Commentary on the original top 10 usability mistakes in web design - using frames

First usability mistake in the list of original top 10 usability mistakes in web design by Jakob Nielsen (1996) is mistake that plagued web design many years until some years ago it fortunately started to disappear into oblivion of time - using frames. Frames are bane of web usability because they break link between content and URL so bookmarking a certain page becomes a nightmare, frames tend to show differently in different browsers and versions depending of phase of the moon, frames can hide content that is stolen directly from other websites, frames mess up how back button works, arriving directly to a page without navigation frame can make the browsing quite frustrating and when printing you usually know which frame you will be printing only by trial and error. Also external links that open to whichever frame they like will make users life miserable. Fortunately frames as we know them from the past will be obsolete in the new HTML5 revision so both users and usability advocates can make a huge sigh of relief. Don't use frames, don't even think about it!