On 21/12/2011 12:16, coder wrote:
In one sense, this argument is fallacious, because whatever the web
designer does decides what happens when a user just 'clicks a link'. In
my experience, most folk 'out there' don't know about right clicking. To
say 'it is the user's choice' is mainly untrue, because he/she doesn't
know they've got a choice, and what happens depends upon what the
designer has coded.
A tired argument, but based on the premises that:
- most users don't know they can open links explicitly in a new window/tab
- the vast majority of links out on t'internet are simply that, straight
links, with no extra target="_blank" or similar
the fact that a link takes them away to another site is, as a
consequence, the expected behaviour that those non-savvy users have. By
trying to be extra good ("here, let me open this in a new window for
you"), designers may arguably be breaking that expectation and confusing
those users, rather than helping them.
The argument is slightly different for small pop-ups inside web
applications, but that sort of behaviour doesn't work well on
mobiles/tablets, if we want to include those in the discussion.
TL;DR just use straight links.
P
--
Patrick H. Lauke
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