The importance of fast design
Don't make them wait
If your visitors have to wait 30 seconds for your site to load, you can be sure you're losing half your audience. These days there are plenty of sites that load far more quickly, and users naturally prefer those. Reducing the amount of time it takes for your site's front page to display completely can help you hang onto users. This is called optimizing your site's load time.
Think "fast" when designing pages
- The four-GIF rule
Images increase load time, so if possible, use no more than four images on your home page.
There may be some images you need to use for aesthetic purposes, but use them sparingly. Don't reach for Photoshop every time you need something done; use fancy text or tables with colored backgrounds instead.
A cure for the graphics-heavy site
If you can't figure out how to reduce the number of images on your site, create a text-only version of the most important pages (or the whole site if possible).
Text pages save time for those with slow connections and allow the 25% of users who still use text-only browsers to view your site. Text pages can also help your rankings with those search engines that don't recognize images or ALT tags.
- File formats
There are many different file formats available for graphics on the web, but certain types are preferable to others.
-Avoid using .bmp (Paint) files, which are very large.
- Avoid .psd (Photoshop) files, .png (Portable Network Graphics) files and other files with less common extensions -- not all browsers support them.
-Use .jpeg or .jpg files for photographs or other complex art and save the .gif and animated .gif formats for simpler files.
- New multimedia
With so many new multimedia options, such as Flash and Director , it's hard to know how multimedia will impact your site's load time. Before you spend long hours building a full-blown sound and video extravaganza, ask yourself if the technology you're using reinforces your content and your message. If the only reason to use it is because it's cool, it's probably not justified.
The good news is that optimized Flash and Director files will not slow your site down -- at least, not by much. This doesn't mean you should make every user watch that cool Flash intro on your site. (Reread the foregoing sentence again and again.) Always provide your visitors with the option of skipping an intro and going straight to the site proper.
Designing fast-loading pages
- Think "fast" to retain visitors
- Consider file formats when designing
- Find ways to reduce the number of images on your home page
- Use multimedia effects wisely
 
|
