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I have a portal consists of set of widgets, each widget contains a block of data and a link to an application . it appears like this .My question is : what 's the best user experience to open the links which exist in each widget .?
New tab ,New window ,Iframe , ...etc
how to make it easy to use?
If the application is self contained and behaves like a tool rather than a site, then it may be worthwhile to open in a new window. Otherwise you probably should not, as that breaks the back button and behaves in unexpected ways. It is extremely unlikely that an iframe would be the best choice unless the applications behave more like portions of the primary page (similar to an Ajax update).
But if none of the above applies, then you should retain the default link behavior, and have it just go to the selected link.
If it's a link that points to other websites then it's advisable to open it in new tab (target="_blank"). I think that opening in i-frame would be the worst.
If your widgets are on the landing page of an application and are actually a portal to individual modules, the module should open in screen, not open a separate tab or window. The widgets provide information to a user which will prompt him to act. The widget is used as a method of navigation and the user should be taken directly into the module.
Should the user want to navigate back to his landing page, he should be able to click on a home button from any module within the application.
