Should links open in a new window? Contrary to popular opinion, when all facts
are considered, the answer is a definate NO!
Website users are becoming more and more sophisiticated. The latest versions of
most web browsers have been developed to provide greater control over browser
behaviour. New features such as the advent of tabbed browsing has
revolutionised the way many users surf the web. Providing users with greater
control over browser behaviour has significatly improved the user experience.
Forcing links to open in new windows effectively takes that control out of
users' hands. Many users become frustrated (even irate in my experience) when
confronted by sites that effectively hi-jack the control of the browser.
In the past the thinking was that if links from your website to external sites
opened in the same window you would lose your visitors. The fact is if the
content of a website is not compelling enough to hold the attention of the user
or to motivate the user to return to the site, there is very little you will
accomplish by making sure all subsequent navigation occurs in a new window.
Additionally the browser's back button is one of the most frequently used
navigation tools. If you open a link in a new window you effectively break the
back button. It can be extremely confusing to users when they try to click back
within the new window only to find the back button no longer works.
Users of the latest browsers now have control over whether or not to open links
in new windows, new tabs, or within the same window. Those that use these
controls to full effect are becoming increasingly frustrated with websites that
fail to respect what they consider to be improvements in usability.
The World Wide Web Consortium have weighed in on the subject. The
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
1.0 released way back in May 1999 states that "new windows can be very
disorienting to users" and suggests that until browsers provide the capability
of turning off spawned windows "do not cause pop-ups or other windows to appear
and do not change the current window without informing the user". Older
websites generally used the link attribute target="_blank" to open a link in a
new window. The use of the target attribute will no longer validate as
standards compliant within HTML 4.0 strict and XHTML 1.0 strict websites.
There are rare circumstances in which it could be considered appropriate for
links to open in new windows, for example links to PDFs. These should be the
exception and not the rule. The aim is to treat your visitors with respect.
Thursday, 6 October 2011