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The web sucks if you have a slow connection

danluu.com

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Re: The web sucks if you have a slow connection

#21

Post by Someone1234 »

I found out this the hard way.

T-Mobile used to offer 2G internet speeds internationally in 100+ countries included in Simple Choice subscriptions. 2G is limited to 50 kbit/s, that's slower than a 56K modem.

While this absolutely fine for background processes (e.g. notifications) and even checking your email, most websites never loaded at these speeds. Resources would time out, and the adverts alone could easily exceed a few megabytes. I even had a few website block me because of my "ad blocker" because the adverts didn't load timely enough.

Makes me feel for people in like rural India or other places still only at 2G or similar speeds. It is great for some things, not really useable for general purpose web browsing any longer.

PS - T-Mobile now offers 3G speeds internationally; this was just the freebie at the time.

Re: The web sucks if you have a slow connection

#22

Post by tropo »

stevoski wrote: post #11

My team has just started work on a new SaaS product. We are taking articles like this to heart and aiming to keep pages light and fast. We are using very little JavaScript. Let's see if the market rewards us or punishes us for this approach...

There are more than enough other ways for the market to punish you. :-/

Your approach helps with reliability (fewer 3rd-party and browser needs) and accessibility (workable with lynx and screen readers) too. Latency makes people want to scream.

It's also important to remember that, to the customer, you are just another browser tab. The customer's computer is not dedicated to you. They could have 100 or more other tabs open. The customer may even have reason to open more than one copy of your site simultaneously, with same or different login, and same or different browser. Bogging down their computer makes them unhappy and resentful.

Re: The web sucks if you have a slow connection

#23

Post by 20years »

Most of the web really sucks on fast internet connections too. Thanks to so many web developers thinking every dang thing needs to be a single page app using a heavy JavaScript framework. Add animation, badly optimized images and of course ads and it becomes really unbearable.

We keep repeating our same mistakes but just in a different way.

Re: The web sucks if you have a slow connection

#25

Post by jmcdiesel »

minikites wrote: post #12
meriobrudar wrote: post #4

Wow, really? Who knew overuse of JS and fancy graphical effects where they're not needed could negatively impact user experience? Could it be that all the web devs using 20 CDNs, cramming 900 frameworks, 100 externally provided analytics, advertisement providers and fancy layout eye-candy were wrong all along? What a surprise! I'm already sick when I have to visit a webpage and it won't even load ANYTHING if I don't…

>Wow, really? Who knew overuse of JS and fancy graphical effects where they're not needed could negatively impact user experience? Clearly not enough people, because it keeps happening. I think it would also help if people kept in mind that the internet is global, it isn't just for developed nations.

It's not a matter of whether the internet is global, its who your audience is... if you audience is primarily in developed nations, then the rest of the world isn't much of an issue.

Re: The web sucks if you have a slow connection

#26

Post by minxomat »

meriobrudar wrote: post #4

Wow, really? Who knew overuse of JS and fancy graphical effects where they're not needed could negatively impact user experience? Could it be that all the web devs using 20 CDNs, cramming 900 frameworks, 100 externally provided analytics, advertisement providers and fancy layout eye-candy were wrong all along? What a surprise! I'm already sick when I have to visit a webpage and it won't even load ANYTHING if I don't…

Every time I get angry about this I'll open https://purecss.io/ or http://skytorrents.in and look at the source. It's a form of meditation to browse fast websites.

Re: The web sucks if you have a slow connection

#27

Post by warcher »

warcher wrote: post #19
warcher wrote: post #15

I'm gonna read the article, I promise, but is the title really "If your internet is bad, the internet is bad"?

I'm not gonna lie, if my fat high-res site images make life a lil harder in Vanuatu but convert a bunch of black-turtleneck d-bags in San Francisco to customers, I know which side of the bread the butter is on.

I know I'm a dick, but I love all you guys and I thank you in advance for your forbearance. I need a sandwich.

Re: The web sucks if you have a slow connection

#29

Post by brilliantcode »

lotyrin wrote: post #17
meriobrudar wrote: post #4

Wow, really? Who knew overuse of JS and fancy graphical effects where they're not needed could negatively impact user experience? Could it be that all the web devs using 20 CDNs, cramming 900 frameworks, 100 externally provided analytics, advertisement providers and fancy layout eye-candy were wrong all along? What a surprise! I'm already sick when I have to visit a webpage and it won't even load ANYTHING if I don't…

Honestly, they don't even look that great. Lots of sites could be using lots of modern browser features to be fairly innovative from a visual design and user experience standpoint, but it's mostly just really inefficient (and inaccessible, with no compat fallbacks) implementations of the same old shit.

yes lot of these web pages are the size of mp3 files. it's just fucked up.

we decided static html webpages are sooo 1999. Yet it remains the most secure and user friendly medium to deliver value.

bring back the 1999 frame side bar. what was wrong with that?

Re: The web sucks if you have a slow connection

#30

Post by minikites »

jmcdiesel wrote: post #25
minikites wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Wow, really? Who knew overuse of JS and fancy graphical effects where they're not needed could negatively impact user experience? Clearly not enough people, because it keeps happening. I think it would also help if people kept in mind that the internet is global, it isn't just for developed nations.

It's not a matter of whether the internet is global, its who your audience is... if you audience is primarily in developed nations, then the rest of the world isn't much of an issue.

If you're running a purely domestic web store, maybe, but people in developing nations are not that different from people in developed nations, they can be just as interested in a a wide variety of topics, that's what makes the internet so appealing and wonderful.
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