Syren --
I found an excellent article on both "this" topic and the one raging in Internet about designing for highspeed versus dialup connections. The article,
Web Template Designs: FAT vs. PHAT, deals cogently with a) dialup connections; and, b) graphic-laden or intensive sites. The entire article is well worth a read; however, I'll content myself with posting a quote:
Quote:
Recently I visited one of the FAT web template designer's site from a client's home to prove to her that PHAT in their designs meant FAT. Her dialup (believe it or not) connected at 14K (14,000 bps) on a 56K modem. She would like to personally thank Verizon for all their help over the last two years. After approximately 15 phone line repair calls to them they were actually able to raise her 10K connection to 14K and she only gets disconnected an average of three times during the evening when she's online! Verizon is required by law to provide a minimum of 14K even though they charge her the full-price as they would someone with a newer phone line or who is located closer to their office mainframe who gets a 52K connection. Hmmm ... {scratching my head}.
Approximately 10 seconds after arriving at the FAT web template designer's site, the first thing we noticed was a message in the status bar that read ... "92 items remaining". Argh! This meant that 92 *more* graphics needed to load before we could view the page. I thought I was going to have to find the smelling salts as poor Janet (my client) nearly fainted at the thought and was instantly non-impressed even though the designer's site was colorful and pleasing to the eye 96 seconds later when it finished loading. After the site completely loaded, Janet noticed immediately that the web templates they were selling seemed to more graphic intensive then their site.
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This may also be a good selling point for many of you who do original work -- and are competing against purchased templates.