Speed

In our day of ever increasing internet speeds, some people feel that website speed issues are an

obsolete concern. As long as 50% or more of your site viewers are using dial-up, speed issues are very

much a significant issue in designing efficient and effective websites.

Site speed is an issue, because if you use coding or site elements that cause annoyance to your visitors, it is not

a good thing. This is more of an issue for some sites than for others.

If you cater to contemporary techies, then chances are, your audience will be predominantly high speed

internet users.

If you cater to frugal visitors, older people, less technically skilled users, people who are not highly

internet savvy, or people who live in remote areas, then chances are, you'll have a higher number of

users who are browsing with older equipment, and slower service.

On average though, you can figure 40-60% of your site visitors will use dial-up. That means these issues

are very pertinent to providing them with a good site experience.

Every single item that you put on a web page takes time to move from the server, to the desktop

computer.

The larger the file for the item, the slower it will happen. And each picture, sound, video, animation,

javascript button, or bit of bloated code that your page contains, is counted separately.

These are the most common reasons for speed hits, and what you can do about them:

1.

Big graphics.

Graphics that are large in size, or that do not use efficient compression, will take extra

long to download. Graphic size is measured not just by visual size, but by FILE size. A program like

Adobe Photoshop Elements can help you to reduce the file size (use the Save for Web command), and

to see what the various quality options will give you, and what the resulting file size will be. Graphics

over about 50 k are going to cause problems if you have several of them on a page. Crop out parts that

are not needed, and scale your images down to the smallest size that will still have the needed impact

and detail to serve your purpose.

2.

Flash Animations and Buttons.

These suckers are HUGE. They take several minutes to download,

while you sit watching a progress meter or timer. The rule for Flash is, do not use it unless it TRULY

adds something needed to your site, AND you have an audience that will appreciate it. Flash buttons are

pretty much useless, you can achieve the same thing with simpler and more predictable coding. Another

option is to offer a non-Flash option for slower connections.

3.

Code Bloat.

This is caused by using software that writes cumbersome code instead of efficient code –

MS Office is notorious for this, but any software that is not designed specifically for writing HTML code

(as it's primary function) will produce bad code. Site builders also produce poor code. This can actually

be an extreme problem, with site files being 3-5 times the size (in kilobytes) as what they need to be.

Code written by bad software also is very flaky, and it does not perform reliably in browsers.

4.

Javascript.

Many things that use Javascript can be written in CSS, and done more efficiently. Other

things done in Javascript are either not necessary (adding nothing to the value or function of the site), or

they can be done in simpler ways. If you have it in your site, make sure it is truly needed.

5.

Sounds.

Sounds take FOREVER to download, and often your visitors have moved on to another site by

the time it would take your sound to download, so they don't hear it anyway. Worse, when they DO hear

it, the prevalent reaction is not one of appreciation, but of annoyance. Professional sites simply do not

use background sound loops, and those that use recorded messages have the option of switching them

off.

6.

Movies.

These should ALWAYS be optional. Some users simply cannot access them at all due to the

time it takes to download them. If you provide critical information in a movie format, then PLEASE

provide a transcript so that those who cannot see your movie can actually use your site and benefit from

it.

7.

Graphic intensive pages.

Gallery pages are the standard online now, and for good reason. If you have

pages with tons of large images, they will take too long to download. So the solution is to put thumbnail

shots on a page (9-12 of them), and link each of those to a larger image. This gives your visitor the

 

option of looking at the ones that they are interested in. Slideshows should also be optional, because

they take a long time to load.

8.

Unnecessary dynamic features.

Dynamic sites (php, perl, and asp) are always slower than plain

HTML sites. This is because the user gives information to the server, and the server builds the page

fresh for each user. Some forms of coding are far slower than others. Do not use complex coding when

a simpler site type will work just as well. If you have to use dynamic pages, make sure they fulfill a

necessary function.

I am sure that as internet speeds continue to increase, that programmers, designers, and web techies

will come up with ever more demanding ways to use our bandwidth. Just because they CAN.

We are now

in the middle of a radical transition to exponentially higher speeds, but I am sure that this euphoric state of

feeling like speed issues are not a concern will be short lived. By this time next year it is certain that high speed

internet users will be complaining about new demands on their download time. Not only will more demanding

programming come into play, but we are now dealing with a more impatient crowd – we KNOW what fast internet

is, we will not easily accept even thirty second downloads, when we were willing to accept 45 seconds on dial-

up. We like our speed, and will not easily relinquish it!

Right now though, in the age of transition, be considerate of browsers that are forced into a slower mode of

viewing. You may never know who they are if you are not considerate of them.