The lowest common denominator of the audience is the first issue a web designer needs to address. The type of connection and the type of computer used to access a websit will dictate if a website can load at all. Such forethought is especially necessary for websites that target users in developing nations, such as Africa. Few people want to wait for a minute or more for a high resolution image (that may not even be completely relevant to the article) to load. In that same minute, a user could read multiple paragraphs of useful text. This site, for example, takes 30+ seconds to load over a fast connection, with images composing the vast majority of the 1.8mb that constitute the homepage. Not a good sign. In fact, this site would take a few minutes to completely load over a dial-up connection. Fortunately, the TKBB mobile version (not currently active), can provide a fast load time by removing the images and much of the formating.

However, this doesn’t mean that a site needs to be written in text-only HTML (View TKBB in text format). Fortunately, there are multiple sources that explain web design guidelines for low bandwidth, most notably, a page at aptivate.org. Some suggestions:

• Use WP-Super-Cache to make static versions of pages and reduced server load
• Consider caching CSS files, or Javascript/PHP if you are more daring
• Don’t create huge pages. If useful data appears within 2 seconds, visitors will wait up to 30 seconds.
• Use CSS to reduce images and maintain a clean site structure. Don’t require more than a couple of clicks.
• Allow pages to be cached. This will reduce the load time for frequent visitors.
• Avoid PDFs and scripting. If links to large files are necessary, show the file size.
• Content is king: put useful information first.

Fortunately, the trend in web design is tending toward elegant CSS styles that are not super-heavy on the bandwidth. Even the largest of CSS files does not compare with a high-res JPG file. Few sites employ the auto-play of streaming video either.