[thelist] is window.open evil? (or at least unfriendly?)

[kevin D. white]

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You are really opening up a can of worms here Cheryl.  The subject of
pop-up's tends to yield very polarized comments.  Here's my opinion.....

The first thing I would advise is that most interaction design decisions
are user/audience specific.  This means that observing and understanding
the actual people who use your design is the best way to answer your
question about pop-ups.  The goal is to make an interaction design &
architecture is relevant to the task, allows the user to achieve their
explicit/implicit goals with minimal effort, and has a learning curve that
is proportional to the task an benefit.  In interaction design Consistency
and Specificity and paramount.  Your questions lead me to believe that you
are trying to achieve exactly that.  Bravo.  Making sure the user gets what
they need is one key component of a successful site.

There are plenty of examples of very successful sites that use pop-ups and
those that don't.  I think anyone would have a very difficult time arguing
that pop-ups are all bad/good.  Your concerns are possible alternatives are
solid and show real concern for the overall user experience.  My final
advice to engage in some quick+dirty user investigation with your actual
users.

I doubt that really answered your questions but I hope it helps anyway. :)

- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Cheryl Baringer" <cheryl.baringer at alcatel.com>
: My initial thoughts were:
:  - Internet users are accustomed to using the Back button, so would know
: how to return to the previous page
:  - Breadcrumbs and sufficient menus would provide another way to return
: to the main page.
:  - Spawning a new window that contains its own navigation allows users
: to create a "sub-history" that is lost when the window is closed to
: return to the original document.
:  - Would these type of windows be killed by the "popup killers" out
there?
:
: Has anyone seen any statistics regarding the
: usefulness/usability/painfulness of opening a new window to present the
: linked content?


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