Perhaps we're getting to the heart of the question: Do we differentiate
between sites (points of view) on the web?
The issue isn't necessarily one of foreign-ness or designer-ego. As
UxP/IA/IxD/whatevers, we are constantly grouping and naming things so that
this big confusing world of ours becomes more managable. The mere fact that
we now have technology that allows any page to be linked to any other page
doesn't diminish our need to be able to differentiate one thing from
another. Hypertext linking is not the end of usability - Quite the
contrary, it seems.
The assumption that the Web is a boundary-less continuuum is intellectually
tempting, but kind of unrealistic - given the limitations & power of our
understanding. Ultimately, the question is whether we can - or need to -
maintain perspective: "Self" and "Other". Boundaries have value in and of
themselves. Differentiating things is an essential step towards
understanding the whole.
Saying that "a link is just a link" is sort of like saying that "a thing is
just a thing". It is a tautology, redundant, true and relatively
meaningless. A menubar navigation link is not a sidebar navigation link is
not a "contact us" link is not an in-page anchor link is not a link to an
external site, etc. They don't act alike and shouldn't. Context. Context.
Context.
Vulcan Mind-melds and Borg-like absorbtion by The Overmind ("Resistance is
futile"...) are cool in a scary, "Childhood's End" kind of way, but for the
time being I'll opt for useful, usable boundaries and frames.
* If part of our mandate is to provide useful meta-information, then we
should helpfully identify when we are guiding someone to info that is not
"in" their current domain/POV. Especially since it's entirely likely that
the new domain may display different structure, behaviors and terminology.
John Vaughan
http://www.jcvtcs.com
BTW: We've all been frustrated when we encounter the counter-productive
barriers identified in Whitney's example of unneccessary corporate
information silo-ing: Yes, anything - anything at all (including UI
design) - can be done badly. But that's why we have job descriptions.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Whitney Quesenbery" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2008 7:45 AM
Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Should external links really open in the
samewindow?
On Wed, Jul 9, 2008 at 9:52 PM, Jeff Howard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I view sites that take it upon themselves to spawn new windows in
about the same vein as sites that automatically resize my window or
move it around. It's too presumptuous.
Hear, hear.
Rules can always be broken for a good reason, but start with the
default that a link is just a link.
I've spent hours watching people be confused, even if only
momentarily, when anything else happens. It's not that they can't
recover, it's that you've made them think about something that should
not require thinking.
It's also a much more serious problem for people using some kinds of
alternate browsers, who may have much more difficulty navigating back
to their site. In the same window, it's a simple, well-known action:
BACK (or the equivalent key or voice command). In a new window, they
have to switch to concentrating on navigation in order to figure out
where the old window is, or what it's called, and how to get back to
it.
I've never understood why sites are so self-important that they must
treat other sites as foreign bodies. If you don't want me to follow a
link, why did you put it there? Why are you making people learn your
particular convention for "this link does something unexpected"?
I've even seen this behavior between different sections of corporate
intranets, as though the XXX Department is in a completely different
world. I watched while one user opened no less than 12 windows while
trying to complete a single, relatively straight-forward task, but one
which meant he needed to gather information from several sources.
This is not to say that there is never a reason to open a new window,
but not for simply linking to a new page.
--
Whitney Quesenbery
www.wqusability.com
Storytelling for User Experience Design
www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/storytelling
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