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Why do I suggest this?

Well, one only has to look at the number of "really cool dude" websites that seem to assume we all have broadband connections.

This, of course, is nothing new. Some idiot web designers have always been tempted to assume that bandwidth isn't an issue and that they should be allowed to make their pages as big, bulky and beautiful as they want.

So why am I mentioning this again today?

Well it was the comments voiced in this story [IDG] that got me to thinking.

When you realise that the huge majority of Kiwis still access the Net at a decidedly pedestrian pace, through a liesurely dial-up connection, the need for web designers to keep a close eye on the total size of their pages becomes important.

Lots of folks scoff at the fact that I still surf with my graphics and Javascript disabled but it's surprising how many become converts to this form of bare-bones web surfing once they see how much faster most sites load when you drop the dross.

Now, as someone who uses the Net mainly to gather information, and who is more interested in the steak than the sizzle, perhaps I'm in a minority group. Maybe most Net users are actually happy to wait 15, 20 or even 60 seconds for a page to slowly crawl onto their screen -- but I doubt it.

I have no reason to believe that the old metric of performance (that a web page must start delivering usable content within 8-10 seconds) should have changed at all.

One skill that still seems sadly lacking in the web design world is the tailoring of HTML to ensure that key parts of the page (ie: the text and navigation) loads up quickly, while the other, less essential elements (the eye-candy) stroll along later.

I suspect this is often due to the fact that, in the name of economy, many new web designers are using WYSIWYG tools and have little desire to tweak the HTML/DHTML that's generated. Chances are also that some designers consider the final result (the way the page looks when fully rendered) to be more important than the way in which it loads or the speed at which it loads.

By and large, I have to admit that the standard of web design in New Zealand has come a very long way since the day that Telecom launched its Xtra website with a 135Kbyte navigation graphic as the front page (who remembers that?). Those were also the days of 14.4/28.8Kbps modems and limited network bandwidth. I still remember waiting more than three minutes for that page to load on the day when the site was launched.

I also remember how proud they were of that monstrosity -- but I suspect that not even Chris Tyler himself had ever bothered to test it using a dial-up connection. It wasn't until the media and just about everyone else bitched madly about it that something was done about it.

Until those changes were made, many, many Net users ended up using the alternative navigation system I provided through this site (read about it).

However, there are still signs that far too many web designers have forgotten about the "commoners" who don't have a fast DSL or wireless connection.

Perhaps they ought to take a look at one of the world's most popular websites for a reminder of what *good* web design is all about.

Please don't burden your steak with too much sizzle!

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