If you've done any amount of design or development on the Web, you're probably thinking I've lost my mind. Slow modems are a good thing? Lagging performance is a benefit to the Web?
Constraint breeds creativity. I've seen designers face the roadblock of limited bandwidth over and over again with the same result: They do better work. You can do great things with virtually no bytes at all - I've been amazed at what can be done with two typefaces and colored table cells.
When bandwidth isn't an issue, when interfaces have no constraint, developers and designers lose track of the power of simplicity. Look back at the world of CD-ROM design a few years ago to see what I mean. User experiences were inconsistent, every cursor was animated, and it was a sea of full-screen color blends, drop shadows, and cyber-looking beveled edges. In other words, a mess.
All the bells and whistles in the world can't replace a well considered and designed site. And a well designed site is one that reaches its audience, whatever its connection speed.
But how do you make sure you're reaching your audience? Look to your competition for guidance. They're vying for the attention of the same eyeballs as you. So, do some analysis to see how high a bar you need to shoot for.
Sites like Dr. HTML and
Web Site Garage can help
you analyze your site, reporting the total file size and download time of
your pages. You can also point these sites at your competition. Find 10
pages you consider competitors, dump their URLs in one of the utilities
listed above, and see how they stack up. For example, one site may come in
at 80 KB, another at 18 KB, and the rest somewhere around 30 KB. This will give you the upper and lower limits of performance for those who cater to your audience. See where the rest cluster. Set your goals. Know your limits.
Then embrace the constraint of slow connections. Learn to love the modem. And fear big bandwidth.
It will make you better at making the Web.
