Re: UKNM: The next stage in the game - was Dreamcast delayed

[Stefan Magdalinski]

Sam Michel wrote:

> 

> Traditionally our hardware has been more expensive and less ubiquitous than

> the US, which in gaming terms led our programmers to be far more efficient

> and squeeze more out of the equipment available. This led to tight

> programming and maximum optimisation.

> 

> Theoretically we should benefit again with the Internet. UK web-designers

> should have learnt to optimise more, and produce sites which download

> quickly whatever connection you're on because we (generally) don't have

> flat-rate Internet access. Of course, now I'm sitting here writing this, I

> can't think of any good examples to back this up.


because:


the limiting factor on site download time is not people worrying about

the *cost*, just about boredom. cost worries people when they download

25 megs of netscape, but not http://www.yahoo.com, http://cnn.com or

http://www.bbc.co.uk. 


they just get fed up with waiting over 40Kbps.


> I was watching a presentation online today (ADSL is very good for streaming

> media) from one of the US conferences (I think it was the CEO of Excite

> @Home) and the one thing that came out of their focus groups over and over

> again was speed. Users liked the information fast, they liked searches

> fast. He said that in many cases a badly designed site with poor

> functionality rated better than a well designed site with improved

> functions if the former was faster.

> 

> Is speed everything? Better hope bandwidth charges this side of the pond

> start dropping eh?


speed is nearly everything, but download time is not the only element of

speed.


a *useful* definition of speed: 



"how quickly does the user find what they want?"


now go back and look at your sites again, people. 


stefan


> Toodle Pip

> 

> Sam

> -----------------------------------------------------

>                http://www.chinwag.com



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