[Sigia-l] "close window" links in pop-ups

[Dave Collins]

>> It is easy to create a web browser window that has no close button at
>> all: Merely open IE in kiosk mode.
>
>For those not following the context of this thread :-), the question is
not
>what the sophisticated user can do with his own browser (i.e. start IE
in
>...
>Though I'm no IE expert, I'm not familiar with causing a running IE to
>switch to kiosk mode without the user's cooperation. So. technically,
my
>...

Naturally. This thread went out-of-context when the original question
was altered to become "Web browser created with no Close button *at
all*". Now that the digressive thread has played out, we return you to
your regularly-programmed thread.


>Beyond that, I'd love to see a study on the percentage of users who
don't
>know how to close an IE window, via the standard close button. My
assumption
>is that it's not "quite common" and, where valid, other problems more
>serious than that would be of greater concern.

If I were to conduct a study in my own home, I would get a result of
50%. My wife uses a computer quite a lot, yet because she is not
interested in "learning" to use a computer, she does not necessarily
know things like the red button in the upper right corner. She uses
menus - they have words. Once she learned how to close an application
there was never any reason for her to look for another method.

I grant that your examples (mouse control, dragging, clicking, deleting,
back button, drop-down menus) contain some items that are in the same
category as closing a window. True, we may not be able to address all
such items, but how many of them can be so trivially averted by the
inclusion of a single link? Surely, we at least fix what we can.


Dave