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Re: Title attributes on images and links

for

From: Karl Groves
Date: Aug 5, 2009 11:15AM

> I'm a developer (not a manager), and I use targets in the two instances
> you
> mentioned. Reasoning is this:
>
> 1. It's bad business to take people away from your site

Actually, what I (and others) have found during usability testing is that
opening new windows is just as likely - if not more - to cause lost
visitors. Here's why:
What happens when a new window is opened via target is that the new window
overlays the old window in exactly the same size that the old window was
opened. Because statistics show that users' browser window size is
typically 87% or greater of the available screen space, the new window
which appears is essentially "full screen" and overlays the old window.

In usability tests what we found was that the new window opens and users
don't notice the new window appeared. They interact with this new window,
clicking around and such, and then when they're done (and want to go back
to *your* site), they begin clicking the "Back" button repeatedly,
eventually reaching where the initial location when the new window
appeared. In other words, they're not back at your site.

In frustration, they begin closing the browser. Now, what you might
expect is that they'd close this "new" window and realize along the way
that your original site is there underneath in the "original" window.
What actually happened, surprisingly, is that they somehow got to thinking
that the only way they could get back to your site was to start over
entirely from the beginning - shutting down all browser windows entirely
and starting anew.

The bottom line: Opening new windows via 'target' causes lost, frustrated
users. Frustrating users is really bad business.

I haven't worked out a solution, but one previous co-worker hypothesized
that we could avoid this problem by purposely making the new window
significantly smaller (something like 60% of full window size) via
JavaScript. The working idea here was that making the window
significantly smaller would grab the user's attention. It would require
them to resize the window manually and therefore make them fully aware
that the new window exists so that, when they decide they want to go back
to your site, they remember the new window appeared and that all they need
to do is close the new window.

We never got a chance to do a real A+B test with this approach, so I don't
know whether it solves the problem.

Personally, I'm averse to new windows anyway, but it seems an interesting
idea.

Karl