compartmentalization
29 September 2005, 11:22 amI’ve been struggling with the issue of how anonymous this site is or isn’t. I even considered starting up a separate web usability journal that would be “safe” to share with my customers.* By “safe,” I mean mostly that I wouldn’t be exposing my customers to political beliefs that I hold strongly, and with which they might disagree.
I also would rather that prospective clients and/or employers, at the very least, find my business website and portfolio before they find this site. I never bring up politics (or social issues) in a workplace, and I can hold my tongue and say something polite when someone else starts a conversation — but this site might not create that impression.
But after thinking long and hard about it, I’ve decided to let it go a little bit. If someone is so opinionated on an issue that my judgement on unrelated technical matters is called into question (or that my willingness to keep my personal politics out of the workplace is irrelevant) — well, maybe that someone is working for an organization the effectiveness of which I’d rather not help improve.
* for example, I’ve been itching to write an essay to try to convince my customers not to open links in new windows on sites I build for them. I can always point them to Jakob Nielsen, but there’s a more marketing-oriented point I want to make:
The primary metric of ROI on the Web has moved from page impressions, to click-throughs, and on to conversions. There was a business case to be made for keeping visitors “on” a site against their will when success was measured in page impressions (also when visitors were less familiar with the “Back” button, and when browsers didn’t let visitors choose to open links in new windows/tabs as easily as they do now).
The value of opening links in new windows (except in specialized circumstances) is based on a long-outdated ROI model, but many small businesses still insist on it.
(Only it was going to be longer, and have a pithy title)
Update
First and foremost, some disambiguation: when I said I wanted to “convince my customers not to open links in new windows on sites I build for them,” I meant to exclude customers for whom I only provide hosting services. If you’ve been participating in this discussion, I’m not trying to tell you how to run your website. If there’s been any confusion on that point, I apologize.
I’m also grateful to everyone who’s commented for sparking thought about how good usability practice might be different for websites with different fundamental goals and different usage patterns.
Folks like Nielsen have long recommended that where a link must open in a window, a warning to that effect accompany the link. They argue that the warning needs to be in close visual proximity to the link itself to be effective, rather than elsewhere on the website. More specifically, to serve the needs of visually impaired users, the warning should precede the link.
Google’s Gmail service uses a nifty “New Window” icon:
If such an icon catches on widely, it could be inserted inline in the text before the link (with a appropriate alt-tag). Unfortunately, very similar icons are also used by other software for enlarging images or expanding content, so right now I think that approach would create confusion.
I also think that as we move toward “Web 3.0,” we might see increased use of “Options” menus on the Web that let visitors customize the behavior of websites according to their preferences. Visitors could maintain a global preference file that websites could read in addition to per-site customization options. I think that’s the ultimate solution — let visitors make the Web work the way they want.
There are still a lot of challenges to overcome. I think we’re near the beginning of a massive paradigm shift in how we see the Web. In the past, browser software has been applications that exchange data with websites. In the future, websites will be applications that use the browser to exhange data with visitors.
(This transition could fail, though, if the process is onerous for users. Flickr’s learning curve isn’t terribly steep, but learning to use Flickr doesn’t make learning to use Gmail any easier. I think Web 2.0 needs to evolve consensus standards so that each webapp doesn’t have a unique learning curve.)
It’s funny, I get annoyed when a link DOESN’T open in a new window. In fact, if I’m on a site like yours where I know they won’t, I do a right-click to select “open link in new window.” I guess you would probably argue that people with my freakish predilection could just always do that as a matter of course…
I will add that when I do sites for clients, I do not have the links open in a new window unless they specifically ask for it. On my business site (interbridge.com), no new windows are spawned, either. But on my blog, all the links do open in new windows, because that’s my preference, and it’s my own little world, so I can do what I want. ;)
Interesting. My test these days is the “Irrevocable Coffee Principle” — I can always water it down if it’s too strong for me, but if it’s too weak for you, you’re stuck. So I try to avoid sticking users with irrevocable behaviors they might not want. I also think, as a high-level design principle, it’s generally good to give users more control over a site’s behavior, as long as it’s non-burdensome.
Right now, with an extra keypress you can get the behavior you want, so I haven’t done anything irrevocable. Theoretically, you could even write a Greasemonkey script to automatically open any external link on my site in a new window. That would be burdensome (and I don’t endorse Greasemonkey), but I hope the next major generation of browsers gives users that level of control more elegantly.
On the other hand, many sites are built not only to open links in new windows automatically, but also to prevent users from suppressing that behavior if they want to.
Tabbed browsing has revolutionized the way I use the Web. There are two cases in which I think the idea of splitting a task into a new context is useful (one of which is common in personal sites like yours and mine):
In both of those cases I used to open new windows. Now I always open in a new tab if I’m given the option. I love tabs because they put all of my Web browser activity in one place in the Windows Task Manager; as soon as I have multiple windows open, it’s harder for me to find the particular window I’m looking for.
There was some good related discussion recently at Berkun Blog, both in the initial discussion of Scott Berkun’s switch to Firefox and in a follow-up post.
I use Firefox too; I usually have at least four tabs open on my main browser at any given time, and I use them if I’m doing research for work, etc. But if I’m just reading somebody’s blog, or a webzine like Salon, most links *are* tangential, which is why I prefer to open them in a discrete window for reading later, or just taking a quick look at something and then closing it right away.
I like Opera too, ’specially since they just ditched the paid-registration model.
I tend to agree with Sue - my site, frinstance, opens links in new windows (when I remember to code them that way: I’m too unsophisticated to figure out a way to make them automagically do so). My thinking is similar to Sue’s: you’re in the middle of something, there’s a link to something else interesting, so you open it to save it for later, continue what you’re doing, then read it afterwards. Actually, if everyone used Firefox, I’d have links open in new tabs rather than new windows.
At the same time I agree that my decision to render my page that way reduces user choice. On the other hand (I think that’s the third one) since I’m talking about a personal website, not a business one, I’m not worried about losing “business.” I suppose someone might be pissed if a link opened a new window and they didn’t want it to - in 1996, I probably would have been, since too many open windows crashed browsers in smaller operating environments - but that’s rarely a problem now. (I haven’t tried to see how many different windows I can open at once w/o causing problems - probably won’t either…)
But certainly, if I were doing your job, I’d want to advise clients on the negatives of having links open in new windows.
Jeez. Y’all put me in an untenable position. On one hand, I have unilateral feedback from the user population that says one thing.
The guru of my discipline says the eggzack opposite — but then, he also urges testing, assessing, and making changes on the basis of user input.
And while this may not be a business site per se, I still want it to reflect good usability practice as best I can within WordPress (despite the deliberately thorny taxonomy, which I’ve anyway been thinking about abandoning).
And before someone brings it up: yes, the link colors went totally blooey when I enabled lists in comments. Not sure why, but I will fix it. Just not today. I’ll eventually cobble together some form of comment preview, too, I swear.
Count me in on the “open in new window” crowd - I do the same thing as Sue and 2fs when browsing (open the link interesting looking links in a new tab to look at later). Although I have to point out that’s only because of Firefox and tabs. When using Internet Explorer, I prefer not to have a new window created.
On the RoF site, I’ve got popup windows for band member reflections on the recordings of each song. I did it at the time mainly to be cutesy and because I wanted to try my hand at programming popups. If I were putting the site together today, I would not do it that way. Someday I may go back and change it.
I admit it: I used to do the old target=_blank when I started my own website because, little narcissist that I am, I didn’t want people to depart for good if they decided to click on a link. But I eventually realized that I hate it when new windows open when I’m not expecting them to. HAAAAAAAAAAAAATE it. I think it has to do with an “expected behavior” model: I expect links to open in the same window because that was how the Web worked when I began using it and for the most part is how it continues to work. If I want to open a link in a new tab, I will make that happen with my darling Firefox and the Command or Control key. But it will be my choice. If I want to open a link in the same tab and it spawns a new window, Katie bar the door.
The obvious solution (and I may well implement it at my own site) is to have a notice stating that links will open in new windows. While it’s a pain in the ass, if someone really wants to open a link in the same window, they can always right-click and save the location then paste it.
I wasn’t aware that people really felt strongly about this. I tend to manipulate windows by keystrokes; it’s so little effort, I rarely even notice whether a new window is open and I closed it, or if I stayed on the same page and just went back. My fingers do it, and it never hits consciousness.
On the bigger subject of anonymity, though, this is a bit long, but some of the stuff on anonymity is really worth a read. http://www.russellbeattie.com/notebook/1008640.html I think it also describes in passing a lot of the reasons why I never stick with mailing lists or forums for long before I get annoyed.
Turns out it’s a religious debate!. Who knew?
Danke. On the flip side, I thought Dick Hardt’s “Identity 2.0″ presentation (the 15-minute keynote speech at OSCON 2005) was worth the hassle involved in viewing it:
Identity 2.0