You must show this page after the start point of your service, but before the page where the user will see the Exit this page button for the first time.
On longer services, you might need more than one interruption page.
The page should tell the user:
about the Exit this page button and what it’s for
what happens when they press it
they can also activate Exit this page by pressing shift 3 times or by using the secondary link
Unfortunately it’s nothing like the vast majority of people. At least in the country I live, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 14 men have experienced physical or sexual intimate partner violence. And let me tell you from experience, having resources that respect the realities of that situation is a really big deal.
their internet browsing history will not be erased, which can still put them at risk
I’ve seen the “emergency escape button” concept on a few sites, and I’ve never understood the point of it if it was just a link. If someone was browsing with the risk of a controlling abuser suddenly walking in and looking at the user’s screen, couldn’t the abuser just demand the user hit the back button? If I were designing such a component, naively I would think that it should at least try to use the browser history API to delete or rewrite as much history as possible.
But that’s a naive first impression and there’s good reason for not doing it that way, I’m sure. I’d just love to hear an explanation because I can’t think of it.
naively I would think that it should at least try to use the browser history API to delete or rewrite as much history as possible.
Some of the ones I’ve seen do do exactly this (replacing the ‘current’ page in history with the target); but I guess it’s an inexact measure (not sure how far back you can normally reach) and perhaps GOV.UK don’t want to promise more than they can reliably offer.
Works fine for me on my phone (Firefox 131.0 on LineageOS 21 (Android 14), uBlock origin active). What’s your setup like, and how did your phone get messed up?
it seems to happen every time for me. I’m traveling right now so I don’t have time to debug it but if I remember, I’ll debug it later. I have a similar setup, lineageos, firefox, ublock origin. Probably older versions.
Nice read, it’s crazy how much though went into this! I do wonder though, how are users aware of the shortcut? Did I miss something?
In the description of the “exit a page quickly” pattern there’s
Adding to @nortti’s comment, the key part is in the ‘when to use this’ part:
I would sincerely hope that the vast majority of people never have to visit a site that needs this component.
Unfortunately it’s nothing like the vast majority of people. At least in the country I live, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 14 men have experienced physical or sexual intimate partner violence. And let me tell you from experience, having resources that respect the realities of that situation is a really big deal.
Seems like a modern version of the old boss key, and totally makes sense for some of the pages provided by government agencies.
From the GOV.UK design system docs:
I’ve seen the “emergency escape button” concept on a few sites, and I’ve never understood the point of it if it was just a link. If someone was browsing with the risk of a controlling abuser suddenly walking in and looking at the user’s screen, couldn’t the abuser just demand the user hit the back button? If I were designing such a component, naively I would think that it should at least try to use the browser history API to delete or rewrite as much history as possible.
But that’s a naive first impression and there’s good reason for not doing it that way, I’m sure. I’d just love to hear an explanation because I can’t think of it.
Some of the ones I’ve seen do do exactly this (replacing the ‘current’ page in history with the target); but I guess it’s an inexact measure (not sure how far back you can normally reach) and perhaps GOV.UK don’t want to promise more than they can reliably offer.
Is this page crashing anyone elses browser? My phone got seriously messed up, it happened twice in a row. Firefox on android
Working fine for me with Firefox on Android…
Works fine for me on my phone (Firefox 131.0 on LineageOS 21 (Android 14), uBlock origin active). What’s your setup like, and how did your phone get messed up?
Are you the author ?
it seems to happen every time for me. I’m traveling right now so I don’t have time to debug it but if I remember, I’ll debug it later. I have a similar setup, lineageos, firefox, ublock origin. Probably older versions.
I am not. I am just interested in figuring out what kinds of things break ppl’s browsers.