Quick Reference

Does Your Web Page Need a Diet?

All the bytes that go into making your web page appear on the screen add to the "weight" of your web page. This means the file sizes of every image, external style sheet, script file, media file, and the web page itself add up to the amount of time the user has to wait to load your page. Did you know it takes 38 seconds for 100K to load over a 28.8 modem? Would you wait that long to view a page? With this in mind, Web Services advises web authors to keep the total weight of their web pages to under 250K.

Checklist for Lean Web Pages

Content: Is all the content on your page essential to getting your point across? Can you shorten it with bulleted lists? Does the page need to be divided into smaller pages?
Images: Are all your images necessary? Did you optimize them at 72 dpi? Are they unnecessarily wide or tall?
Media files: Have they been optimized for the web? Do you provide a link to your media file with an indication of how large the file is? Does your site require that Flash movie, or is it "eye candy"?

Our "To Be Avoided" List

Web Services strongly advises against using the following in URMC websites:

Animated GIFs
Gratuitous Flash animation
Icon or image-driven navigation
Frames
"Under Construction" notices
Advertising for non-URMC affiliated companies
Proprietary information (includes all or portions of published journal articles and images) without written permission. You may have written it, but once it's published you no longer own it.