You've been framed :-)

["mark_harrison_uk2" <mph@xxxxxxx>]

I have turned, over the last two years, from someone who used frames
heavily, to someone who now avoids them at all costs.


I would suggest that ANYONE looking to design websites reads "Don't
make me think", by Steve Krug.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0789723107/ref=sr_aps_books_1
_1/026-4436875-0850034

It has become a seminal text among the designers of BIG websites.
Some particularly alarming things for all of us to bear in mind,
including the fact that NONE of the world's top 10 websites uses
frames any more, since they have all discovered that, in practice,
they don't give good usability.

Observed evidence in the field is that 90% of clicks made from a page
will come from stuff visible on the first screenful. Hence, the
overall recommendation is to layer your site... On entry level pages,
it is vital that all the possible choices are provided on a single
screenful. Once someone has drilled down to a particularly detailed
page, then scrolling is acceptable, since by then, the user is likely
to be engrossed in READING the page, rather than simply scanning it
to find which link is appropriate.

In the case of things like selecting album lists, say, there are more
user-friendly ways to do it than simply providing a long list. The
way that, for example, Keiran Broadfoot's "Rio Receiver MP3s on a
Pronto" screen works is a superb example of guided choices - in this
case, because the Pronto doesn't actually support scrolling.
Nonetheless, it's a model of straightforward usability (reflecting, I
guess, Keiran's professional expertise in this specialism.)

In practice, the thing to remember is that text loads fast, and
pictures load slowly. As such, a well designed text-based page will
be fast enough for the majority of devices/connections even if it
means refreshing the entire page because you've used tables instead
of frames.)

Rendering of pictures fast is harder, but the trick here is to
include explicit picture geometry directives in the HTML, so that
rather than putting in a little box for a picture placeholder, then
redrawing the whole page once the picture is loaded, the client can
draw a box of the correct size for the placeholder, and fill in the
picture only.

Now - what is my reference "great" website????

It's Google....

... everything you want to do, 100% of the time, on the first screen
of the homepage.

... Once you've done a search, and are therefore interested in the
contents OF THAT PAGE rather than using that page solely to navigate
to the next, then scrolling is fine.

... No frames, but explicit "where you are in the site" text on
every
page, means that you can't get lost by being incorrectly divered to
an inneer frame

... Clear branding, so you never lose site of the fact that you're on
Google, but that takes up precious little space (38 by 51 pixels),
and is explicitly sized in the HTML so that the page loads around it,
rather than having to refresh once the image is downloaded.

Regards,

Mark