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Posted by Toby A Inkster on 02/21/07 11:19
idiotprogrammer wrote:
> I find this to be bothersome and contrary to current web trends. But I
> can find no articles or recommendations to back me up here.
"Research shows that most users don't like to run more than one
application at a time. In fact, many users are confused by multiple
applications."
Windows User Experience team, Microsoft Windows User Experience
Frequently Asked Questions: Why is the taskbar at the bottom of
the screen?, March 2001
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnwui/html/winuifaq.asp
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"Some people can use Windows applications for years without
understanding the concept of task switching. (When I point to the task
bar and ask them what it's for, they can't tell me.) (...) spawning
second browser windows can completely throw users off track because it
removes the one thing they are sure how to use: the 'Back' button.(...)
In another recent study, six out of 17 users had difficulty with
multiple windows, and three of them required assistance to get back to
the first window and continue the task."
Carolyn Snyder, Seven tricks that Web users don't know: 7. Second
browser windows, June 2001
http://www.snyderconsulting.net/article_7tricks.htm#7
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"Users often don't notice that a new window has opened, especially
if they are using a small monitor where the windows are maximized to
fill up the screen. So a user who tries to return to the origin will be
confused by a grayed out Back button."
Jakob Nielsen, The Top Ten New Mistakes of Web Design: 2. Opening
New Browser Windows, May 30, 1999
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990530.html
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"The biggest fault with pop-ups is that it takes the focus away from
the main browser window, and this can be disconcerting. It presents
general usability issues aside from accessibility. How often have you
seen someone launch a pop-up and then inadvertently click back on the
launcher window and thinking that nothing's happened, click the link
again with nothing happening? Of course the window has opened but is now
under the launcher window, and only moving down to the task-bar and
selecting the window from there will solve this."
Ian Lloyd, tutorial at Accessify.com, November 20th 2002
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"In all dominant browsers, using the <a target="_blank"> tag to force a
link to open in a new window breaks the Back button. The new window does
not retain the browser history of the previous window, so the "Back"
button is disabled. This is incredibly confusing, even for me, and I've
been using the web for 10 years. In 2002, it's amazing that people still
do this."
Mark Pilgrim, Dive Into Accessibility: not opening new windows, 2002
http://diveintoaccessibility.org/day_16_not_opening_new_windows.html
--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
Contact Me ~ http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact
Geek of ~ HTML/SQL/Perl/PHP/Python*/Apache/Linux
* = I'm getting there!
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