[Athen] New windows & protected sites

[Heather P. Westerlund]

Hi folks,

I know best practice is to always open links in the same window, even for external sites. WCAG 2.0 makes an exception when users are on a secure site and opening an external link in the same window will disrupt the session. But what about the other way around? Libraries deal with this all over their websites because of the various protected resources we offer (i.e. databases).

So my question: If a user is on a website and they're clicking into a protected resource (requires login), is it better to open in the same window or a new tab?  In this situation, using the back button doesn't work as expected (you have to double click quickly to get back to the website if it you just logged in) and it starts a new session if the user navigates back into to that same protected resource (the user doesn't haven't to log in again, but it starts a new session).

TIA!
Heather Westerlund
Associate Director for IT, Collections, and Innovation
Walden University Library<http://library.waldenu.edu/>

612.312.1270  |  heather.westerlund at mail.waldenu.edu<mailto:heather.westerlund at mail.waldenu.edu>
100 Washington Ave S, Ste 900  |  Minneapolis, MN 55401

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