225
votes
Accepted
User's reaction to a web-browser opening upon exiting application
Highjacking expected user flows is bad. If a user closes an app, they expect it to close, not start opening up other apps (even if it's just a browser). Beyond annoying, it can be perceived as ...
- 1,746
98
votes
How many users use browser's text search within a page?
To answer the question you asked:
Keyboard shortcuts tend to be used by only a small subset of people ("power users"). This is a pretty set-in-stone shortcut—if an application responds to ...
- 19.5k
65
votes
User's reaction to a web-browser opening upon exiting application
From a user's perspective, don't hijack my browser!
Please.
Don't touch the other software on my computer unless you're making it clear what's about to happen, and I have the option to opt out or ...
- 753
51
votes
Accepted
How many users use browser's text search within a page?
Found an article sourcing a study conducted by Google in 2011 in the US. Apparently, 90% of the participants didn't know about it.
"90 percent of the US Internet population does not know that. This ...
- 7,371
43
votes
User's reaction to a web-browser opening upon exiting application
Relax. Don't be the next king of spam.
Generally speaking (and I know generalisations are super unpopular around here, so bear with me) you should not be thinking about the first time the user quits ...
- 2,258
41
votes
Why don't browsers show a dialog when closing a tab?
Because the cons of disrupting the user's flow by always showing a dialog is too large. Tabs are not as precious, they are opened and closed as many times as needed during a session. Even if the user ...
- 5,578
30
votes
User's reaction to a web-browser opening upon exiting application
You're asking about bundling ads with your game. Tread carefully. Software that opens a web browser to an advertisement, without the user's consent, is called adware, and it's universally hated.
It'...
- 400
20
votes
Accepted
Why do browsers allow users to open more tabs than it is possible to manage for a good user experience?
Arbitrary Limits are Bad
Arbitrary limits are rarely a good thing. I am sure there is a limit somewhere (maybe 256 tabs?) but as long as it is far out of normal usage, most users never know and will ...
19
votes
How many users use browser's text search within a page?
I think you asked the wrong question. It's not just the number of users that matter: you should consider the types of users you exclude too.
I literally used Ctrl+F to follow the link to this page. I'...
- 299
19
votes
Why don't browsers show a dialog when closing a tab?
Browsers strive to be as easy to use and smooth as possible.
Look at browsers just being environments for running web apps (I'd argue, these days we don't really deal with websites or portals - ...
- 2,233
11
votes
Accepted
Why Browsers load Websites gradually?
Technically this is caused by the fact that images and other assets are generally hosted separately, and the browser only knows to go fetch them when the document uses them.
It would be technically ...
- 15.5k
10
votes
Accepted
What is the best way to tell users to scroll down in browsers?
First of all, you should not end a page at blank spaces. You should end them at the top portion of the next page's first section.
Use scroll icons such as this:
to inform the user about the ...
- 2,349
10
votes
Accepted
Best practice for scroll bars in a browser on iPad
How about using a multi-step form? It looks like you're essentially already doing this, just with an accordion.
Source - Omkar Bailkeri
This would ensure the user always knew they could scroll (gotta ...
- 844
9
votes
User's reaction to a web-browser opening upon exiting application
You said you only want to do this the first time they exit - is this because you know it's annoying and don't want to annoy them? Consider that thought when making the decision how to approach this.
...
- 1,301
9
votes
Accepted
Why don't browsers show a dialog when closing a tab?
Pinned tabs
The major browser vendors have chosen to address the problem of unintended tab closure by offering the "pin tab" feature:
Firefox: Mozilla Support: Pinned Tabs - keep favorite ...
- 206
8
votes
Accepted
Should opening a modal box change the browser history?
YES INDEED
For most users, this will be just another page. And conceptually, they will be right, they have no idea about the technical part, they only know that by clicking or doing something they ...
- 37.3k
8
votes
Accepted
Why do some websites hijack "open in new tab"?
It's unlikely that there's intentional malice. There are times when "new tab" functionality is intentionally violated, usually because the website is written as a "single page application" (SPA). SPAs ...
- 1,147
8
votes
Why don't browsers show a dialog when closing a tab?
Before getting into the why, let's establish that those modals that you mention are an error prevention measure. But are all errors equal? No. There are two types of errors: Slips and mistakes.
Slips ...
- 143
7
votes
User's reaction to a web-browser opening upon exiting application
I would be furious and instantly uninstall the game. I would very likely leave a very negative review warning others about this behavior.
Though I have a newer machine where it is less important, ...
- 376
7
votes
Why do browsers allow users to open more tabs than it is possible to manage for a good user experience?
Browsers tend to put the ball in the user's court, in regards to managing tabs. What might seem as too many tabs to one user, is perhaps the perfect amount to another - and the current behaviour ...
- 473
6
votes
What is the benefit of using the HTML5 <time> tag?
The time element is a machine-readable element. So it is mainly used to help out the computer not the user directly.
https://css-tricks.com/time-element/
The element in HTML represents a machine-...
- 15.3k
6
votes
User's reaction to a web-browser opening upon exiting application
The best way is not to do this.
Provide a link to your other games.
If you write a good game users will use that link to see what else you have written.
If the game is not that good any ads will ...
- 278
6
votes
Accepted
Should a 404 error be kept in the browser history?
I think the user needs to know where he is and what is not working.
So for two main reason I would push a state:
User awareness
User might want to come back to check if it was fixed
Having a dead ...
- 16.8k
6
votes
Why is audio not treated like other browser permissions?
TL;DR: It should be, and likely will be soon
Throughout the history of the internet and browsers, many well-intended features have fallen prey to abuse: popup windows, alerts before closing a page, ...
- 3,848
5
votes
Accepted
Are zoom in/out buttons necessary anymore?
I get your point of view: it feels like we are adding unnecessary complexity in the user interface. Plus, questioning why things are the way they are is generally a healthy and encouraged approach in ...
- 1,155
5
votes
Why do browsers allow users to open more tabs than it is possible to manage for a good user experience?
Browser is just a tool for browsing the Internet. Imagine that your task is to develop browser. Will you develop browser that embodies your own way of right web browsing? Suppose yes. What will you ...
- 2,205
5
votes
Best practice for scroll bars in a browser on iPad
Two options come to mind for me.
To enforce the visual effect of content being available behind this 'wall', you could work with borders and/or shadows. This is also a rather common way of showing ...
- 93
4
votes
Are there any strategies or design patterns for managing a large number of tabs on a browser window?
Firefox introduced a tab grouping feature ("Panorama") some time ago, but removed it again. I think the idea was good, but the implementation had issues (bugs, bad performance). A contributor states ...
- 3,936
4
votes
Why Browsers load Websites gradually?
If I'm understanding correctly, I think the question should be "Why sites loads websites gradually?" .
See to answer your strict question, browsers do whatever you (where you is the developer, site ...
- 37.3k
4
votes
Accepted
Is it bad practice to disable (replace) the context menu?
No, disabling the context menu does not constitute bad practice. This is a common behavior.
Real world references: Try right-clicking in Gmail or Google Docs. Obviously, these are highly successful ...
- 400
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible