Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Don't Break the Back Button

One thing I don't like is when a website has a broken back button. If I go up and click "Back" then I want the browser to go back to the previous page. What I don't want is for the page I am on to refresh so I can see the content once more. In most cases, the content isn't worth seeing anyway.

There are a few things that will break the back button. Some site owners do this on purpose, I suppose they are so afraid that site visitors will not return that they try to keep them as long as they can. The other thing that will break a back button is a lot of this kitsch that we see on so many websites. Some of the third party web applications will cause the page to reload. The only solution for that is to refuse to use those third party web applications. The developers would probably find a solution for the problem if people refused to use their stuff because of it.

An occassional exception is okay, but a broken back botton helps nothing and convinces people to stay away from the site.