Website Navigation Standards
A. Frames
The website has only two frames. This simple design makes the site easy to use.
1. The vertical blue navigation bar on the left 23 percent of the screen has a table of contents system of links
2. The main large center frame displays all the content pages on 77 percent of the screen
The web frames design provides a stable consistent place to locate the navigation bar and links. It also allows one to change content pages and linked websites in order to gather comparative information while maintaining the same navigation bar. Getting lost on my websites is very difficult.
The old admonition “not to use frames in website design because search engines are not able to find framed text” is no longer true. It is too bad many people who posted this type of information have not corrected their outdated information.
Place Website on Top and
Double Framing
The one disadvantage of having a framed website is that if one views one or more websites that use framed navigation these sites will nest in the content frame. This will cause the second or third nested websites to have insufficient space to display. All of my websites have a command to “place website on top.” The command is in the top section of the navigation bar and will un-nest the desired website.
Non-Frame Websites
Some webmasters do not like frames and design their sites so that it cannot be viewed in a frame. When you click on the link to such a site from this website, you will see a warning page in the center frame advising you that you will not be able to view the site in a frame nor be able to use the browser back button to return to this site.
B. Navigation Bar
The navigation bar is divided by horizontal lines that separate the bar components.
1. The top section has navigation instructions and several navigation links.
2. The middle section is divided into several content sections with descriptive heading in small type below each horizontal line.
3. The bottom section has relevant content links and links to utilities.
Expand and Collapse
Functionality for Internet Explorer and Most Web Browsers
1. Expand and Collapse functionality is available on the blue default navigation bar. This allows the table of contents to be listed in a very condensed form. You can usually see all of the major topics without scrolling or with minimal scrolling.
2. To view subsections and links one clicks on the main topic, and the subtopic links open right below. One then clicks on the subtopic link and a content page will open in the center frame. Since some of my websites have hundreds of links, this functionality keeps the size of the navigation bar much smaller.
View the Entire Navigation
Bar Contents at Once for Foxfire Browsers
Foxfire and a few other browsers do not have Expand and Collapse functionality. A link in the top section of the navigation bar will open the entire navigation contents at once. All links open a content page in the center frame.
C. Other Features
Arriving at a Content Page of
this Website without the Navigation Bar
Web search engines such as Google can find almost any website content page; and these search engines will not necessarily take you to the main page with the Navigation Bar. Every text page on all of my websites has a link called “Home” or the site name, along with the word home near the top of the page. Clicking on it will take you to the home page with the navigation bar. If you have the blue navigation bar on the left and a content page in the center, it is not necessary to click any of these links.
Main Home Page
In the top and bottom sections of the navigation bar, there is a link to place the main content page on top.
Photos
Small pictures are displayed in tables. The number of pictures in a table may vary from one to 24 pictures. The small pictures are 12 kb to 40 kb, a sufficient size to allow one to determine the basic features of the photo, and still be loaded by someone using a dial up modem.
Picture tables are intended to be simple compact displays of the photos without embellishment.
Large Photos
Most pictures may be viewed in a high resolution format by clicking on the small photo. This will place a high resolution picture in the center frame with no text. Avoiding text allows a larger picture to be displayed. To return from the previous content page, use the browser back button.
Webmaster: John M. Wilson