RE: Low end users

Another factor is age. I'm 44, meaning I'm from a generation that spent a
lot more time reading books, magazines, etc. as we were growing up. The idea
of having to wait for a page is alien to us. Equally offensive to our eyes
has been the nature of Web-based graphic design, which suffers from a
variety of problems ranging from ugliness to sparsity. Even if all you've
done is grow up on television, you're going to expect more from that box in
front of your eyes when you sit down to surf the Web. I don't know that
people accept slow downloads as normal, as you suggest, as much as they have
resigned themselves to the current frustrations of Web use. By all means,
bring on the broadband! I'll be glad to see this issue relegated to the
history books!

Keith Purtell

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Peter Benoit [mailto:pbenoit(at)triton-network.com]
> Sent: Monday, May 15, 2000 11:21 AM
> To: 'Keith Purtell'; hwg-techniques(at)mail.hwg.org
> Subject: RE: Low end users
>
>
> I don't know how true that is.  I'm often with friends and
> family that have
> much slower connections than would seem normal.  Using AOL on
> a 28.8 modem,
> loading just about any page takes much longer than 1 full
> second.  I think
> many users have just accepted this as normal and don't think
> much of it.
> Webdesigners on the other hand think about it all the time
> simply because we
> work with it.  I'm convinced that many average users who
> haven't had the
> experience of DSL, Cable, or T1 connections, don't worry as
> much if a page
> takes 20 seconds to load because they are accustomed to it.
> 20 seconds
> being the very last instance that an image is completely loaded for
> instance.
>
> So is it acceptable to design pages that take that long for a
> low end user?
> Of course not.  But on the other hand, broadband is becoming
> more and more
> the norm around the Net.  I think webpage size will become a
> concern of the
> past, but what you do with the webpage will pose a larger
> problem.  [ snip ]
>

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