Save the binvironment !!!

I came up with an expression about 10 years ago regarding 2 major players in the
realm of technology, Intel makes em' faster, Microsoft makes em' slower...
Taken at face value you might not get my meaning. What I mean is software developers will continue pushing the limits of the hardware of the times.

The same is true today but now a broadband internet connection is a required hardware component for my system, without it I can't work or play. And of course software developers, rather web developers are working hard to reach the limits. VOIP and streaming media are good examples of this trend.

But I'd like to draw your attention to the unwanted/unintentional bloat that is getting into the mix, particularly the bloat that comes about in HTML code when using WYSIWYG editors, or image files that have not been optimized. BLOAT BAD! for numerous reasons, some of which you might not realize.

Another contributor to the total saturation of the information highway is web sites not responding to "if-modified" requests correctly, which is esepcially true of many PHP driven web applications. This in turn can prevent the content from being cached properly, and must be re-served for every request.

And yet another contributor, most web servers are capable of compressing content before sending it to the viewer. In most situations enabling this compression is a good trade of spare cpu ticks in exchange for smaller amounts of data to send down the wire.

So yes, save the binvironment.

If you are a web developer..

• Optimize / crop images
• Inspect your HTML, removing bloat code.
• Avoid inline CSS styling, use an external css file
• Avoid inline Java, javascript use an external js file
• Check that your web site responds reasonably to "if-modified" requests.
• Check that your web server is compressing content before sending

By the way a pretty handy place to check server responses is http://redbot.org
After submitting your domain's URL, click the "check assets" link. They even
have a handy bookmarklet you can use. SWEET!

Gonna party like it's 1989 !

Sticking with my stolen song title methodology.. lame, I know.

Anyways, I thought I'd touch on one of the little nuances of web development that can have a pretty large impact on a website's usability. Link colors and decoration.

Webmasters have always had control over the color of their textual links, via the BODY tag, Then along came CSS and it became the new rage to make textual links look "cool". Of course "coolness" is in the eye of the beholder, and unfortunately many webmasters wound up making their textual links look nearly identical to their regular text, in turn making it difficult for people to spot links that they might be interested in.

Even worse, often there was no way to tell which links the viewer had already visited, causing some visitors to unintentionally view the same page twice, discovering it isn't what they wanted (again), getting frustrated and going elsewhere.

Usability is just as crucial as the content. After all what use is great content if it isn't accessible, sort of like a museum full of masterpieces, except its never open.

Along with slow page loads, a poorly though out navigation scheme, which includes link color and decoration, is one of the reasons people will abandon your site and go elsewhere.

When HTML first evolved into common use, the web browsers of the day came up with a common scheme, and surprisingly all the companies making browsers agreed, and displayed them the same way. Something almost unheard of today.. but I digress.

• There is a reason the default link color is blue and underlined.
• There is a reason the default visited link color is purple.
• There is/was a reason the default active link color is red.

Even the behemoth Google sticks to this standard. Actually they enforce it via CSS, just in case you've twiddled with the browser default's.

Granted, active link color isn't really an issue today. Hopefully the viewer's computer, and the web server you use results in a nearly instantaneous reaction, but back in the day, it was necessary to tell the viewer "we're working on it, keep your shirt on, and don't click the link again !". If your site has an international audience, it's probably still a good idea to make active links stand out, since there is a chance people will repeatedly click a link, which just bogs down your server, and probably frustrates all your viewers.

Of course you needn't use these exact colors, but do make certain your textual links don't blend in too well with your regular text. Also be sure to differentiate between links to pages that the viewer has already seen. I'm also a staunch supporter of leaving links underlined, but that is likely just personal preference.

Until next time HAPPY WEBMASTERING!