A good web designer will allow you to skip heavy graphic AVIs and test
the site using Netscape, Opera, and Mozilla. Even better yet, the
designer can detect the connection speed, browser, and O/S and take
you to the page that will properly load in a reasonable time. The
Toyota web site sucked when all I wanted to get were dimensions and
towing capacity of their vehicles. The truth is that Americans buy
vehicles based on appearance more than anything else. And those web
site that play songs are irritating.
On Mon, 31 Jan 2005 08:49:15 -0700, Wes Stewart
wrote:
On Sun, 30 Jan 2005 19:54:59 GMT, "Jeff P."
wrote:
I've been in the process of do a complete redesign of my website and I'm
always trying to balance using tons of graphics with the fact that some
people might get frustrated with download times if they have a slower
connection. I'm just curious to know what type of connection most of you
have to the internet. Personally, I'm on cable. It's pricey but I'll never
go back. How about all of you?
Thanks for asking!
While I have a second line just for the computer, it's POTS and I'm
out in the country. I have two computers with 56K modems, desktop and
laptop. Desktop now has external hardware modem. Connects at 28.8K.
Same for the laptop.
To damn many website designers figure that everyone has a personal T1
line and design their site accordingly. They also assume that
everyone uses IE too. (I also have friends who like to forward
"funny" email with 2-megabyte file attachments. Mailwasher takes care
of those for me.)
For example, I wanted to shop Ford trucks. Ford's website wants me to
have Flash installed. (After hearing about the recent recall of Ford
trucks, I think that they installed "flash" under the hoods of their
trucks too.)
I emailed Ford and informed them that the percentage of the population
that is still on dialup was a lot higher than the percentage of the
population who drive Fords and if they wanted to improve that, they
had best fire their web designers and start over. I got an email
back, thanking me for my *email* and asking me to take a customer
survey about my experience. I said, what the hell and opened the
survey. The questions all related to my *telephone* call to customer
service. I'm sticking with my '98 Chevy.
Another example: I have an IRA at Schwab. They are constantly
bugging me to turn off paper statements and get them via the web. But
if I want a transaction history, I have to wait for an HTML table to
be generated. Then I can't get the underlying data so I have to print
it and this requires another wait while that is formatted. And I
still have a piece of paper, only it cost me to print it. I don't
have any money on deposit at Yahoo finance, but they give lots of info
in downloadable spreadsheet format for free. I use Firefox for a
browser. Some "features" at Schwab don't work correctly. When I call
their tech support they say, "Oh, you need to use IE." The customer
is always wrong.
From my perspective, give me your thoughts in text. If you need
pictures or graphics to make your case, put 'em in thumbnail form and
I'll look at them if necessary. My wife keeps my cookie jar full, I
don't need any from you, thanks anyway. I like to install my own
software as needed and I make my own coffee. Keep your Java to
yourself. Photographs need to be framed sometimes, but I don't need
them on my CRT. If you have numbers for me, give 'em to me in a
downloadable .csv file. If your document requires precise formatting,
better do it in .pdf that will survive different browser
idiosyncrasies.
Just my humble opinion.
|