[MACCAWS] Outlinks (was: Wiki question)

On Sunday, July 21, 2002, at 09:59 PM, MJ Ray wrote:

> There are two ways to do this which are immediately obvious to me: 
> frames
> with a "come back to us" frame on top, sort of like about.com 
> uses, with a
> "go away" link that uses Javascript to move the lower frame to 
> full window
> if possible, or relinks as full window; or an interstitial "you 
> are leaving
> our site" page.  I know both "frames" and "interstitial" are 
> probably rude
> words in this group, though.

 From a UI perspective, the 'right' time to tell a user they're 
leaving your
site is *before* they click. If that's the issue, a simple 
square-bracket
parenthetical a la /. would suffice: [webstandards.org].

If letting them 'return' easily is the issue, then you can use 
target= to
open a new window if you're validating to Transitional or Frameset,
otherwise use an onclick= handler. Either can be short-circuited 
with right
(ctrl+) click.

Frames are just a Bad Idea in this context. The group isn't trying 
to hold
onto eyeballs, but to disseminate knowledge. No reason to keep 
'branding'
the group while the user is off doing exactly what you want them to:
learning more about standards.

> I suspect it depends on the users.  Many of the people who we need 
> to use
> the MACCAWS material in their presentations will be web 
> professionals and
> (in my experience), they do use new tabs and new windows as 
> needed, while
> being rather hypersensitive to bad design.

I concur. Whether to open a new window is a coin-toss; anything 
more is superfluous at best.


chris.kaminski { functionNewMedia :: <http://www.function.de> }