D. Keith Robinson's Gorilla Web Tips

Tip Number Ten - Launching New and Pop-up Windows

September 29th, 2003

The Near Death of the Pop-Up

There was a time, as little as three years ago, when it was considered a good idea to open a new browser window with every link off a particular site. Some felt it enhanced the user experience by letting the user know they were leaving your site, others felt it would guarantee a user spent more time on your site and still others employed this method because it became a kind of unwritten rule.

As we know, there are no rules on the Web, and even if this was a good idea, times have changed considerably since then and no for the most part this is no longer true.

Users have become more savvy, there is no need to trick them into staying on your site, in fact launching a new window with every off-site click can be considered downright annoying, actually forcing users to leave. The saturation of the pop-up ad on the Web has made matters even worse, your new window might be mistaken for such an ad and be immediately closed by the user, or if you use Javascript to launch your window, blocked by one of the numerous pop-up blocking techniques that are available with every browser these days.

No, for the most part, "Target=_dead", as Nick Finck said in a recent email about this very issue on Digital Web Magazine.

How To Handle Off-site Links

The average Web user has more experience and more knowledge than before, and with the advancement of new browser technology the need to "help" them deal with off-site links has become less important and easier to do at the same time. Most modern browsers (IE being the glaring exception) offer tabbed-browsing, which has become one of the "killer aps" for Web browsers. In addition, many users know how to use the browser well enough that they can open links in a new window, or tab, themselves if needed.

Pop-up blockers are another of these killer aps, and while they generally don't effect a simple launching of a new window, they will block JavaScript pop-ups and if not, in general you might find users often assume these new windows are junk ads and close them on launch.

The best way to handle an off-site link is to simply treat them as you would any other link. If you want to supply some sort of visual clue to the user that they are going off-site, that is a great way to go. This can be done fairly easily with CSS and will eliminate any confusion a user might have had. Don't worry about them not coming back from an off-site link. If they're getting any use out of your site, they'll know how to get back (via the back button or URL) to your site, and if not you'll need to go back and address your content and goals.

Your users come to your site for a reason, keeping them there when they are wanting to look elsewhere is often detrimental to the tasks they are trying to accomplish online and can reflect badly on you and your site. If your users want, or need to leave, let them. If your site is worth it they'll be back.

When Pop-Ups are Okay

As with almost everything on the Web, there are at least two sides and every rule is really just a guideline. There are times when it makes sense to use a pop-up or launch a new window. A few of those times are:

When launching a non-HTML document such as a Word doc, PDF or PowerPoint.
When launching some Web-based applications. Things like calendars, calculators, scoreboards, tickers and the like.
When launching certain types of images. Very large images or things like maps or graphs might be best opened in a new window.

There may be more, when in doubt -- test. A good thing to remember is to make sure and let your user know when you are going to be launching a new window and if possible what that window is for. If you are launching a PDF, tell your users that. This is an absolute must if you are using JavaScript as you may need the user to turn off their pop-up blocker.

Pop-ups A Thing of The Past?

The Web is evolving. It's growing up before our eyes and we're learning more and more about it, both users and designers, as time goes on. What was once a rule might now be a mistake. Launching new windows, while it won't cause your site to be a failure, was once a commonly used practice that today is simply not needed in most situations. The arguments for this practice are dated, have been proved misguided and/or no longer relevant.

As with everything, it depends on the situation, but in general, the days of pop-ups and launching every off-site link in a new window are over.

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