Speed Up Your Site: Web Site Optimization

Rating:
Summary: Get it fast and read it before doing more Web design
Review: This book deserves 4 1/2 or 4 3/4 stars. A small star is clipped only because of the first two chapters focused on psychology of performance, theory, and background. Some people love the stuff like marketing professionals, but I'm not one of them. The rest of the book is solid gold... actually, platinum.

When we speak of usability, we typically speak of navigation, architecture, legibility, linking, screen size, and browsers. Also key is optimizing your site for fast downloads and this is more than just optimizing gif and jpg images. More people on broadband? Maybe, but not necessarily. Even broadband users have their limits in how long they will wait for a page to load. It's a business problem since it impacts revenue.

Been designing for less than a year? More than four years? Not even a designer, but involved somehow? The book is for all levels and anyone who has a hand in a Web site including decision makers. Experienced designers may have many of the optimization techniques down, but the book brings up others you may not have thought about. I've had my own Web site since 1993 and learned a few new tricks.

Andrew King has written about Web design for a long time and walks the walk as well as talks the talk. He has used his own Web site, Webreference.com, as a case study many times to show how to improve the site design. One reason he and Webreference.com have been well-respected is because everything is in reader friendly English.

Another book? No time to read it? The book is organized to make the most of your time. Use it while you're working on the Web project and refer to it often. You'll understand what King writes the first time and not have a need to re-read it until it makes sense.

If the words HTTP, client, server, and compression sound too techie, King's writing style has a calming effect so readers can understand and apply the concepts. Sites of every size and kind will benefit from this complete reference to create Web sites faster than a speeding bullet. We're all suffering from information overload, including broadband users, get to the book quick.

Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive Means To Save You $ and Surfers Time
Review: This book is well researched, comprehensive (HTML, XHTML, CSS, Multimedia; to name a few) tweaking, and offers lots of "Further Readings" from the web and other books.

Don't hesitate; save yourself money (minimalize web space usage) and web surfers time (you want fast loading pages to hold their attention).

I won't even get into the awesome chapter on flow in web design.

Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive Means To Save You $ and Surfers Time
Review: This book is well researched, comprehensive (HTML, XHTML, CSS, Multimedia; to name a few) tweaking, and offers lots of "Further Readings" from the web and other books.

Don't hesitate; save yourself money (minimalize web space usage) and web surfers time (you want fast loading pages to hold their attention).

I won't even get into the awesome chapter on flow in web design.

Rating:
Summary: Definitely a Definitive Guide on Site Optimization
Review: When I read this book, I was hoping it would explain the purpose behind the necessity for fast web sites. Right out of the gate, the author provides sufficient research on this topic. Not only does he discuss the speed of response time as a certain factor in user satisfaction, he takes it to the next level by discussing the major causes of user impatience. I really enjoyed the part about "attunability". It's a very valuable term for web designers. As for me, this discussion alone was worth the price of the book.

The book follows this discussion with the idea that it's not enough to speed up a web site. To improve user experience and keep them on a web site longer, flow becomes an important factor. As for me, I am always trying to build sites that flow well. It's very annoying to visit a web site that has inconsistent color schemes, a plethora of navigation techniques. Hey, use all the cool techniques that you want but if it doesn't flow then I'm not impressed. Give me something that is simple and pleasing to use and I would probably hang around longer. This book stresses flow but doesn't spend much time on the subject.

With the groundwork laid out as to why sites need to be optimized for speed and flow, the rest of the book explains with great pain-staking detail how to optimize. It offers techniques and examples for areas such as HTML, XHMTL, CSS, JavaScript, graphics, multi-media, and meta-tags. Furthermore, this book covers server-side techniques and search engine optimization. Finally, to measure web site optimization, this book includes references to benchmarking tools.

With the concentration on coding techniques and optimization of code, I can understand why this book is recommended for experienced developers and designers; however, this book is organized such that a beginner could read the first three or four chapters and then do follow-up reading as their skills progress. With that said, I think this book could have presented more details on site flow; but overall, this book is worthwhile reading. With almost 500 pages, it's jammed full of research and useful examples and techniques on web optimization. I have built many web sites and fine tuned them. This book is a gold mine. With its awesome amount of coding optimization techniques and examples, I am sure that I can double the speed of my web sites.

Rating:
Summary: A MUST read for every web designer and developer!
Review: When the GUIguy reviews books, it is usually with the intent of reading fairly quickly to get a sense of the author's approach, their writing style, and the value of the content.

When I picked up Speed Up Your Site: Web Site Optimization, an amazing thing happened: I was captivated by the content and the style. Amazing! A first! I found myself reading every word and every line of code, lest I miss some gem hidden within the letters.

Andy King's basic premise is clearly stated: "At current bandwidth-to-CPU speed ratios, bandwidth is the limiting factor." Therefore, optimization of code is vital for a well-received web site.

Sure, that's easy to write, but how do you do it?! The author meticulously goes through many, if not all of the ways code can be streamlined, addressing HTML, XHTML, DHTML, CSS, and even more.

As for style, you can almost hear the author talking; the conversational tone pervades the tome. The book is a delight to read, and the text is peppered with subtle and not-so-subtle humor like "Link to external style sheets site-wide to cache in." Even code snippets are occasionally injected with nostalgia and rib-ticklers. (There is a reference to Burma Shave signs-search the web if you don't know what that is- and even the Emperor with No Close. (sic))

And for those who wonder why all this optimization is important, the author opens with two chapters on the Psychology of Performance, with well-researched excerpts and citations from human factors writings. The forward is even written by usability guru Jakob Nielsen.

There is a companion site (http://www.speedupyoursite.com) that contains all the code along with all the references, chapter summaries, chapter excerpts, color figures, etc. After all, web sites are living documents, and having all this information on a web site allows it to be updated easily.

The only flaw that I found with the book is that there is no accompanying CD. I would love to be able to search the complete text for suggestions and tips that I probably won't remember when I need them-like when I redo my own web sites, a job that I must undertake now that I have read this book.