The main problem with enforcing links to open in new windows is that this decision overrules user’s decision to control the view in their browser. Since users need to be placed in control of the interface they are interacting with, it is wrong to make decisions for them as designer’s decisions don’t necessarily match users’ decisions. Why enforcing opening links in new windows is wrong The more obstacles there are the more negative the user experience will be.Īs designers, it is our decision to provide users with a clear, unambiguous choice, but we have no right to decide for users which choice they make. In fact, developers often tend to forget a simple, almost elementary fact: if users want to close the application or leave a site, they will - doesn’t matter which obstacles are placed on their path to the exit-button. Although the rationale behind stems from some clear commercial objectives and therefore often preferred by project managers, it is the designer’s duty to make clear to managers that users do not care. As designers, it is our duty to design the system to make users the initiators of actions rather than the responders.ĭesigners are tempted to enforce users to actually use the interface or browse through the site they have created. Any deviations from this convention result in a more design-oriented and less user-oriented design.Īs Shneiderman claims, experienced users strongly desire the sense that they are in charge of the system and that the system responds to their actions. Users must know, understand and anticipate what is going on and what will happen once user interface elements are used. Users need to be able to rely on consistency of the user interface and know that they won’t be distracted or disrupted during the interaction. Bruce Tognazzini ( First Principles of Interaction Design)Ĭlaim that a user-friendly and effective user interface places users in control of the application they are using.
Theo Mandel ( User Interface Design Principles).Ben Shneiderman ( 8 Golden Rules of Interface Design),.Leading user interface and usability researchers such as Place users in controlįrom the usability point of view the decision to enforce opening links in new windows violates one of the fundamental principles of the user interface design: users should always be in control of the interface they are interacting with. That’s not user-friendly, and that’s not a good user experience we, web designers, strive for. Furthermore, some visitors may not even realize that a new window was opened and hit the back-button mercilessly - without any result.
Users also don’t like to deal with dozens of opened tabs and some visitors tend to become quickly angry with the disabled back button. Visitors of less-heavy-linkage-sites are more likely to open some particular link in new window to remain on the site and continue to browse through it afterward. Visitors to the sites with heavy linking are more willing to have links opened in new windows then open dozens of links in new windows manually.
At first glance the decision to open links in new windows or not depends on the given site and the preferences of its visitors.