The same is true for desktop applications. When a menu item opens a web browser, it's doing something that other menu items don't do, and that users should know about before clicking on the item:
- it switches programs unexpectedly
- this initially makes the user think they accidentally switched programs
- so they'll usually try to switch back to it from the blank page or loading browser
- they'll often try the command again
- it can take several tries before the user realizes the program is operating as expected
- they may also think that the program they were in just has crashed or experienced an error
- if the web browser isn't active, it gets launched
- this can look like the beginnings of a crash report, reinforcing the user's suspicion of a program error
- the first thing a user thinks is "I have accidentally launched my browser" or "some browser window just spontaneously spawned another window, which is always a bad sign"
- a new browser tab or window is created, obscuring what was there before
- if users switch back to the browser, they won't immediately recognize it as the browser window they had open
- they tend to keep looking for the now-hidden tab in other browser windows
- this may seem like a stretch, but users are blind to details which they don't think have changed, and especially things that they didn't initiate
