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Frames |
"What Are Frames?
With frames, you can place multiple web pages on the screen at the same time within a structure that you specify. This has the potential to make life much easier for someone visiting your site. For example, you can use one of the visible pages to display a list of hyperlinks to important sections of your site. When the reader clicks on a hyperlink, that page opens in another of the visible frame windows. The great advantage to frames is that you can keep your reader oriented as to where he or she is on your site. The links to other parts of the site (and to the home page) are always available. You can use frames pages to display a constant header (with a company logo or name), footer, or both.
Frame Design Considerations
Designing frame-based pages can be a risky business, and it is easy to create frames that are hard to use.
Don't use too many frames. The practical limit is about three, although you can get away with four if you keep three of them small. Adding too many frames to a page is confusing, and will force the reader to do too much scrolling in individual frames to see the information.
Don't use frames just because you can. They do crowd up the screen, so they should only be used if they provide value to your web site." (1)
Jakob Nielsen is quite critical of frames as a web page design element:
"My main recommendation with respect to frames is
Frames: Just Say No
People who really know what they are doing can sometimes use frames to good effect, although even experienced designers are advised to use frames as sparingly as possible.
Navigation doesn't work with frames because the unit of navigation is different from the unit of view. If users create a bookmark in their browser, they may not get the same view back when they follow the bookmark at a later date, because the bookmark doesn't include a representation of the state of the frames on the page [i.e. what pages were displayed in the frames when the bookmark was created; the bookmark will only point to the initial frameset, which has a default initial page to display. note added]
Even worse, URLs stop working. The addressing information shown at the top of the browser no longer constitutes a complete specification of the information shown in the window. If an author copies the URL in order to include it as a hypertext anchor in one of his or her own web pages, then that anchor will not lead readers to the desired view, but will instead lead them to the initial state of the frameset." (3, pages 85 & 86)
The author of this web site found that using frames in a very limited way was a useful way to present the PDF documents relating to the Mini Usability Study in Section 3. Within this web site, any link to Section 3 opens the frameset in a new window, so the reader can always easily get back to where they were. Also, within the frameset, there are no links back into the main site, as they would open in the frameset, and cause great confusion. Since the frameset opens in a new window, there is no need for links back into the main site. Frames in the web site used for the Mini Usability Study did cause confusion during the study, primarily because links within the frameset to other sites opened within the frameset, rather than in new windows. Also, there were two separate sections of that site, on for teachers and one for students; the initial dynamic frame was identical in both sections, and the static navigation frames in both sections looked very similar at first glance. This is discussed in greater detail in the study analysis/conclusion.