[Sigia-l] Usability of launching new browser window?

[Laura Norvig]

I've found the responses to this question interesting. As a user, 
perhaps I'm in the minority but I really hate having to use the back 
button very much. It seems like a lot of mouse clicks and an awkward 
cognitive load of remembering where I came from. Of course there's 
the "Go" list to remind me, but that still forces my mindset into a 
linear model.

If I'm on Site A, and it provides me with a list of recommended 
links, I enjoy being able to check each link in a new window, having 
the two windows open so I can glance back at the list of links. This 
allows me to keep two concepts flowing at once - the recommended 
links and my own evaluation of each link.

I don't like having to take the extra step of telling the browser to 
open the link in a new window in order to force the scenario outlined 
above. The caveat is that it would be nice for each link to open in 
the SAME second window, rather than each link opening a new window 
(Again, this only applies to the particular scenario of browsing 
recommended links, but that's a fairly common scenario).

I don't buy the argument that opening a new window makes using the 
back button impossible. The first window is still there at the main 
site and still has it's history before that intact. If users are 
getting more savvy, they know that. And if developer's follow  Zia's 
recommendation to offset and size the new window it's even more 
obvious that that's the case.

-Laura

At 10:00 PM +0200 7/26/02, Eric Reiss wrote:
>I have started to advise my clients NOT to open a new window for
>links outside their domain. Although I still hear the well-known
>reasons for opening new windows (We don’t want them to leave our
>site) and wholeheartedly agree with Ziya’s recommendations if you
>insist on doing so, I think the world has changed the past few years.
>
>Quite simply, people seem to have become more confident web
>navigators and now feel comfortable using the back button. Opening a
>new window makes this impossible and is thus an inconvenience (though
>not as much as opening a new page within an existing frame).