Sunday, 24 November 2013

Weighing more than 100kb? Your website needs to be on a diet.

Remember, usability studies show people don't read on the web. So what am I doing right now, you might ask? What we mean is that users approaching a business website looking for a particular product or service have a different consideration for their time than what they would have if they sat down to their favourite blog. It's about CONTEXT.
"When it comes to copy, short is too long. It must be ultra-short" says the leader of User-Experience, Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen Norman Group
Lengthy pages don't work on the web and work even less for websites that are called to the phone.

Images read quicker than text. I've suggested you limit images in previous posts to keep the overall website super light, they slow download and if your landing page isn't formed in 3 seconds half your visitors will opt out of your website. The goal of image compression is to achieve a super small size,  in the tens of kbs or less, if quality allows. I see websites from leading developers with each image on their site over 200kb regularly, and consequently their websites weigh in the MBs. Ridiculous! A huge waste of resources, while they look spectacular, half the audience won't wait for these websites to download.

The quality of images sends messages to your visitors about your professionalism, so choose images carefully. Simple, easy to understand forms are needed by scanning readers who have no time for ambiguous messages and complicated detail. Never use images that have been ripped off another site, Google will frown on your site if it includes plagiarised content. Any professional website developer would insist on using licensed photography, either from a stock provider or a professional photographer.


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