My browser works just fine, thank you

I’m not deliberately obscurantist or opposed to innovation, but there are a few trends in web design that I don’t appreciate. For example, I don’t like lightboxes. (Yeah, I know we use it at Reevoo for our reviews service, but Befehl ist Befehl.)

If you’re lucky enough not to be familiar with this abomination, I should explain. The lightbox user interface trope layers a dark, semi-transparent layer over the web page, and displays the new content over that. It looks cool and shiny. Even the best lightbox implementations tend to be a bit temperamental, but that’s not what pains me: I don’t like them because they subvert pre-existing browser functionality—better functionality. If it’s a real link, I can control-click to open it in a new tab. Or I can shift-click for a new window. Or plain click and replace the current page. Whatever I choose, that’s my choice. When I click and get a lightbox, it’s guaranteed not to be what I was expecting, and that’s not a good user experience.

I’ve been doing a lot of browsing on the small screen of my EeePC 701 lately. That’s 800×480 pixels. It’s made me start to notice how unusable is so much of the AJAX onanism that constitutes modern web design. Sure, it looks great on the dual zillion-pixel monitors of my quad-Xeon workstation at the office, but to blame me for browsing on a small screen would be to miss the point of (X)HTML and semantic mark-up.

Similarly, I don’t like the trend of hijacking the onclick events of links to force them to replace the current page. If I control-click to open in a new tab, the chances are high that I don’t want this tab to load the same content as well. On the other hand, if I’d just clicked it, I’d expect it to load right here, which is exactly what it would have done anyway. So don’t try to second-guess me, please.

But now I’ve discovered something even more objectionable. Have a look at this Amazon/IMDB press release. Try clicking on a link.

It opens a little iframe in the middle of the window, with the linked-to page inside it. WHY?! What did I do to make you think that I would want that?!

Stop it, all of you. You can make nice-looking, functional websites without any of these gewgaws, and we’d all be the better for it—not to mention that it would take much less debugging work for you as a developer to make it functional in Internet Explorer. And the government wouldn’t have to release documents telling its departments which browsers to test their ill-considered baubles in.

2008-09-16 18:40 UTC. Comments: 9.

Comments

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Daniel Hardy

Wrote at 2008-09-16 19:27 UTC using Firefox 3.0.1 on Mac OS X:
As a working web designer, I know exactly what you mean, though often it’s not the designers fault, so often clients want the latest gimmick thing, a common conversation with my boss often goes.

Boss: Do it like this.
Me: Why?
Boss: Because thats how the client wants it
Me: But thats really stupid
Boss: Yeah I know
Me: Have you tried telling them?
Boss: Yeah
Me: And?
Boss: And they still want it like that.
Me: But thats gonna take longer
Boss: So it’ll cost them more.
Paul Battley

Wrote at 2008-09-16 19:30 UTC using Firefox 3.0.1 on Linux:
Daniel, I think it’s almost never the designer’s fault. Designers are hired for their taste and judgement—then overruled by people who have neither!
Thijs van der Vossen

Wrote at 2008-09-16 19:34 UTC using Safari 525.20.1 on Mac OS X:
If you create a link that opens a lightbox or starts some other piece of JavaScript there’s absolutely no reason why you can’t also add a regular link so that you can still right-click to open the thing in a tab.
Ewan Marshall

Wrote at 2008-09-16 19:53 UTC using Firefox 3.0.1 on Linux:
I refuse to code sites that won’t work in lynx at the end of the day. Any javascript should be an improvement not a necessity.

Always code to work both with and without javascript abominations.
Ru-lurker

Wrote at 2008-09-17 06:32 UTC using Firefox 3.0.1 on Linux:
Just so true – a solution in search of a problem
Knuckboy

Wrote at 2008-09-17 09:55 UTC using Internet Explorer 7.0 on Windows XP:
The click event should be handled to degrade gracefully. Then, a lynx browser or a screen reader works just fine, and a user can still right click to open a new tab.

Using them inappropriately is still, well, inappropriate. There are still good uses for them.
Aaron Bassett

Wrote at 2008-09-17 12:11 UTC using Firefox 3.0 on Windows XP:
@Ewan Marshall: So you don’t use images in any of your websites, saying as they ain’t going to work in Lynx? ;)

Roger Johansson has a post on his blog which could prove helpful. Basically before running any Javascript attached to a link you check if the user has ctrl/alt/shift pressed. If they do then you don’t run the Javascript so the user retains the ability to open in a new tab etc.

Doesn’t deal with right-click but is a step in the right direction..

http://preview.tinyurl.com/2p2gvl
Ryan

Wrote at 2008-09-17 15:24 UTC using Firefox 3.0.1 on Windows XP:
—“I don’t like them because they subvert pre-existing browser functionality—better functionality. If it’s a real link, I can control-click to open it in a new tab. Or I can shift-click for a new window. Or plain click and replace the current page. Whatever I choose, that’s my choice. When I click and get a lightbox, it’s guaranteed not to be what I was expecting, and that’s not a good user experience.”—
Or you could just ctrl click and have the image open in a new window. I’m yet to come across a lightbox that doesn’t allow you to do this.
Paul Battley

Wrote at 2008-09-17 16:30 UTC using Firefox 3.0.2 on Mac OS X:
Ryan, that would be great if were true. Some implementations open a new tab/window, but still fire the onclick event in the originating page so that you end up with two copies of the exact same things (certain PHP forum software is particularly bad for this).

Others prevent the new window entirely. Try that press release! On Firefox on Linux, it overrides my control-click to open its chintzy iframe in the same page. No new tab. On Firefox on OS X, it overrides command-click just the same. On Safari, ditto. The only way I can get what I want is to right-click and use the menu.