Design Snack - XHTML, CSS, Flash, Web Design & Web Development Inspiration Gallery Showcase

otterball: This is certainly an interesting dilemma to deal with that we've faced in the past. First of all, only pages that are not included within the current site/domain link to external windows. But mainly the problem revolves around a persistent audio player. Most if not all artists that contact us are interested in a persistent audio player. Most CSS pages let the user attempt to popup their audio player in a separate window to keep the audio going while the user continues to surf in the front window. However the benefit of our flash sites is that the audio does not need to pop up externally to surf past the first page. However this requires that any external link from the site open in an additional window. According to Smashing Magazine their answer supports your argument. http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/07/01/should-links-open-in-new-windows/ However they also say, "It is appropriate to enforce opening links in a new window in case the link may interrupt an ongoing process" For our client pool in general, the answer is that external links would interrupt the audio player functionality they wish to provide to their user, who after all is on the website to listen to and enjoy the music of the artist. From the perspective of a designer who is visiting to critique I can understand how this functionality may be off-putting, but considering the client's and the target user's wishes, uninteruptted audio player functionality is preferred.

BrianPurkiss: Why do a bunch of the links open in new windows?! Pages within a web site shouldn't open in new windows. It'd have been a 5 star if it weren't for that. That's just a big blunder.