Website Award Scoring Criteria...

[Lucretius]

Though a few things have been fixed since last year, the criteria for the Website Award include a few oddities, namely:

5.28.2.5 Functionality and Interactivity. (25 points)
- Do external links open new, separate browser windows?
- Can I easily return to the website from an outside link?

If I'm interpreting the term "outside link" correctly, it would seem that these two criteria contradict each other.

And besides, the first criterion is quite bad thing to do with regards to usability; it should be up to the user if she wants to open a link in a new window or not.

Am I reading this wrong?

[stevek]

Depends on your preferences for the most part. I can tell you as a professional developer, I do not want my external links to replace my page (think of it as a marketing initiative), you want the focus of your site to be your site. If I provide external links, I target another window. If you have a desire to keep it in one window, you can embed the site and provide easy access back to you.

I know, I know there is a Browser Back Button... That doesnt help they fact that my client spend thousands of dollars to develop their site and it gone is a click of a mouse!!! so Just consider this when designing. I dont see the two rules as a major contradiction. If you rely on the back button, you dont know how many other links the person will follow after your page, so it may not be convienent to just use the Back button.

Hope this helps provide another perspective to look at the issue.

good luck with the competition.