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

[Simon Willison]

At 09:58 31/07/2002 +1200, Andrew McNaughton wrote:
> > Which reminds me, this whole discussion becomes pretty much academic when
> > you look at XHTML 1.0 (and above), which doesn't include the target=""
> > attribute at all :)
>
>Apart from compatibility with XML, the XHTML 1.0 spec is very little
>different from HTML 4.01.  In either case, target is not included in the
>'strict' version but is permitted in the 'transitional' and therefor the
>'frameset' versions.

That's a very good point - I only use XHTML Strict (force of habit I guess) 
so I'd forgotten that target="_blank" is allowed in transitional.

Getting back to whether or not external links should open in new windows, 
isn't one of the fundamental principles of user interface design the 
principle of "Minimal Surprise" ? It seems to me that the very fact that 
browsers can open links in a new window with no warning to the user that 
this is going to happen is extremely bad design on the part of browser 
manufacturers, especially when you consider the amount of confusion that it 
causes for users who do not fully understand the multi tasking nature of 
windows in the first place.

There is a proposed feature in Mozilla that should help fix this by adding 
an indicator to the status bar showing if a link will open in a new window 
(see here: http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14027 ) - however 
until all major browsers provide this kind of functionality I would have 
thought it safer to stick with links opening in the same window rather than 
add to (and encourage) this badly designed browser feature.

Hope that makes sense,

Simon