How many HIC users have bandwidth costs / limitations?

I just saved the front page of the HIC and looked at the file sizes:
home.aspx = 215k
linked files = 1.2MB, including
-853KB Javascript
-116KB css

If you’re hinting that the HIC website has not been designed with low-bandwidth users in mind, you may be on to something. The OCHA Field Information Management Handbook says

The Field Website Template developed by OCHA FIS in coordination with the Information Technology Section is designed to provide a webmaster-friendly site.

Because as we all know, the critical requirement in designing a website is that it’s easy for the webmaster to use

Bandwidth raises a good issue and one that is identified as one of the design criterias for the HIC sites. That said it is important to note that the site you are looking at right now has not yet been extensively optimized for bandwidth. That is something we will be looking at soon. One option we are looking at is to provide a separate low-bandwidth version of the pages (one that would also work on mobile phones).

Gisli, thanks for the prompt response. We did the same thing for the HIC Iraq, with two versions of the site for users with different bandwidths. I’m sure that the site will continue to develop as the deployment goes forward - looking forward to the mobile phone version!

Why doesn’t this work on Safari 3.1 on a Mac? Surely these sites are (or should be) based on web standards that allow for accurate cross-browser rendering?

Hi Sanjana,

We did do some tests in Safari. Not sure which versions though. Can you explain which things don’t work?

Gisli

Hello Gisli,

Sorry for the delay in getting back. I’m using Safari 3.1.1 on Leopard. Rendering of home page today is much better than when I first checked. Text boxes and layout were awry with some text just not displayed at all on screen. Each page stretched way beyond the width / resolution of the Safari window - and I’m running OS X on a widescreen 20″ at 1680 x 1050!

Now the only thing that’s wrong with the rendering is the banner image - all the content is accessible.

Thanks for looking into this,

Sanjana