Comments on: Web Design Podcast (8) – Jakob Nielsen

By: Walter Allred

Walter Allred — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 23:23:24 +0000

I just wanted to say that I thought this was one of the funnier episodes.

By: lee

lee — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 16:54:44 +0000

periscope
.. is a brand managment/development agency .. they take your brand and help you with every single aspect of it .. from in-house communication to PR and so on .. and they do marvelous work, too ..
but i guess you are absolutely right that it is very hard to get this off their site :)
nice work, guys .. i’m working my way up from episode one .. absolutely marvelous so far! keep it up!

By: Chip

Chip — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 16:51:15 +0000

Excellent podcast guys, keep up the good work. I have an addition that would probably come in at about number 197 for most people, but is still annoying and easily avoided. I refer to the fact that on many sites, an entire paragraph every so often will 'pretend' to be a link when you hover over it. The reason for this seems to be lax design. In the CSS they will define that all Anchor tags shall be underlined neon pink italics [or similar] as a hover style . The side effect of this is if they use an [A name="foo"] tag to allow people to jump right to that paragraph from a link, and then enclose the entire paragraph in the tag (which is distressingly common); the entire block of text takes the hover attributes they intended to be for links. The easy solution for this to my way of thinking would be to either define a 'link' class in the CSS, and then make the links [a style='link' href=~etc~] or, if this is too much work for them, to include just the first word of the paragraph in the name anchor. I have had several pages where the entire page flashes madly between red underlined 12 point bold, and black normal 10 point unless I crank the mouse pointer off to the far extremes of the browser window so it doesn't 'hover' over their sacred texts. Not really a serious accessibility issue, but a severe usability issue. I imagine for someone with motor and/or co-ordination problems it could become a matter of accessibility however.

By: Chris Jennings

Chris Jennings — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 21:39:46 +0000

Didn’t mean to imply that YOU would use ‘target’. Just meant, that some do!
Sorry I didn’t convince you but anyway……
Keep up the good work – nice site by the way ..

By: Paul Boag

Paul Boag — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 18:04:51 +0000

All good points. You still havent convinced me one way or another yet. I think there is probably a place for new windows... btw, notice that this site doesnt use target to open new windows. We use Javascript instead so that I could easily drop the feature if I wanted to... see I plan ahead for my changes in mind ;)

By: Chris Jennings

Chris Jennings — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 17:54:54 +0000

As a MAC user, I am quite used to my browser only taking up part of my screen. In fact, it is not easy to make the browser window full size. On the other hand, most Windows users that I have observed (actually everyone other than me just about!), always hit the little full size window icon top right.
So, most Windows users (actually most of our customers) see the web page covering the whole screen. Opening ANY link in a new window is a disaster for them because most people don’t know that they have covered one window with another. I have seen people go back to Google and restart their search to refind the original page! It would be nice if the hidden window could remind them that it is there somehow (yes, I know it’s on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen).
So, what I say, is don’t open in a new window at all ever, unless it is a popup made specifically for a purpose like enlarged images etc. (these should be made to close when the their focus is lost). Of course, popups is another debate.
Another thing: the use of ‘target’ in a link is deprecated in XHTML.

By: Paul Boag

Paul Boag — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 15:40:20 +0000

Yeah, I know what you mean. I am so torn over this one. I honestly don't think there is a right or wrong answer over this one. I guess it is dependant on audience etc. Actually truth be told, i probably shouldnt open in a new window on this site as everybody that uses the site is more than capable of making that decision by themselves.

By: Mathew Patterson

Mathew Patterson — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 15:35:33 +0000

Personally I find it intensely annoying when sites keep opening new windows. Specifically because it breaks out of my nice tabbed browser into another instance that I don’t want.
Most people on the internet are probably not in the same situation, but I do think that when a link takes them in the same window to another site, they understand what has happened and how to get back.
However, if a new windows covers the old one, the back button doesn’t work and they get lost. I’ve seen this in usability tests more than once.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 22:30:45 +0000

“Opening a new window can prove very confusing for many people. Not everybody notices it has happened and can be confused by the fact that the back button does not work.”
Hmm. Interesting. I mean I will have to agree. Most of the people I troubleshoot with have no concept about multitasking with Windows. They have no idea that they can check mail in one window, and surf the net in the other.
Thanks! I must ponder this…
~~
Scott

By: Paul Boag

Paul Boag — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 09:13:57 +0000

Hmm… I have to say I am not sure I agree with your article Scott. Firstly I believe you should never frame another persons content full stop. Even if you have their permission you are still going to suffer from the generic problems with frames.
Secondly, I am still not convinced you should always open a third party site in a new window (yes, I know I do but I am beginning to change my mind on this). Opening a new window can prove very confusing for many people. Not everybody notices it has happened and can be confused by the fact that the back button does not work.
To be honest I don’t think there is any wrong or right answer here but I would certainly avoid frames at all costs.