Posts In Web Design & Development

Slow Down Your Website Load Time- Here's How......

If you have started across your comp screen waiting for a site to open up, got up to fetch a glass of water, looked outside the window, answered a phone call and returned to your desk to see nothing, then you know what I mean.

The time your website takes to load defines the make or break deal situation! So wouldn’t it be a wise to shed some thought about getting it done a little to fast? Considering the ever shrinking patience level of internet users, it is by all means!

Let me tell you some tricks of the trade that’ll push on you website onto the screen in a flick:

Get off those bulky graphics

What use it the beauty if there are no eyes to admire, so said some poet. And sure enough for websites, all you efforts to make it a beautiful imagery go down the drain if it doesn’t load fast enough for the user to stay. Be discrete and use less images and graphics. Text links are easily read by search engines and load faster than those graphic buttons on display.

Optimize the Images that you Use

Editing softwares like Photoshop lets you optimize the images of your website. Now images come in several formats, be it GIF, JPEG, PNG or TIFF. Use what is best suited for the case. I suggest you use GIF ‘for uniform color images and JPEG for real world scenes. For PNG, a word of caution, use it only if you are sure that your users are using new browsers.

Specify the Dimensions of Images

While inserting images in HTML make sure you mention the height and width attributes. This’ll help the web browser to ascertain the image size before loading it. That ways the browser will reserve the area of images while the rest of the page continues to load. This speeds up the loading time real well.

Pre-load the Images

This is an ace. I preload some heavy pages of subsequent pages by clicking on links within the current page and define them at the footer of the current web page. this way while the user is busy viewing the main page, images of the next page continue to load on the visitors’ comp in the background without hampering anything else.

Remove Useless Codes

While using HTML generator, some extra tags like breaking spaces, block quotes, unnecessary extra space, and blank lines get inserted in the code. To counter this, check your website design code manually and remove all the empty tags. Also, make sure you use appropriate doc type and close all HTML markup elements. You’ll spare the browser a lot of matching work.

So there, these are some trade secrets that I let out. Make haste and put them to work!

Bye till next time…

What To Know Before Making That Outsourcing Deal

So, all your doubts about making that outsourcing decision have been waived off?
However, before you stamp that outsourcing deal with the service provider there are some things which I think you should know.

Let me tell you what all:

Scope
Define the scope of work very clearly. If you don’t define your project guidelines at the agreement time, the vendor may draft out a scope document for you. And that’s not how it should be. The scope is what determines the price, so don’t enter into a full outsource agreement until the work has been done

Liability
The contract should dictate the vendor’s liability if something goes wrong with the contract. The liability areas include intellectual property infringement, death, personal injury, property damage, and also breaches of confidentiality and privacy. If at all something was to go wrong, you would be able to devise an approach on how to deal with it in the course of the outsourcing period.

IP ownership
Get the IP ownership assigned you the first thing. After all, as a customer you would want an unfettered right to use all the intellectual property created by the vendor. But also be prepared for due resistance from the vendors side, who will want to retain their knowledge asset. Both parties should find a way to compromise in order for the IP to be really secured.

Termination rights
Not all deals find the clause ‘happily ever after’ working for them. Get this fact right and address the termination rights even before the deal is actualized. You will need to set out what the vendor’s obligations are in relation to disengagement, your ability to use IP beyond the agreement, and if the vendor will make its people available to the new outsourcer.

Service levels
This is an essential feature in the outsourcing agreement. While it acts as a scorecard for the vendor, it makes you monitor the work process. Fewer the service levels, the better. Because that allows you to focus on the key issues that you want to achieve.

Do keep these in mind before you sign the deal and be sure to have a smooth inning with your outsourcing partner!

Till next time...

Byeee..........

Firefox 3 Arrives

Hi,

So Mozilla released the fourth beta of Firefox 3. No prizes for guessing that it’s a take on Microsoft’s upcoming internet explorer 8.1

In an era of frequent launches, what should I choose? Do I just go about shifting loyalties as and when there is a new feature in the market?

This question plagues me everytime I switch my brands! I don’t really know where it will all stop, but let me just tell you about the new one:

The Firefox beta 4 is sure an improvement on the earlier versions and the compnay’s claim of “more than 900 enhancements” is not a hoax call. The ones that most appealed to me are:

• Add-on finder
• The full page zoom
• The one-click site info and
• Greater cross-platform integration

Extensions are pretty much the same as the FF2 version: when you click on an XPI, it’ll get saved on the add-ons folder. But what’s new is that you can search for add-ons and get your search results within the add-on window. You can also search for and add recommended add-ons.

And though the new plug-ins worked smooth, there was a hiccup in the discovery feature; it just didn’t seem to recognize the recommended Firefox 3-compatible add-ons that weren't installed.

The one-click site info finally does good to the “dumb blonde” favicon and makes it a little worthwhile. When I clicked it on FF3 beta 4, I got instant site info like if or not the site is encrypted, the website owner and their location. Favicons for Web sites like Pay Pal using Extended Validation SSL will turn green. Non-verified sites will indicate only that the site status is unknown.

The full-page zoom is another feather in cap. FF2 allowed for zooming on the text, but with FF3 the entire page, and yes, that includes graphics can be enlarged or shrunk at constant proportions. But I did miss the “quick restart button” on the toolbar.

And to broaden the spread of its customers, FF3 has got in greater cross-platform integration. I could see improvisations on the Firefox iterations running on Windows Vista, as well as Linux and Mac platforms. The Vista improvements take advantage of Vista widgets in the browser and Web forms. The Mac changes are largely cosmetic, with a new OS X theme designed to make FF3 look like a native app, as well as support for OS X widgets and Growl notifications. The Linux changes are cosmetic as well, utilizing the native GTK theme.

And the auto-completion feature in the location bar has been completely revamped. You just need to start typing the URL and FF3 will get to work and scan through your bookmarks and recently visited sites to get you the site title along with the suggested URL. Site suggestions that come from your bookmarks are demarcated by yellow stars.

I can see faster performance thanks to the handling of JavaScript and memory cycles, but then no claim comes as strong as evidence. Let’s just wait on that front. Though FF3 leaps well over the previous versions, it has miles to go for the perfection tag.

Bye

10 Posts In Your Complaint Box

Hi,

Are you smiling away to glory after seeing no negative feedback on your website forms. Well… if you have heavy traffic to boast of I may excuse you. But if you are devoid of that too, then let me give you a reality check.

Chances are visitors wouldn’t really be caring to stop and communicate. They might be choosing to leave instantly!

The audience today is much more tech- savvy than what it used to be earlier. And that means their expectation level is rising in inverse proportion to their patience. Yeah… They have become an impatient lot seldom waiting to tolerate your careless mistakes

Let me tell you the top ten complaints customers have against websites:

 (Do Not) Contact Us

I do understand how websites undermine the importance of ‘Contact Us’ tab? The very basic purpose of a website is to entice the visitor. And what do the visitors do once the interest is aroused? Look for a medium to contact you!

But alas! There is no such thing. Need I say more about what the next action will be?

That will be the last you hear from that particular customer.

Registration Proof

Now online transactions do arouse skepticism. No one would entrust money or even take seriously for business purposes a company that doesn’t carry registration details. Add to it lack of information about the company’s services and offerings and there would be no better reason for the visitor to flee.

Nothing to Search the Site

Finding a pin in the haystack! Yeah… That’s what it is like to locate a particular piece of interest in the heaps pages of a website if there is no site search tool. Visitors to a site often have specific questions in mind. Not allowing them to search your site efficiently to get the information they seek sends the message that you least value their interest and time.

Late Links

Naah… I don’t mean link who work late. I mean link that are dead. The frustration factor here is secondary to the impression of poor maintenance and lack of investment by the company in its impression. 

 Pop-ups

‘New and Fresh’ may work for the foodies. But when it comes to website designing, opening new windows may not be that tempting. While it can be an effective tool, it should be used sparingly due to its connotations with hard sells and spam. All browsers worth its name come with a pop up blocker. So there is no use whatsoever trying antics that wouldn’t work

Extra software to view the site

The ‘free’ lure will not work when the desperate wait for the site to open is on a high. Sites that require installation of a new software to view them record the highest numbers of lost visitors.

A site need not cater to the lowest common browser abilities, but it should also not assume that everyone who visits is surfing on the latest and most up-to-date browser.

 Snail Pace Loading

Now this has been a time tested factor. Visitors don’t wait beyond 8 seconds max for the site to load. They will be all set to leave after the expiry period. A good website design will allow for the quick and painless load of its pages, especially the splash, or front, page that creates the initial impression of the website.

Language Laments

This is a major turn off. Visitors with high regard of your company come pay you an online visit and are welcomed with spelling and grammar mistakes. It takes but an instant to crack the credibility built over time. I mean what to expect of a company that lacks attention in such prime quarters. Does it not reflect their business handlings?

Don’t Go Back

As much as I understand your desire to keep the visitors glued on to your website, I also consider their need to move two steps back to check something.  Easy movement calls for clear and intuitive navigation. A primary issue that triggers customer frustration is an inability to easily return to a prior page or the main site.

Expired Information

An outdated copyright date or an expired offering is all that visitors need to question the correctness and credibility of all the information on the website. After all no one will stake claim to stale content.

Well that was enough to fill in your feedback box I guess. Will get you more next time.

Bye for now.......