On Jul 9, 2008, at 1:08 PM, Jens Meiert wrote:
Trevor wrote:
The conventional wisdom is that a link should not open a new
window, even if it's a link to another site. Neilsen listed this as
number 9 in the top 10 design mistakes.
But an unofficial survey around our office found that most people
prefer links to new sites to open up in new windows/tabs. They
said that new windows or tabs make it easier to explore links to
other, possibly- irrelevant, but possibly-useful sites, and still
come quickly back to the main site at any time, exactly where you
left it. Some people said they *expect* sites to behave that way.
Should the rule that links should always open in the same window be
revisited? Does anyone know of any real study or data that relates
to this?
Going for the very short answer: No, as this choice should be left to
the user. Talking studies I do not know any that does not verify what
Nielsen suggested in another article, namely only to open new windows
for non-web documents [1] (albeit there might be other, rare
exceptions […]).
[1] http://www.useit.com/alertbox/open_new_windows.html
As with many questions on this list, I dont feel there is a hard and
fast rule, but that context and user base plays an important part as
to wether the new window function is appropriate.
I personally always open external links in a new tab by right/command
clicking. I think that if the link is to an external site - ie: not
within the main site the user is browsing - that this functionality is
preferable.
In fact, I wish google searches would do it without my having to right
click, as each time I don't right-click, I lose my search results.
I think the tab feature of modern browsers trumps all the reasons
listed on the above link for not creating a new window/tab
It may be helpful to indicate a new window is going to open with a
little icon, or to make sure the window size is smaller than the one
below it, but the newbie mistake of losing your window is mainly a
Windoze problem. This problem can also be addressed the way About and
Google Images does by having a top frame that allow one to return to
the previous window, or if it an internal page that needs a new
window, bread-crumbing or having an internal [X close] link.
jd
--
Jeff Gimzek | Senior User Experience Designer
[EMAIL PROTECTED] | www.springstudio.com
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