Common Complaints & Solutions

They take longer to load Not by much. Usually the real problem is a bloated design, slow under any circumstances. However, using technically savvy design techniques, the somewhat slower nature of a frame-based site can be minimized so the small comparative lag is unnoticeable.

Things don't fit into frames right. Even assuming the designer is competent and can properly fire up a frame-based web site, its still difficult. Figuring out what it will look like on by different types of computers is a daunting task. However, an awareness of what works and what often doesn't can eliminate or minimize most if not all potential problems. This can include Viewing the design under different screen resolutions. Viewing the design under different screen resolutions using different browsers. Viewing the design under different screen resolutions using different browsers and different browser font sizes. Viewing the design under different screen resolutions using different browsers, different browser font sizes and different computers with different monitors or graphics cards. What a headache. Many web designers either lack the desire or ability to carry out this kind of testing (or know its needed in the first place). Unfortunately, poorly thought-out sites with frames are all over the Web: displays showing a portion of what they were meant to, scroll bars that don't belong, etc. We will test the bejabbers out of a design before releasing it, or redesign the interface until it meets your satisfaction.

If I try to go from a site using frames to one that doesn't, I get stuck in the original site's frame. Getting "trapped" in a frame is a common complaint. The solution is very simple for the savvy web designer. By adding a simple tag to the link code in the page's HTML the problem can be eliminated entirely. Don't take it for granted that this is a mistake, though. There can be reasons and advantages to keeping a reader inside your frame structure.

If a visitor doesn't enter my site just the way I planned, the frames don't set up, it looks lousy and the user has nowhere to go! On the Web, visitors don't necessarily come in through the front door. Sometimes they use a window, or barge into the kitchen from the garage. Here's one way this can happen: Someone searches for a topic on a search engine and finds you. Unfortunately, the page they see in their search results may not be your main "welcome" page which sets up your frames (This is common with an engine like Alta Vista, that indexes every page on the web). Something like this will completely foul up a frame scheme. As designers, we know visitors can enter a site from anywhere, and see to it this isn't a problem.

Some browsers don't support frames! I'd be turning away readers for no good reason. Happily, this is largely irrelevant today. Users of Netscape Navigator 2.0 and above, along with the last couple of versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, can view frames just fine. The same is true of the more recent AOL browsers. Net result: virtually everybody can browse a frame-based site.

Couldn't you set the site up using tables and dump the frame thing altogether? Yes and no. Tables have their uses (they're used quite a bit on this page), but frames have features that tables don't. Note the frame on the left has stayed where it is regardless of how much scrolling you've done. By using frames, we can alter the background and keep the menu in place no matter where you go. Using tables, this isn't the case.

Frames are a real pain to set up, compared with the alternative. True. However, if your site is designed here, that problem isn't yours. A frame-based site may be more expensive because there are additional design considerations. However, the final result will be worth it. The relative differences in costs can be discussed in detail before work commences.

Why should MY site use frames? Maybe it shouldn't. Frames are neither required nor suited to all needs. However, a site designed around a frame structure can allow a visitor access to everything on your site with just one or two clicks of the mouse (remember the KISS principle), while at the same time enhancing its appearance.