a question about website design/navigation preferences...

[ratcreature]

I know that links opening in a new window are reviled in most circumstances, and generally I agree with that, however personally when navigating fanart sites and the thumbnails just open an image, not a real page, I like if those open in a new window, so that's what I do on my site. However, it occurs to me that I may be in a minority with that preference, so I'm wondering whether I should change it to the image opening in the same window. Thus a poll:

[Poll #653473]

Comments

[brownbetty]

...but that's because my browser gives me good control over opening new windows whenever I want (middle-click) and same-window gives me the option to open in a new window, whereas target_blank takes it away from me. Really, the less customized a site is, the easier it is for me to make it conform to my whim with extensions and scripts and suck like.

[chicago-h.livejournal.com]

People *don't* like the new window? Hm, that's an odd one to me. I know I get irritated as all get out when someone directs me to a new site in the same window because dammit, I was looking at the original site and don't want to back track to the original. I think this matters whether you're dealing with a central menu/clearinghouse page, where you'd want the index available to you regardless of what links you follow, or if you're, say, reading a story, in which case, there's no good reason for each chapter to have its own window.

[dawnglider.livejournal.com]

I don't terribly mind images opening in a new window, but I do like a note warning me that it's going to happen. (Although I do like it if you can make the image open in a new tab rather than a new window - some sites won't let you do that, grr.)