You probably have seen web pages that use frames. Frames are a way of breaking up a web page into two or more parts. A framed web page is actually displaying two or more separate web pages at once. You can usually identify a framed page if you click or scroll in one area of the screen and the other sections remain constant. While this may sound like a neat feature, the usefulness of frames has been the subject of debate for many years among web designers. The overwhelming consensus, at least from a user standpoint, is that frames do not constitute good web page design and, therefore, are not recommended for use on UD department or college home pages.

Years ago, frames presented many problems for users because of browser limitations. Simple browser functions such as using the back button or printing or bookmarking a framed document would often yield unexpected results. Frames developed a stigma of being clumsy and user-unfriendly.

While updates in browser technology have addressed some of these problems, many usability issues still remain. Frames still prevent users from easily sending an e-mail message containing a recommended URL to someone else. They may also not index properly with search engines, resulting in just a single frame (a portion of your total page) being returned. But, probably the most important argument against frames is that a majority of users simply prefer frame-free designs.

If you like the concept of frames, you can achieve similar results by using tables in your web page designs. The current UD web is an example of this technique: consistent headers and resource boxes are repeated on each page of different customer's entry points.