Fun with Frames
By Lynda Weinman
When frames were first introduced I, along with zillions of others, despised them. They were poorly implemented, made navigation more confusing, you couldn't print or bookmark them easily, and they had ugly borders that made smaller the already-small, core real-estate region of a browser window. When Netscape introduced Navigator 2.0, the company redesigned its site with frames, and supplied a "No Frames" button. After the majority of visitors viewed the site in its no frames mode, the framed site eventually came down. In my lectures at Web-design conferences and classes, I've often asked about how many people like frames -- few hands were ever raised.
In theory, frames are supposed to help navigation. The fact that different regions of a browser window could update independently can be a powerful mechanism if handled correctly. One could have a navigation bar or image map remain stationary, while other parts of the browser window could respond to the links. In theory, this would offer a great boon to site architecture, but in practice this isn't always the case.
Version 3.0 browsers from Microsoft and Netscape introduced better frames features, such as the ability to eliminate borders, turn off scrolling, view a frame within a frameset, and print a frame within a frameset. Frames were ready for prime time, but from a visual standpoint, frames abuse still lived on. It's the typical hopscotch dance of technology versus design: first comes the technology, then the visual solutions to the newfound advancements follow behind.
Avoiding Frames Abuse
Frames can still be used effectively on your site, but there are a few things you should avoid.
