (that they are willing
to share) that shows that forcing a popup window for external links
is a bad idea?
~ brad pollard
02 9699 7145
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