Let me say first off that I spent a lot of time in the "early days" of the web (circa '96/'97) optimizing pages and graphics and preaching to the unwashed masses of careless developers about the merits of "skinny" web pages.

My problem with this article (and the premise of King's book) is that it acts as though optimization (or load time) is everything. And it isn't. I'd like to think everyone knows this, but I've seen people with many kinds of web design myopia (usability, IA, branding, graphic design, technology, etc.).

Having said all that, the article has a number of errors:
1. It asks "Ever wonder why Yahoo! is the best-known and most-used search engine/directory on the Web?"
- the answer is that Yahoo! isn't the best-known (Google is the web's strongest brand these days), and Google is the most-used search engine on the web by almost any measure. These are simple facts that should be checked by the author and editor alike.

2. The article also says "the more we optimize our sites for quick loading and ease of use, the more we'll attract and keep visitors"...
- By that rationale, Webword should chop all but 1Kb from it's home page to maximize traffic... Not!

The real conclusion to draw is that slow-loading of pages is a barrier to use, and a facilitator of user frustration. Optimizing pages will eliminate THAT PARTICULAR barrier. BUT if that FAST site is still unusable, poorly designed, or has low-quality content, users will go away fast and fewer will come in the future.

This is hinted at when the article says "if your page hasn't loaded (at least enough to be used) in 8 seconds or less, the average visitor will bail out and go elsewhere."

What is the opportunity cost of optimizing pages 100%? Or should I just shoot for pages that load under 30K on average and then focus on other areas (like server uptime or branding or usability)?

I recently did a competitive analysis for a business and quickly found a number of very large companies with home pages over 220K...clearly they have room for optimization. But, I also found some of their competitors with home pages under 20K...should they optimize further? I don't think so. They needed to work on their content - which was skimpy and poorly organized.

(Note post #9 on the comments page clears up a few key points...)

Posted by: Lyle, Lyle - Croc O' Lyle on May 5, 2003 01:23 AM

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Okay,

Usability quiz...how do you post a reply in the Posted by: Lyle - Usability Guru on May 5, 2003 01:30 AM

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