For the majority of websites that we work on, clients tend to request that external links open in a new browser window so visitors are not lost to other sites.
On first inspection, this may appear to be a reasonable request and that the client’s wishes may hold water. However, and this may sound controversial, we don’t develop sites for the client, we develop sites for the client’s users; after all, it’s the users that have to use the site (the term ‘users’ is a bit of a giveaway really). For the majority of target audiences, basic principles of usability that have stood the test of time within our ever changing and fast moving digital industry can be applied. So, here’s why when the client says “I want all external links to open in a new browser window”, the discussion begins!
At Mixd we build to the highest accessibility and usability standards, and follow 2 main sets of guidelines:
- W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) XHTML strict validation
- WCAG2.0 (World Content Accessibility Guidelines) level AA and in part AAA
We advise against forcing any on-site links to open in a new window, as to do so would invalidate both of the above. From a usability point of view, forcing this upon the user is considered bad practice and all modern browsers give the user the option to open in a new tab or browser window if they wish to do so.
A huge percentage of web users navigate using the browser’s back button. New window links mean that the back button stops working; often leaving the user confused or even worse, annoyed. Instead of keeping users from leaving your site, it may have the opposite effect by preventing them from returning when they actually want to. With certain pop-up blockers enabled, external links may not open properly either. Furthermore, new windows may also open in the background and not be seen at all by the user.
Instead of opening in a new window, we suggest adding ‘(external link)’ or a symbol after external links to indicate to the user the links which will make them leave your site.
Jakob Neilsen (largely considered the world’s foremost web usability expert) mentioned this in points 1 and 2, back in 1999 and this is as true now as it was back then; http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990530.html
