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Does your online shop load in 4 seconds?
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Downsizer Forum Index -> Small Business Questions, Ideas and Advice

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jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28238
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Thu Dec 28, 06 6:19 pm Post subject: Does your online shop load in 4 seconds?
https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6131668.stm Shoppers are impatient and may give up if a page takes longer!

sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Thu Dec 28, 06 6:22 pm Post subject:
I have no idea! I've always assumed that things load faster on the computer they were created on than elsewhere, though that may be total cobblers...

Penny Outskirts

Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 23385
Location: Planet, not on the....

Posted: Thu Dec 28, 06 8:35 pm Post subject:
Yep, easily

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Thu Dec 28, 06 11:09 pm Post subject:

sally_in_wales wrote:

I have no idea! I've always assumed that things load faster on the computer they were created on than elsewhere, though that may be total cobblers...

Two BIG mistakes many folk make in assessing the speed with which a site loads are in the connection and the cache.
If the files are local (on the same machine or ethernet network) they will load fantastically faster than across a modem link. What's that? You really don't want to sell to people who live outside broadband coverage? Oh, right...
And if you are viewing your own (remotely hosted) site, don't forget that all the static data is already in your machine's cache. First time visitors don't get luxury. And it takes time to load all that stuff. So clear your browser's cache before you test anything. And do try it with a modem...
If you are demo-ing a site you have built, loading files into a ram disk is cheating, and smacks of desperation.

I particularly detest sites that force me to sit through a completely pointless and slow loading animation (without a 'skip' button) before I can get anywhere useful. Such things are just about ego, not business communication.

moonwind

Joined: 10 Sep 2006
Posts: 1140

Posted: Fri Dec 29, 06 1:13 am Post subject:

I'll be guineau pig to anyone who wants to do testing as I have a dacsed telephone line, modem which usually runs at an incredible 28.8 as an average Kbps, just checked to see and tonight Ladies and Gents we have the priviledge of running at 26.4Kbps well it is 01:11 (ish) so no doubt the lines are overbusting ..thought my neighbours lights were off actually, maybe he surfs in the dark!

PLease no one ask if I have approached BT about getting the ruddy dacs OFF my line so I can have the broadband service available from our exchange! Grrr a VERY old storyline BUT i am happy to assist any testing you think might help anyone.

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35935
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Fri Dec 29, 06 9:28 am Post subject:

dougal wrote:

I particularly detest sites that force me to sit through a completely pointless and slow loading animation (without a 'skip' button) before I can get anywhere useful. Such things are about ego, not business communication. :twisted:

Ooooh, yes, it drives me wild. The other thing that ticks me off is when people don't take in to account things like visual impairment. A few years ago I taught ECDL to someone who had very limited vision and needed software to both increase screen-size and to read to her. A lot of sites were completely inaccessible to her; which is not only bad coding, but also very bad manners.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45674
Location: Essex

Posted: Fri Dec 29, 06 10:40 am Post subject:

dougal wrote:

Absolutely.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45674
Location: Essex

Posted: Fri Dec 29, 06 10:41 am Post subject:
Chez I see you're talking about visual impairment, I posted a couple of weeks ago about the Message Box icon and how it would work with green/red colourblindness, any pointers on that?

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35935
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Fri Dec 29, 06 11:06 am Post subject:

tahir wrote:

Chez I see you're talking about visual impairment, I posted a couple of weeks ago about the Message Box icon and how it would work with green/red colourblindness, any pointers on that?

Don't know I'm afraid - no experience of it, and I must have missed that thread. I think that there are some web resources out there that go in to colourblindness though - isn't there a less common 'blue-yellow' kind, too?

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45674
Location: Essex

Posted: Fri Dec 29, 06 11:08 am Post subject:
OK will have a look when i get the time.

Andy B

Joined: 12 Jan 2005
Posts: 3920
Location: Brum

Posted: Fri Dec 29, 06 12:33 pm Post subject:
Gosh 4 whole seconds, what could you be doing instead !! Thats whats wrong with the world bloody impatient.

moonwind

Joined: 10 Sep 2006
Posts: 1140

Posted: Fri Dec 29, 06 1:10 pm Post subject:

Andy B wrote:

Gosh 4 whole seconds, what could you be doing instead !!
Thats whats wrong with the world bloody impatient.

That is the reality of life these days, awful as it is. So if people have lost trade through something being too slow (in the eyes of the buyers) they have to speed things up, or rely on people like us that would click the shop page and then go and make a cuppa while page loaded anyway!

It is frustrating that you cannot make people more patient but there you go, improved living standards of the present day

Windymiller

Joined: 02 Apr 2006
Posts: 550
Location: West Wales

Posted: Wed Jan 10, 07 1:06 pm Post subject:
I get annoyed by home pages that are so full of huge graphics, and links that don't look like links, and spread about in a haphazard way. Oh, and message boards where you have to scroll sideways if you increase the font size. (Downsizers coders please note.)

Rob R

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 31902
Location: York

Posted: Wed Jan 10, 07 2:06 pm Post subject: Re: Does your online shop load in 4 seconds?

jema wrote:

https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6131668.stm

Shoppers are impatient and may give up if a page takes longer!

I had one ebay buyer who claimed that mine didn't even exist

bagpuss

Joined: 09 Dec 2004
Posts: 10507
Location: cambridge

Posted: Wed Jan 10, 07 2:15 pm Post subject:
Its interesting, with tabs now I generally switch to another page when waiting for something to load. It might of course mean I get distracted or discouraged from the sale but something needs to take minutes to load before I will give up on it

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