Web Site Design & Development

There are many factors that influence performance on the World Wide Web, but most of them are not in any single entity's control. You can, however, stack the deck in your favor by making sure your pages are carefully designed, and by choosing your Web presence provider wisely.

How To Make Sure Your Pages Load Quickly
There are two halves to the performance equation: the client side and the server side. The client side consists of the end user's (meaning your potential customer's) computer, modem, Web browser and connection to the Internet. You can't influence the quality and speed of their Internet connection, but you can lower the time that it takes for your pages to load. Spend a little time thinking about what you want to say and what you want to feature on your pages, and ask these questions:

RE: The Client Side
How many simultaneous colors are you using? Reduce the number of colors as much as possible. 24 bit color (65,000 simultaneous colors) looks great, but will cause your images to be much larger than if you dither your graphics down to 8 bits of color (256 simultaneous colors) or less.

Are you using the most efficient format for each image? JPEG is typically good for photographs and other images, while GIF is well suited to less complex images like logos and line art. Determine which format produces the smallest file size for each image on your page.

Are you using graphics where text would suffice? Consider varying the size and color of text using HTML tags instead of creating your copy with graphics.

Do you need every image? People often create pages with unnecessary images. This can result in a "busy" look, which makes it hard to read. And, it greatly increases the time it takes to load the page. Evaluate each image based on its contribution. How important is it? How large is it?

RE: The Server Side
The server side consists of the hardware, software and Internet connection of the machine serving your site. You can exercise a great deal of control over this aspect of performance? by choosing a good Web presence provider. It is important to consider many points when evaluating a Web hosting service.

Speed of the Internet connection. The size of the average Web page continues to increase. Large graphics and multimedia files can quickly saturate an Internet link, so it is very important that your provider have a sufficiently large pipe to the net. The minimum size connection to consider would be a T1 line (1.544 Mb/s), but this does not give your provider much room to grow. Keep in mind that it's not just your site that is being hosted. It is not difficult for a single "popular" site to overwhelm the capabilities of a T1. Depending on the provider's size, a better choice would be to find one with a T3 line (44.736 Mb/s). This will almost guarantee that they won't run out of bandwidth at peak traffic times.

The underlying transport of the connection. Setting up an Internet link can be a very expensive proposition. Web presence providers often cut corners and use an inexpensive frame relay network, or other public type of network, for their "local-loop". This means that your data is sharing communications lines with many other users before it ever gets to the Internet. It is likely to experience packet loss due to this type of connection. Make sure that your provider is connected to the net via a dedicated circuit for their local loop.

Number of hops to the backbone. Traffic on the Internet consists of packets being transmitted from one router to the next before eventually reaching its destination. It is not unusual for a packet to be handled by 20 or more routers before it ends up where it is destined. Each hand-off from one router to another is called a "hop" and it has a performance cost. To reduce the number of hops choose a provider that is as close as possible to the backbone (the highest bandwidth routes that carry most of the Internet's traffic). Providers directly connected (1 hop) to the backbone typically outperform those who are connected further down stream (multiple hops). Be sure to ask exactly how many hops away from the backbone your provider is connected. You can determine this yourself by using a "traceroute" program.

The speed and size of their Web servers.  What type of hardware is your site being served from? The more CPU power dedicated to handling server requests, the better. High end servers running UNIX or NT are usually the performance leaders.

Multiple diverse connections. Internet traffic can take many different paths to reach a given destination. Some paths are faster or more direct than others. Having multiple, diverse connections to the Internet is a key requirement.  What this means is your data has more paths to choose from, and better odds of finding a faster route.

Another benefit of having multiple diverse connections is that your data has a better chance of bypassing backbone "peering points".  Peering points are where traffic from the large backbone providers get transferred from one network to another. Like an interchange between large interstate highways, where traffic often slows to a crawl. If your data has more choices and can avoid these traffic jams, it will arrive more quickly and more reliably.

Summary
The performance equation has two halves: the client side and the server side. While most of the client side is out of your control, you can influence client side performance through careful design of your pages. The server side is very much under your control: choose a Web presence provider that is connected close to the backbone, uses high performance servers, and has multiple, high-speed connections to the Internet. It can mean the difference between having a fast, popular site and a slow, frustrating one.

How important is it to develop a theme for your site?
The primary consideration in the design of a web site should be an overall creative concept that has clear identification with what your company does, how it wants to be portrayed, and what it would like to accomplish as a member of the Internet community.

The creative concept can take the form of a metaphor, a message, a specific resource, a game, a promotion, or all of the above. The important thing is that people visiting your site value the information, resources, and experience. For example, it is our hope that as you consider developing your web site you'll be aided by the content of this site, not by learning how to code HTML (there are plenty of sites for that) but, by becoming aware of the right questions to ask and by understanding the importance of prudent planning.

How important is it to have spectacular graphics?
Graphics used for their own sake slow everything down. Make sure their use offers some function, and provides consistency in the look and feel of the site. If they are purely decorative, then somehow tie that decoration to the message or the purpose of the site and provide a frame of reference for text. If the function of a graphic is navigation, make sure it is clearly a navigation tool and the link it represents is easily understood.

In short, use graphics either: 1) To convey information for navigation or frame of reference; or, 2) To convey a sense of consistency that makes the experience of browsing your site distinct from any other.

How do you build consistency?
Establishing a style guide is a good way to build consistency into your site. Some dictates of a style guideline might be.

• Use of graphics for bandheads or page headings
• Use of navigational graphics
• Use of content bullets and anchoring for pages with long text
• Use of image mapping for listing resources while controlling type
• Mix text browsing options with graphics
• The depth within the site to which graphics are used

How to develop good site architecture?
It is helpful to develop a storyboard of how a site will be organized. A storyboard should display major categories of information, the flow between those categories, and the flow down to individual components. A storyboard should be a clear representation of how people will browse your site. A good rule of thumb is to never make a visitor click through more than three (3) levels to reach info they seek.

How do you draw people to your site?
One of the dilemmas many web site sponsors wrestle with is how to draw people to their site. The answer partially depends on the sponsor's objectives for a Net presence. If the site is meant as an adjunct to corporate communications you can use other media to drive prospects, customers, and partners to the site. If your site is meant to create incremental business and sales opportunities outside of traditional channels, you'll need to promote it in ways that will reach outside of your normal customer and prospect base.

Here are some possibile promotional activities.

Reciprocal Links - Seek out sites representing technologies or issues relevant to your target audience and solicit hypertext links from their sites to yours.

Hot Lists - Identify and pursue the hottest sites that list new home pages by category. (i.e.: the "What's New" list sponsored by NCSA, developers of Mosaic).

Publishers - Identify and pursue publishers of books about the Web that list sites of interest and make them aware of your site.

Indexes - Identify and pursue sites that are indexing Internet resources and make them aware of your site. Specify how your site should be indexed categorically, according to the index site's specifications (i.e.: Yahoo).

Search Engines- Submit your site's content for full text index by the available search engines (i.e.: Lycos)

Traditional PR - Work with your PR staff or agency and direct them towards editors focused on the Internet and the Web. Put out a news release about a new and unique resource on the Net.

Marketing Materials - You should design a small logo or icon representing a web home page and listing your URL (web address). Place the URL on all print collaterals, ads, stationary, email signature blocks, etc.

Newsgroups- It is possible to post messages about your site to a newsgroup without being flamed. First, the particular newsgroup should have some interest in the information you're providing. Second, you should invite them to a resource that is unique and valuable to them, as opposed to your site as a place

If you have additional questions or if you'd like to discuss your specific requirements, please contact us at (909) 798-1155 Fax (909) 792-5188 or E-Mail