Target equals blank must die!
Your user’s leaving your site is not a reason to use target=”_blank” in your anchor tags. Your user’s switching to a different server or application on your company’s web site is not a reason either. Give it up. Find a new attribute to use in your <a> tags. Maybe the title attribute? Hmm?
Technorati Tags:
usability, web design
I increasingly find myself doing this sequence of steps while surfing the Web:
- Close the browser window that just popped up.
- CTRL-click on the link that caused the new window to pop up. This opens it in a new tab.
Step 2 makes the situation a little more manageable, but it’s still annoying to have my browser tab bar at the top of the window fill up with windows containing pages from within the same web site.
I was researching the price for an Adobe product yesterday, and when I was finished, I had to close five windows because of this behavior. And I know what the developers were thinking: “We’re sending the user off to a different application on the site, so I better open the linked page in a new browser.” I was trying to complete my task, not watch the URL for changes in folder names. Nice try, guys. I don’t care about your world of folder switching.
Do not lose faith in the Back button, my friends. Many people’s sheer existence depends on it. The least savvy of Web users will still click it. And they will get pissed off at your organization if your site robs them of the ability to use it.
Now go ahead. Click the Back button to find another blog entry to read. You know you want to.
If I have to open a new window, I use _new. It’s not a standard convention, but any future new window will only open in that one since it’s named.
Probably would still upset you ;), but hopefully not as much.
Comment by Alex Grosholz — April 20, 2006 @ 8:27 am
I guess my only response would be to ask why you would need to open a new window. Is it to serve you, or is it to serve your user?
Comment by Chris Peters — April 20, 2006 @ 3:20 pm
I’m going to have to sort of disagree with you (and our good friend Mr. Nielsen) on this one. I think that this functionality does serve a purpose. For example, take a look at Fark.com. Each of the links on this page opens in a new window. I actually appreciate this functionality because I will often click several at a time and let them load as I read them individually. Then I can simply close the new window and I am right back where I was ready to click more farking links.
I think the same thing holds true for embedding links in things like blog posts. I typically want to view the link, but also don’t want to stop reading the post it is embedded in. Therefore, will either right-click or shift click these links to open a new window. I admit that this is a personal preference. Just my two cents.
Comment by EGM — May 5, 2006 @ 10:59 pm