Re: a few long pages vs. many shorter pages

Marie Mills <mariemills(at)hotmail.com> wrote:
>So my question is:  what are the pros and cons of designing a site with
>a few longer pages versus having more pages that are shorter?  I'll
>compile all responses...  Thanks,


There are many factors to consider. In making your choice, you need to
consider your audience and the manner in which they will use your site.

Studies[1] have shown that users locate information significantly faster and
recall the information more accurately with long, scrolling files than they
do with multiple, small, hyperlinked files.

However, the hypertext model used has a large influence on the usability of
linked pages. If the links are good (intuitive and easily navigable), and
the site has a good overview ("site map") then users' performance improves.
Users will still perform better with long documents, but the quicker
download time of a small page may offset this advantage. Of course, faster
download times only apply if the users will only ever look at a small
portion of the site. If they need to read most, or all, of the pages then
the combined download time of the many small pages will exceed that of the
few long pages (due to the overhead of multiple HTTP requests).

So, as you can see, a lot of factors play off against one another and what
works for one site will not work for another.

The short answer is: there isn't a short answer. But at least you woke this
list up again, so thanks for that :-)


[1] See, for example, Monk, Walsh & Dix "A Comparison of Hypertext,
Scrolling and Folding Mechanisms for Program Browsing" in "People and
Computers IV", Cambridge University Press, 1988.


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David Meadows [ Technical Writer | Information Developer ]
DNRC Minister for Littorasy * david(at)heroes.force9.co.uk

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 low-quality information, teach them. Teach them what to read.
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