There was a time when lots of websites utilised frames, to provide the advantage of a static menu that is always available on the screen, no matter what area of the page the user looks at.
I am sure we covered the topic enough to agree that frames are not the way to go, as they carry accessibility issues with them and can cause problems for search engines. So we all moved away from frames and are now accustomed to a page layout that contains the menu somewhere at the top (or top left). However, with css we now have the ability to imitate frames in an accessible and search-engine friendly way for browsers that support it. So the question comes back to usability (and maybe aesthetics): wouldn't it be more user-friendly to always make the primary navigation available to users, no matter what part of the page they are looking at? Let's not worry about the problem of aesthetics right now, but imagine a site that uses css to create this frame-design: our menu sits on the left hand side, our content on the right hand side. We have got a scroll bar that only moves the content areas (achieved through overflow). The menu is available at all times. Which means the users not only are aware of all of their options at any given point in time, but they can also be visually reminded of their current position in the page (e.g. through breadcrumbs or highlighted current menu item). A browser that does not support css would simply display our sample page the way we currently do it: menu static at the top, the scrollbar moves the entire page. No accessibility or search-engine issues. I'd be curious to know what people think of that? Did our passion for Web Standards make us overlook the advantages of the frame-style layout? Or are there usability/accessibility issues I am overlooking here? Andreas Boehmer User Experience Consultant Addictive Media Phone: (03) 9386 8907 Mobile: 0411 097 038 http://www.addictivemedia.com.au Consulting | Accessibility | Usability | Development ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *******************************************************************
