I had always believed that popups, opening in new browser windows, were bad practice for various reasons including: Breaking the flow, bad for accessibility, potential to hide content etc.
While looking at the FAQ's and help sections of sites including: Natwest, Chelsea Building society, LLoyds TSB.
sshots:
I noticed they used popups for their help sections. I assumed the benefits of this could include:
- Allow the user to focus on the task at hand (finding answer to a question)
- Allow the user to toggle between the FAQ information and their original page
This led me to a couple of questions:
- Do these reasons (and others) provide a good argument for using popups?
- Are the general usability issues associated with popups greater?
- Are there any alternatives patterns that would suit FAQ/help tasks?