Design your website so that it is technically accessible to the greatest number of people. Just as customers come in all shapes and sizes so do the equipment and the software that they use to access the Web.
Viewable Site
Test your design with as many browsers (including their various versions) as you can find — Netscape, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Macintosh, Opera, AOL, and a text-only browser such as Lynx. Don’t forget the customers that surf with their browser’s “turn off graphics” option activated. In other words, make sure the technologies you select can accommodate the many browsing options your customers will be using.
Frames
Also called framesets, frames are a programming device that divides web pages into multiple, scrollable regions.
This allows you to present information in a more flexible and useful fashion. Of course, frames have their own set of problems. A browser’s back button can produce unexpected results, particularly if the user is working with an old browser, such as Netscape prior to version 3.0.
Visitors who have problems with their sight or are otherwise physically impaired may be using text-to-speech software that reads aloud web pages. Frames confuse such software.
Even for the non-physically challenged, a cursor may not work with a framed site unless you actually click in the frame you want to scroll.
In addition, frames can make it more problematic to print.
For example the Princeton Online website, which is designed around frames, actually has a web page devoted to helping its visitors print information available on that website (see Fig. 5). But, even worse, framed websites may be invisible to certain search engines and directors (such as Yahoo!).
Frames increase the file size and the number of total words that make up the website, thereby decreasing keyword weight and perhaps causing an adverse effect on your website’s search engine listing.
Also, when customers are brought to your website via a search engine, they sometimes won’t enter through the front door, i.e., home page, and therefore can’t see the frame that would normally be holding the page.
The Princeton Online website found that so many visitors experienced problems when trying to print information available on its frame-based website that it crafted a “print help” web page.
Exercise caution if you choose to offer links to other web pages within a framed page.
When advertising one particular aspect of your site in other media, simply providing a main URL address is no longer good enough. In the case of a framed site you must give the public additional instructions about how to find the frame and the page that they want. If you give out that page’s address alone, the rest of the frameset becomes inaccessible.
Viewable Site
Test your design with as many browsers (including their various versions) as you can find — Netscape, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Macintosh, Opera, AOL, and a text-only browser such as Lynx. Don’t forget the customers that surf with their browser’s “turn off graphics” option activated. In other words, make sure the technologies you select can accommodate the many browsing options your customers will be using.
Frames
Also called framesets, frames are a programming device that divides web pages into multiple, scrollable regions.
This allows you to present information in a more flexible and useful fashion. Of course, frames have their own set of problems. A browser’s back button can produce unexpected results, particularly if the user is working with an old browser, such as Netscape prior to version 3.0.
Visitors who have problems with their sight or are otherwise physically impaired may be using text-to-speech software that reads aloud web pages. Frames confuse such software.
Even for the non-physically challenged, a cursor may not work with a framed site unless you actually click in the frame you want to scroll.
In addition, frames can make it more problematic to print.
For example the Princeton Online website, which is designed around frames, actually has a web page devoted to helping its visitors print information available on that website (see Fig. 5). But, even worse, framed websites may be invisible to certain search engines and directors (such as Yahoo!).
Frames increase the file size and the number of total words that make up the website, thereby decreasing keyword weight and perhaps causing an adverse effect on your website’s search engine listing.
Also, when customers are brought to your website via a search engine, they sometimes won’t enter through the front door, i.e., home page, and therefore can’t see the frame that would normally be holding the page.
The Princeton Online website found that so many visitors experienced problems when trying to print information available on its frame-based website that it crafted a “print help” web page.
Exercise caution if you choose to offer links to other web pages within a framed page.
When advertising one particular aspect of your site in other media, simply providing a main URL address is no longer good enough. In the case of a framed site you must give the public additional instructions about how to find the frame and the page that they want. If you give out that page’s address alone, the rest of the frameset becomes inaccessible.