I still remember the times when there was only limited amount of disk space available (hard disk sizes of 20 MB were common), so keeping files as small as possible was most important. This prerequisite has gone, but there is another one: not everybody has a high-speed web connection!
Sure: T1, cable, DSL, these all are widespread, but what about mobile web access? UMTS offers top-speed, but when you come into an area not covered by UMTS, you’d have to fall back on GPRS or EDGE. How long do you want to wait for a web site to load on such a connection? Good. Then you know how important it is to offer light-weight versions of websites.
What do you think about this? Let me know.
There is also 3G for mobile technology, and gprs isn’t bad at all !
I absolutely agree with you. A few years ago it seemed that this problem will never emerge again with the widespread use of broadband. But today, with mobile web access, GPRS, EDGE etc. it seems this is an issue again. I run a very small website, with usually basic content, I do not even use MySQL. Most websites display images (.jpg or .png) even at places where formatted TEXT would do. I use images only where necessary for the visuals, but text is just text, formatted in HTML. I work with simple fonts (Tahoma, Arial, Times New Roman, Verdana), no background image (just bgcolor=”whatevercolor” in the BODY tag). The site loads much faster because fewer data needs to be received, which is good because:
1) it saves time
2) it saves money for people who use a connection that charges based on how much data you received
I think it is very important (even today) to build or at least offer light-weight versions of websites.
The same is true to email: why use HTML formatted messages where plain text would do?
These days, mobile phone browser had capability same as their desktop counterpart. I think, this will made designers to use more dynamic programming, pictures, or worse, just wont bother designing a specific mobile site (the visitor can view the desktop site just fine, they even have that cool zoom-in zoom-out feature).
Crippled mobile site with very nostalgic 90s-feel design doesn’t always equal eyecatching and usable design, but I still often wish even with browser like the iPhone’s, web developers would still make mobile site that loads fine in feature phone browser, IE Mobile or even Palm’s old Blazer 😀