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Does that make it "broken" or just incompatible with your expectations? Would other non-technical users have the same expectations? It's possible other users

by daten 16y ago

Does that make it "broken" or just incompatible with your expectations? Would other non-technical users have the same expectations? It's possible other users will want to go "back" to the image they last visited. Consider if this was done just HTML 4 and no CSS or Javascript. You would click a thumbnail and a new page would be loaded with a full size version of the image. You would then click a "close" button that would take you to the page with the thumbnails again. If you hit "back" you would go back to the image. The way the page currently works follows the "stack" of what I actually visited by clicking links. If I want to reverse my workflow after visiting all 5 images and closing between them, I personally would expect the back button to go through all 5 images. From this perspective, doing the same effect with Javascript that doesn't update the stack might surprise me if after clicking 10 links on this page, a single click of the browser back button skips 10 steps of my workflow and returns me to HN.

amackera 16y ago
I understand your argument, and it makes sense; however, I disagree. The user clicks the image in order to see it full-size. The lightbox overlays the page that the user is on. The user is not conscious that they are navigating to a new page, or even just a part of the page that they weren't at before (to the #image). Though the workflow is in actuality following a link, the user is not aware that they are following a link, so the back button functionality doesn't work as expected. Links are well understood by everybody that uses the Web. They change the page that you're on to a new page, or a new part of the page. Lightboxes were invented so that the user doesn't need to leave the page, or the part of the page, that they are on. So in my mind, lightboxes that don't behave like lightboxes and instead behave like links are broken.
- deleted 16y ago
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by daten 16y ago

amackera 16y ago

I understand your argument, and it makes sense; however, I disagree. The user clicks the image in order to see it full-size. The lightbox overlays the page that the user is on. The user is not conscious that they are navigating to a new page, or even just a part of the page that they weren't at before (to the #image). Though the workflow is in actuality following a link, the user is not aware that they are following a link, so the back button functionality doesn't work as expected. Links are well understood by everybody that uses the Web. They change the page that you're on to a new page, or a new part of the page. Lightboxes were invented so that the user doesn't need to leave the page, or the part of the page, that they are on. So in my mind, lightboxes that don't behave like lightboxes and instead behave like links are broken.

deleted 16y ago
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