continued: The big deal about bandwidth: and what it all really means to you. Travis Anton The reality is that bandwidth is a fleeting thing. We have a 100 MBIT connection, but less than half a percent of that is effectively available for use under the best circumstances. Our "bandwidth" is how much data we can realistically transmit to the world, and the reality is it isn't a lot. __ Chances are that you or your clients have even less available to use, so it is extremely important to make the best use of it, which is how bandwidth fits into the context of Web-site design. __ For every "hit" or access to a web site, bandwidth is used. Usually the result is that site performance is continually degraded, taking longer and longer for people to see a page load, when there are a lot of hits at once. In the extreme people won't be able to get through at all. __ This is the problem you face every day designing Web sites. How to deliver the content using the least amount of bytes of data possible so that performance, and really audience, is increased. Audience is the key and a site that addresses the issues of bandwidth will have many more viewers than one that doesn't. __ When a site you design for a client has a bigger audience, chances go up that the site will accomplish your clients goals, and a happy client means more work for you in the future. __ That's the big deal with bandwidth and why everyone talks about it as the ever-present problem it is. What they don't talk about is the answer to the problem. What you need to do and how to do it aren't the same thing. __ Think about it like this, you're given a job designing a magazine ad, simple enough, until you discover that you can only use 100 gallons of ink for the entire production run. That's a challenge that has not faced designers before, and it is the same challenge the Web creates only ink has been replaced with bytes of data. __ As a designer, you already know the value of specialized production tools from pencils and erasers to page layout software. All the tools you use help you take the ideas you have and express them in more tangible form affixed to various media. You've got tons of production tools at your disposal. You wouldn't think doing page layout without a page layout program for the very reason that page layout is much easier to do taking less of your valuable time with a specialized tool. __ You shouldn't think about designing Web pages without the kind of tools you need to meet the bandwidth challenge either. You won't be able to do it nearly so easily without them. It's just like going back to mechanical paste-up if you remember the old way to do page layout. __ All the tools you need can be found here, and the investment will be the best one you've made since you got page layout software, though likely a much less expensive investment. __ ImageVice, PhotoGIF, ProJEPG and GIFmation can all make your job of Web design much easier. They are the specialized production tools you need to meet the bandwidth challenge of Web design. Travis Anton Special Thanks to: Travis for contributing this article. info@boxtopsoft.com Copyright 1997 BoxTop Software, Inc. All rights reserved.