External Link - Icon & New Tab debate

[AlexVanK]

There has been a lot of talk recently about what the default behavior should be for links that point to a different domain.

Should they open in a new tab?

When should the external icon appear?

• Should it appear when a new tab is about to open?
• Should it appear when the target domain is different, even though the link does not open on a new tab?

  What does the external icon actually indicate?

  

• Does it indicate the domain is about to change?
• Does it indicate a new tab is about to open?

[AlexVanK]

Should they open in a new tab?

The team consensus seems to converge to the fact that links should not open automatically in a new tab even if the target domain is different. :white_check_mark: This is consistent with the "let the user decide" philosophy. - In fact the Design System does not deviate from this approach.

When should the external icon appear?

TBD

What does the external icon actually indicate?

:white_check_mark: The team consensus seems to converge to interpreting the icon as a change of domain (even though that is not the visual clue that icon seems to give). :question: So what is the icon to indicate that a new tab is about to open?

[emsaiz]

[still looking into this - but these are my thoughts so far]

When should the external icon appear?

• Option A: External links are handled on a case-by-case basis when deciding whether to open them in the same tab or a new one (default behavior is still open in same tab). This is how we're handling regular links (see Alessio's comment above)! It looks like USWDS might do this as well since they have two external link options in their design system.
• Option B: because the icon is ambiguous (and people conflate new tab + new domain) we make a rule that all external links open in a new tab. This is what NIAID does! See their external link guidance.
• Option C: external link means new domain and we use wording to indicate whether a link is opening in a new tab. VA Design System does something similar. Personally, don't think this will be maintainable or enforceable in the long run AND I can't even find an example of VA doing it on their own site!
• Option D: something else

Other Findings

• I found this UK.gov blog post explaining why they decided to remove all external link icons from their site. This isn't an option for our team since digital.gov requires gov sites to use external link icons but I thought it was interesting to see other teams have the same discussion!
• UK.gov also posted their team's git-hub discussion on the external link icon.
• One of their members pointed out that the external link icon can mean three things via google images (which to me highlights the ambiguity in general about this icon): (1) external link (2) new window (3) share

Sources

https://nih-my.sharepoint.com/:x:/g/personal/saizeg_nih_gov/EWA7ZPZ1folMmRsJrynLUmIBTNAR1WoSw0gupQL3IFrbhg?e=OcI8Vb

[emsaiz]

9/19 Decisions and Next Steps:

Decisions:

• Decision: external link icons mean NEW DOMAIN not necessarily new window. External links open in same tab except for specific use cases (guide, broken link form, decision tool)
• Decision: add more spacing between list items
• Decision: not taking people to the disclaimer page via icon

Next Steps:

• External icon link clean up: links on the site that have “blank” attribute need to be removed
• Clean up manually added external link icons
• Maybe add tooltip disclaimer for external links