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Re: external links & new windows

for

From: Cliff Tyllick
Date: Nov 8, 2010 11:27AM

Nathalie, this is a case where I actually have testing data. It's been a couple of years, and we don't write up and publish our results, but something like 30 people, perhaps 35, participated in our study, so we have quite a bit of confidence in the validity of our results.

The design we were testing had precisely the feature you mention: Links to "this" site open in the same tab; links to "other" sites open in a new tab. The programmers were convinced that all our users would regard this behavior as a feature -- because the original site would always remain open, they would be able to go back to it easily. I pointed out that people who use screen readers and screen magnifiers often find this behavior disorienting, but our programmers were convinced that we could find a way around that problem.

I should mention that none of the study participants had any noticeable form of disability. They represented a wide range of familiarity with the application being modified, represented a wide range of familiarity with the Web in general, and ranged in age from the lower 20s to about 60. Their educational background ranged from high school diploma or equivalent to multiple advanced degrees in engineering, management, and law.

Our participants resoundingly demonstrated that we should not interfere with the user's control of the browser's behavior:
- None of our participants immediately recognized when a new tab had opened. They all expected their browser's "Back" button to return them to the previous view.
- Most participants became disoriented when the "Back" button failed to work -- even participants who themselves had been opening other sites in new tabs. (For example, some of them went to their own website to get representative data to use in testing our application. They had no problem finding the application's tab when they had chosen to open a new tab, but they generally could not figure out what happened when the application had opened a new tab without their requesting it.)
- Only one participant quickly figured out that a new tab had opened on him. He tried the "Back" button twice before realizing that, if it was broken, he must be in a new tab.
- Several participants eventually realized what had happened and started closing tabs to get back to the application -- and wound up closing the application by mistake.
- A few participants, including some with quite a bit of experience with the Web, hit the frustration point without figuring out what had happened. (We told them and got them reoriented to continue the test.)

So, what users want most is the ability to control your application or website. As Terrill pointed out, there are many ways a user can open a new tab quickly and easily whenever they want to. As our study showed, when you do it "for" them, they at least have to stop and think about the interface instead of their task and at worst are completely baffled.

You could test different ways of marking "new tab" links until you found one that worked reliably for your site's users, but guess what? You would be introducing content that has nothing to do with their task and everything to do with explaining how the interface works. So you would still be better off letting your users decide for themselves how each link should behave.

And besides, it's a lot easier for you to code.

Cliff

Cliff Tyllick
Usability assessment coordinator
Agency Communications Division
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
512-239-4516
<EMAIL REMOVED>

>>> On 11/8/2010 at 4:20 AM, in message < <EMAIL REMOVED> >, Nathalie Sequeira < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
Hello list,

I've been pondering this topic for a while now and have gotten nowhere
definite, which is why I'd like to ask for your opinions on the matter:

In the past, I had established a homogenous practice for links that went
thus:
- links to pages on the same website open in the same window/ tab
- links to pages on external websites open in new window/tab, the title
attribute containing the forewarning "opens in new window" along with
supplemental infos on the content awaiting the user behind the link,
when appropriate.

The "sighted" rationale behind this was, that users often spend some
time on linked external sites, surfing around there, but then may want
to return to the "main branch" of their reading.
For sighted users, this is achieved simply by closing the separate new
window - as compared to the nuisance of hitting back X times or
searching for the original page in the (possibly long!) back-dropdown
list. This was also appreciated as useful by the user base.
My assumption had been that similar would be true for blind users, and
all was well --
*until I was confronted with the fact that screen readers do not read
title-attributes consistently/reliably.*
Ooops!

To contain the "new window" warning in visible text may be OK in a list
of links, but it gets rather cumbersome with links in a text. And I
haven't seen any sites doing that in ways that would be perceivable to
screen reader users (css stylings for sighted people, yes: little arrows
or web-icons added in, different colors, etc.).

The alternative, not to link externally at all, does not feel right
either however - due to the aforementioned rationale concerning ease of
use.
Leaving the choice to the user would be viable IF people were widely
aware of the fact that e.g. mouse-users can choose to open links in new
tabs or not (is there a similar mechanism for screen reader users?), but
are they?

So what to do?
What practices do you adopt in dealing with external links? Do you use
new windows/tabs at all?
And if you do open in new windows/tabs, how do you go about forewarning
the user perceivably but at the same time unobrtrusively?

Thanks so much for any light you can cast upon this :)
Nathalie