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SciStarter / Circuit

Manages a network of opportunities for public engagement in science.
https://sciencenearme.org/
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ScienceNearMe → generic issue (external links) #226

Closed ElMounRo closed 1 year ago

ElMounRo commented 1 year ago

External links aren't opening in a new tab.

kevinripka-uiowa commented 1 year ago

@ElMounRo I guess we should open a new tab to retain their place. It's actually not good internet manners to open a new tab...

kevinripka-uiowa commented 1 year ago

@darcav1 do you want to weigh in here? Open new tab or not? Here's a good article about the matter: https://uxdesign.cc/linking-to-a-new-tab-vs-same-tab-f88b495d2187 @ElMounRo

darcav1 commented 1 year ago

+Daniel? what do you think? I thought "open in new tab" but after reading the article Kevin shared, I wonder if we should only open in a new tab under these exceptions??? "Exceptions The only time it is recommended that you open a link in a new tab is when opening in the same screen would interrupt a process (e.g. when a user is filling out a form or viewing a video).

Linking in the same tab or screen in these situations could cause the user to lose the work they’ve done or have to start over. Linking to a new tab in these cases can help the user find additional information without causing issues or forcing the user to start over."

SciStarter commented 1 year ago

I'm generally against opening new tabs. I've said as much before.

On Mon, Jan 9, 2023, at 1:31 PM, darcav1 wrote:

+Daniel? what do you think? I thought "open in new tab" but after reading the article Kevin shared, I wonder if we should only open in a new tab under these exceptions??? "Exceptions The only time it is recommended that you open a link in a new tab is when opening in the same screen would interrupt a process (e.g. when a user is filling out a form or viewing a video).

Linking in the same tab or screen in these situations could cause the user to lose the work they’ve done or have to start over. Linking to a new tab in these cases can help the user find additional information without causing issues or forcing the user to start over."

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kevinripka-uiowa commented 1 year ago

I'm also generally against. I know we do it on SciStarter...

ElMounRo commented 1 year ago

Not to add more confusion, but this article argues for opening external links in new tabs:

_Back-button fatigue: "Every time the user goes to an external website they have to hit the back button to go back to your website. If they decide to click the links on the other website, they have to hit the back button even more times to get back to your site."

_Overworking the website: "Every time the user goes back to your website it uses your site resources to load the page. You can save a lot of resources by opening external links in new tabs. If the user wants to go back to your website, they won’t need to load the page again. They can just click your site tab. This is fast and easy and doesn’t use any bandwidth."

_Inaccurate analytics: "Many times users will click an external link in the paragraph of an article to better understand the article’s context. This doesn’t mean they want to leave your site without having finished reading the article. However, your site analytics will show a different story. If your external links open in the same tab, it’ll show that users are exiting your site quicker than they actually are. This is because the external link takes users completely off your site when the link opens in the same tab. However, an external link that opens in a new tab will still keep your site tab opened as the user visits the external site. Their time on your site ends when they manually exit out of your site tab, not when they visit an external link."

SciStarter commented 1 year ago

I don't find these arguments convincing. They are all predicated on the idea that the user will be coming back to the site in short order. That's not the safe assumption generally, and if a user is planning on coming back quickly, they will probably open the link in a new tab anyway.

If the user is not planning to come back quickly, then opening the link in a new tab is annoying for them, and results in over-inflated time-on-site analytics.

SciStarter commented 1 year ago

After talking it over with Darlene, the general policy is going to be that external links open in new tabs, while internal links do not.

ElMounRo commented 1 year ago

Noted, thanks.