Optimize loading

[rachaelbethan]

My website

http://www.rachaelbethan.com

is taking so long to load because it is all images. Do you have any tips on optimizing a site like this?

Rachael Bethan

 

[kaht]

Umm..... use less images?


You are using images for all your navigation and text and everything..... Your website is really just one big picture.

Your site is not really in a position to be "optimized", it really needs to be redone. The first step you should take is learning HTML and CSS because all that your site does now is just use a table to piece together a bunch of images - not really any HTML to it.

http://www.w3schools.com

would be a good place to start.

-kaht

[small]How spicy would you like your chang sauce? Oh man... I have no idea what's goin' on right now...[/small]

 

[rachaelbethan]

What about doing it in Flash, would that be better?

 

[vacunita]

Pleae don't use flash. Sites that abuse flaSH are very annoying. And will require a flash plugin to view. Which if visitors don't have and/or are unwilling to install will render your site unviewable.

HTML+CSS is the way to go.

----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[Foamcow]

You could use Flash, but there is no real need to do so. You would still need to embed the images into the Flash movie, they won't be any smaller unless you reduce their quality (which you could do anyway).

Do it with HTML. At the very least the text should be HTML text rather than an image of some text.

The site would lend itself well to using CSS for layout.

Your images are already fairly well optimised. You could probably shave a few Kb off each one but you aren't going to make any massive savings.

Therein lies your problem. You have designed something that relies on alot of images.


<honk>*:O)</honk>
Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web site design in Cheltenham and Gloucester
Ham and Jam - British & Commonwealth forces mod for Half Life 2

 

[travisbrown]

You could also preload images with javascript. But, this is something you should do after you've optimized the code of your pages.

Move as much of the styling as possible to css, get rid of the table layout and use css positioning.

Look at Zen Garden CSS (

http://csszengarden.com/)

to see how designers have done heavily graphical pages with css layout.

Your site doesn't load too slowly for broadband connections. Dialup users might find it slow.

While Flash isn't ideal for accessibility, it can be programmed to defer image loading until it's needed, which is nice. You could do a similar thing with Ajax calls too. You would do this with your content images, not your layout images.

 

[Foamcow]

While Flash isn't ideal for accessibility, it can be programmed to defer image loading until it's needed, which is nice. You could do a similar thing with Ajax calls too. You would do this with your content images, not your layout images.

Wouldn't that be overcomplicating things a little?
Considerng the OP came here asking about optimising images and has built a purely image driven site, I think that image preloading with Javascript, defered image loading in Flash and the use Ajax calls is a little OTT?

I would tend to agree about using CSS, but it's not the HTML that is slowing things down here, it's the extreme use of images.

Even with a CSS layout, the initial problem would still exist, whether images are preloaded or not, they still need to be loaded at some point. Preloading relies on a user spending enough time on Page "A" so that the images needed for Pages "B","C" etc can be loaded into the background.
I don't think that's an plausible method here since there isn't much content to delay the user. Also, the initial page will still load slowly as it needs all those images.

Of course some judicious re-use of images would be helpful. I'm not sure if this is being done on the current site as I've not examined the source thoroughly for this. I notice that at least some of the images are re-used.

Over-engineering is not the answer.

<honk>*:O)</honk>
Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web site design in Cheltenham and Gloucester
Ham and Jam - British & Commonwealth forces mod for Half Life 2

 

[Fendal]

If you're going to keep the images you should consider updating to JPEG2000, although it's not yet widely supported by web browsers :-( , still something to think about.

http://www.jpeg2000info.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG_2000

 

[Foamcow]

If you're going to keep the images you should consider updating to JPEG2000, although it's not yet widely supported by web browsers sad , still something to think about.

Surely the fact they are not widely supported is a good reason not to upgrade to JPEG2000?

<honk>*:O)</honk>
Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web site design in Cheltenham and Gloucester
Ham and Jam - British & Commonwealth forces mod for Half Life 2

 

[chrissie1]

And jpeg2000 will never be a standard believe me there is no reason to use it. For one, the license is very expensive.

Christiaan Baes
Belgium

"My new site" - Me

 

[travisbrown]

Foamcow, I agree that HTML and CSS isn't really the speed-up solution here, but just a suggestion of best practice. Might knock a few k off the pages, but that's hardly going to fix the problem. Images are of course the problem.

The OP asked about optimization, but there really isn't any optimization of images to be done. The images are fine; they can't really be compressed any more. If the poster wants the graphic layout, and "engineeringly" uses HTML text in combination with the images and efficiently as possible, but still is dissatisfied with the load speed, then additional engineering is something she could look at.

I was suggesting options once she has optimized the images and code as much as possible. Deferred loading is a logistical solution, not a design solution. Flash and Ajax can both capitalize on asyncronicity that "regular" http calls can't. This can make them useful in some ways. They should be used judiciously, but not discounted. And I should point out that well engineered Flash could be a solution; Flash alone isn't a pancea.

I think you are really saying, "is it worth it?" That's for the poster to decide. I'd agree with you and say "No", but this doesn't mean that the site load process could be engineered more efficiently.

I think it's going to have to be incremental optimization. Little work on the images, little work on the code, little work on design, and find the balance between load time, desired design, cost-benefit, user volume, user connections, user tolerance...

Cheers.

 

[travisbrown]

Yeah, no to the JPEG2000 for general internet use yet. You'd be shooting yourself in the foot.

 

[rachaelbethan]

Thank you guys for all of your valuable advice. I will see what I can do now!

Rachael Bethan Photography and Design

http://www.rachaelbethan.com