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Re: Question about links opening in new tabs/windows

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From: Jonathan Metz
Date: Dec 3, 2013 11:33AM

I don¹t subscribe to the Cult of Nielsen, so I have to respectfully
disagree. Yes, people know where the ŒBack¹ button is, but I doubt most
people use that as much anymore, since modern browsers have embraced tabs
as the future of window management. I wonder if Ctrl+W has become more
popular than pressing a back button. If that¹s the case, you end up with a
bunch of users closing a site that it was intended for them to stay on. I
make that mistake all the time these days since I¹ve transitioned from
FireFox to Chrome¹s terrible tab management.

Personally, I prefer to let people know that accessing external links will
leave the site, similar to the way Wikipedia does it. This way it¹s like
saying, ³feel free to look around, we¹ll still be here when you tire of
that other site.²




On 12/3/13 12:01 PM, "Jared Smith" < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

>Greg Gamble wrote:
>> I'd think this would be the preferred way of handling links, especially
>>for those concerned with web site marketing.
>
>I disagree. If this were "the preferred way of handling links", all
>external links would automatically open in new tabs/windows and you'd
>have to program them not to.
>
>Forcing new windows/tabs has consistently been in Jakob Nielsen's top
>mistakes lists since 1999:
>http://www.nngroup.com/articles/top-10-mistakes-web-design/
>http://www.nngroup.com/articles/the-top-ten-web-design-mistakes-of-1999/
>
>If you're concerned about folks not knowing they are leaving your site
>(it is 2013, I think folks can tell sites apart these days and they
>know how to use the Back button), I think a better approach is to use
>an icon indicator to designate external links and give the user the
>option of opening the link in a new window rather than forcing this
>upon them.
>
>Some other resources:
>http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2008/07/01/should-links-open-in-new-w
>indows/
>http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-usability/new-bro
>wser-windows.shtml
>https://managewp.com/should-you-open-links-in-new-windows
>
>Jared
>>>