Benji writes in the comments:
That is an absolutely wonderful link, but can I persuade you not to use links that open in a new window. If the user wants to open a link in a new window, in the modern day, they can. It is also, with great respect, unlikely that they will need to refer back to this summary in the course of reading the article, and then there is the back button.
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/beware-opening-links-new-window
Sorry, pet peeve!
While I tend to disagree with Benji (I prefer sites that spawn new links in a new tab), this nonetheless got me thinking. There are other opinions out there that suggest that opening new links in new tabs/windows is a bad practice, but I’ve never felt it as such. Some call it a grievous violation of usability standards.
From what I can tell, the primary argument against new tabs or windows is that they don’t allow the user to own his or her browsing experience, as these new spawns represent unrequested elements to the user’s browsing session. They also disable the ubiquitous back button, as the new tab/window spawns with no history and thus must be closed by the user. If a user wants a new window or tab in today’s modern browsing world, it’s a right-click away, the logic says. Don’t assume the user wants another tab or window. Haven’t we learned anything from the ugly days of rampant pop-ups?
I see it a little differently.
If I navigate to a given site, I want to be there; I’ve chosen to be there. When I click an external within that site, it’s often out of curiosity, and I don’t necessarily want the original page to which I navigated to be lost under the chaff of everything else I decide to click. The assumption that I’m done on that page is a bad one, and I’m constantly annoyed with sites that automatically do that.
Can I simply click back to return to my original page? Yes. But how is that less troublesome than closing a new window or tab that has been spawned?
In fact, it could be more troublesome. Let’s assume I open Daring Fireball, one of my daily reads. If John Gruber presents a link I find interesting and I click it, his HTML takes me to the new link within the current tab/window and away from Daring Fireball. So I go to the new link. I read what I want to. Perhaps I click another link or two on the new site to which Daring Fireball led me.
When I decide I’m done with that diversion and want to return back to Daring Fireball (because I never said I was done, did I?), I might be two or three clicks of the back button away. I might be even more, depending on how much I dicked around on the external link that Gruber presented me. Regardless, I have to click back several times or dig around my history to return to Daring Fireball.
Had the external link opened in a new tab (as I have Firefox set to do), I simply would close that tab, and I could return to Daring Fireball, which would be waiting for me in its original tab. To me, that’s clean and convenient. If I spider away from a page I navigate to, I want just that: a spidering. I don’t want a linear progression. I think that metaphor lost a lot of its relevance when tabbed browsing became mainstream.
I will submit that I could be either (a) missing something, or (b) simply in the web usability minority. Perhaps it’s both, because many of my favorite sites — Daring Fireball, kottke, Boing Boing, John Battelle’s Searchblog, Mike Lee, FSJ, among others — all have external links coded to open in the same tab/window. This is a pretty distinguished list.
I’m open to being set straight. My preferences very well might be oceans away from that of my readership, hence this post.
Aside from the prevailing “wisdom” surrounding this issue, what are your thoughts? Why is it cleaner and more user-friendly to perhaps bury a site the user wants to spend some time on with however many pages of external links he or she chooses to click? Why is it not easier just to spawn a new tab — a sandbox of sorts — let the user do what he will within that spawn, and simply close it out to return to the source site unfettered? Is the notion that the user can simply right-click Open Link In New Tab the end-all answer to this? Does web usability unflinchingly dictate that the user has the tools (the right-click, in this case) to control his browsing session, and that taking that away is a cardinal sin?
I think I might be answering my own question here, as I write this post and slog through the logic, even though it doesn’t mesh with my browsing habits.
Do I need to be done learnt a lesson? Tell me in the comments.
15 responses so far ↓
Paul Walker // January 14, 2008 at 3:23 am |
My thought is that unless the opened web-page requires the existing web page to be open (like in a few web apps), you should use standard links.
There are a few reasons for this:
1. There is no “Open in this window” link in context menus, for any browser (afaik), and while it is possible to drag a link into the address bar to open it in the same window in many browsers – it’s a seldom used trick. Thus, links that open in new windows effectively remove the choice for them not to. (in other words, the new tab & window menu items are the be-all & end-all of this)
2. Tabs
A growing proportion of browsers have tabbed browsers, and the example of your blog is an excellent one of their use. Since the pages are related – opening them in a new window is possibly the worst behaviour, as people would prefer they open in tabs. Unfortunately, afaik, there is no standard way of opening a window in a new tab. ( your post seems to imply that your site opens new tabs for external links – for me (safari), it opens windows.
3. Different.
Opening in the same browser window is the standard browser behaviour, and it’s the expected one. If people want pages to open in new windows, they’ll know it, and they can do it themselves.
4. Internal links can be just as tangental. For example, your link ‘in the comments’. Thus a simple external = new window is insufficient.
The reverse is true as well. For example, once I clicked on that link – I found your post “Jimmy Carter: I Got What America Needs Right Here”. That post ends with a link to the web page you quote. It will be, for almost for almost all users, an end for the page – but yet it opens in a new page by default, and cannot easily be opened in one.
The main thread through these points is choice. Different people browse differently, and ‘open in new page’ links interfere with that. For example, users of IE6 are more likely to open pages in the same window & then press the back button, as they don’t have tabs available, while Firefox users will more likely open more links in new tabs. But your use of links that open in new windows do not make it any easier for these people – as they will not know that it would open in a new page until they click. if they actually want to open it in a new window – they’ll never know it at all!
Nerg // January 14, 2008 at 4:59 am |
In some respects it’s contextual. An internal link should open in the same window. External links should open in a new window. That’s my preference. I’ve toyed with both on my blog, but my gut tells me ‘open in a new window’ I haven’t finished with where I came from.
I may even minimise the new window and return to it later – not often though, it’s not terribly convenient. That’s how I browse.
My left hand is on the key board any way and years of muscle memory make hitting ‘apple-w’ a lot easier than moving my mouse unnecessarily up to the back button. Moving the mouse takes my focus away from what I’m reading and is much more intrusive than a new window.
Could be I’m wrong, but a new window makes more sense to me. If a book cross references, I have to get the other book. May be the analogy isn’t great, but web book marks, don’t really work like physical book marks, and web pages are not book pages.
Additionally, the majority of users will not alter the preferences of the browser they use, so ‘we’ have some responsibility towards their experience on a site.
However, I find pages opening in the same window highly annoying.
What do I know?
Jennifer // January 14, 2008 at 8:43 am |
Personally, i always check where the link will open – (it tells me in the status bar at the bottom) new window or not. If I am done at a page i usually open in the same window, or, more often, i will crtl+click on it so i have control on whether i want it opening in a new window or tab…usually tab. I don’t understand why this is a big deal. I have total control over my browsing experience…its called look at the status bar.
Kurazaybo // January 14, 2008 at 12:15 pm |
Not every link tells you where it is going to open, for example when target=”_blank” is used nothing special is displayed anywhere and the user has no choice. I prefer choosing the behavior individually for each link. I must admit my habits might not be representative, I’m used to Opera, which can be configured to open everything in tabs and never open another window (one of my biggest complaints with Firefox). I always use the middle click to pen things in a new tab, I find using the context menus or the keyboard in conjunction with the mouse click to be cumbersome for me.
I think link should have always the standard behavior unless it is strictly necessary to change it, that’s the only way to assure the user will know what to expect.
What I really can not stand is the javascript pop ups for accessing content that is relevant to the page, like related photogalleries and such and when tha technique is used along with a behavior that allows to have only one secondary window, replacing the content when you click another link.
Benji // January 14, 2008 at 8:47 pm |
“I think link should have always the standard behavior unless it is strictly necessary to change it, that’s the only way to assure the user will know what to expect.”
That is exactly my opinion. There are two components to the problem with open-new-window links: it removes choice, and is unpredictable.
I find it hard to decide which of these usability sin is worse: preventing the user from being able to predict what is going to happen, or preventing them from being able to control it. Each is dire; combined they are grievous.
Alex Klein // January 16, 2008 at 2:00 am |
Jeff, I think you are spot on. I have links set to automatically open in new windows, and I would never go back.
Lorelle VanFossen // January 18, 2008 at 1:39 pm |
There is a point slightly overlooked in this discussion. It is the definition of “Web Standards”, the “rules” that guide web page design and function. In legaleeze, a standard is a practice that is the norm, thus becomes the rule.
For many years, it was the norm, thus the “way it is supposed to be done”, thus the rule to NOT open links in a new window/tab. You’ve mentioned some of the justification, but such links make your site “fail” web standard tests.
Sure, it fails accessibility standards, but such links aren’t accessible or usable, but research many have done over the years says that popups and links that open in a new window/tab are among the top on the most hated things on the web.
As mentioned, links that act like links and open when you click them are “expected” and behaving properly. As Benji says, it also takes control away from the user.
According to web standards for accessibility, you are required to note when a link will open in a new window/tab. That’s an easy bit of CSS or a article name (opens in new window) added to each link. If you are going to choose to break link convention, then at least adhere to the rule for warning users.
On a lighter note, it always cracks me up to watch people treat web standards, rules there for a reason whether we agree or not, set by people with more education, experience, and expertise than we have who have spent years arguing and defining these, like speeding laws. As if the road speed limit sign is there as a recommendation.
That just doesn’t fly as a good enough excuse in small towns with speed traps. 
A7 // April 26, 2008 at 10:16 pm |
You can command+click or something to get the link in a new window/tab, instead of right clicking.
I mention this because, in your article, right-click sounds more inconvenient than this method I propose, hence blurring the simplicity of Benji’s argument.
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Miss J // July 17, 2008 at 10:21 am |
Funny I should happen upon this while searching for a way to FORCE links to open in the same tab! Having internal links on a site open a new tab annoys the bejeesus out of me. I shouldn’t have a forest of tabs to close just from browsing around on a single web site. If I want to open a link in a new tab, I’ll right click on it and do it myself, thank you very much.
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