target _blank…where was I?
Ever come across a site that launches all types of windows on your computer? If your not using Firefox, as you should be 
, you might not even notice that you are being assaulted with various windows popping up on each click that you make. I’ve come across a couple sites that make the mistake of not going the distance and checking all of the links to make sure that they all stay within the same window. Numerous sites overlook this creating a endless barrage of new windows while navigating through their sites. Its a simple concept that is overlooked is bad web design.
Its all about having a website take control over your computer. Everyone wants control over the page they are browsing through. Yet some designers/developers feel the need to use JavaScript or some other coding language to resize a window or keep it at a certain size. My personal opinion is to stay out of the users ability to control what is on a site. Once we starting forcing the user to either keep the window open or do something they don’t necessarily want we create a negative user experience.
Why is this negative? Well think of it this way. Say a user is browsing the web in a small window while working on other things on their screen. they open your website and BAM! it resizes to the full width and hight of their screen. Although we would like to think when someone is going to your site that they will have no distractions and become totally focused on what you have created for them. This is rarely the case. With the emergence of multi-tab browsing your site is probably one of the multiple sites the user is currently browsing.
The work around is to hint at the idea of allowing full screen or auto resize by a button or witty line implying that their experience will be a whole lot cooler. Once we stray from the idea that the user/visitor should be in total control we lose positive experience points.
Through design and layout we work to guide the user through a site not force them to take a path. Let them choose…
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