D3 Unit 21 web site

Comparing “user side” and “server side” factors which can influence a website’s performance...                            D3

Who is affected by what...

There are more factors which can affect the user from opening and being functional with a website in comparison to the server side that limits the website from performing or functioning. In comparison to that if the server side fails the users will not have a website to go. If the server fails the whole website stops functioning where as if the user’s side fails only they will not be able to interact with the website, yet other users will still be able to use the website. Where as the user point of view is how quickly a website loads, the web designers point of view is how quickly the surver can deliver multiple pages to multiple nodes all around the world.

Average user ...

Hardware

User and their computers vary through, some users have powerful machines which use multi core processors with high RAM cards inserted to allow speed and multifunction with high speed broadband where as some users may find it reasonably time consuming where as other users with single core processors with dial-up internet may find it too long for it to download and leave the website. The designer will have to find a mid point where they have enough quality to ensure that high end users stay satisfied but quick enough for users which have less than average speeds. This will ensure that both parties stay online and are interested in the product on the website without being to cautious and annoyed with the speed/quality that leave. All the users will be effected by the bandwidth of the server is not big enough then it may suffer from overcrowding and downloading data between lots of clients become very slow. No matter how fast their computer or internet connection is.

3G/Mobile phones

When designing webpage the designer will also have to consider the mobile phone users, they use 3G signalling which tends to be slower but also more expensive for the user as their data is measured by byte sent or seconds on the internet. As they also tend to be in a hurry when using the internet on the phone waiting for a big webpage to deliver all it graphics/animation/videos nothing can be more annoying for them but to wait, they still expect performance.  New websites tend to have a mobile phone versions of them self’s which are made so the coding recognises them when a phone is used and switches the webpage in to mobile phone format where the website is made smaller by having fewer or smaller in size pictures, animation or videos. Web developers have a different teams working on different parts of the website for the computer and a team working for the mobile phone website.

Software – Users Browser:

Web developers  are always looking in new ways to advance their website so it has something new and special about a website. This has created problems old type user and not being able to open the content. AJAX is a new form of sending data through the server, this allows them to send a large amount of data at one time without holding back the speed and the time is received in.  This has bough in the plug in world of Flash,  Silverlight, ActiveX, Java and Javascript. But also creating problem for the out of data users which don’t have these plug-ins , as they will not be able to open the site which they require. Requiring a update of browser or adding on extra plug –ins. As some old fashioned customers go they may not bother updating but simply leaving the site.

Location of server:

This will determine how quickly the user gets their information, if the server is based in a far away location the information will take longer to reach it’s distinction causing a delay to the users. Others may get theirs quicker as they may be closer based to the server location.[i]

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Reference:

Book: Information practitioners Book 2, Editor: Jenny Lawson, page 218- 219 Section: 21.3.2- 21.3.2.2

Website: http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100119151725AAeJDf6 2/6/12 (Best answer.

Website:  http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090324021444AA4VjAZ  2/6/12 (Best answer.

P5 Unit 21 website

Describe the various factors that that influences the performance of a website...                                                   P5

Website filled with large data on them takes longer for user to open the page up, resulting for the customer to leave because the page takes far too long to open. There are methods of eliminating this problem and speeding up the website in order to make it a more pleasant experience so the website operates in a more efficient way.

The designers will consider...

File Type:

This can take places from images, sound to animation/videos, by simply changing the file type the file can reduce its size resulting in the website to download that little bit quicker. Developers are challenged to make this decision every day, whether they require more quality or less size that will make the website download quicker.

Image Files...

File size can be determent by the file format saved by that the graphic can be very small or big depending on the use of the image. Small size files are used for the internet so this way they would load up quicker, yet often smaller size graphic files tend to lose quality or not be as good as a bigger sized file; bigger sized files are usually used for big posters and magazines where high level of image quality is needed, the bigger the size usually the more the detail therefore the better the image.

The image quality and size can also be changed and depending on the file formats by compression, this ideal as on most images the quality is barely invisible making it impossible for the untrained eye to spot the difference. As the image gets more and more compressed it loses more of it quality.  But as it loses quality it loose file size becomes smaller this way the file can be used for purposes such as using the file website, this will save time for the user when they are trying to open.  This can be done whilst saving the file where the user can choose from the percentages or from low, medium or high compression, other software packages use percentages of how much quality the image is going to have. This can causes the resolution to lose the many of it varieties of colour this mean that although the image will still maintain the same some of it colours will go away causing the image to use less of its colour. By that if a picture has a 24 bit colours and it was changed to something extremely low such as 4 bit colours the image will become very blocky. This image will then be useless and unnecessary as now one can tell what the image is all about. Bitmap file types have a maximum colour palette of 256 colours, this would mean that the image is more likely to be small in size. Where as a jpeg it has a larger colour palette which would mean the high colour images will be bigger in size.

Sound Files...

 Sound can be compressed just like images, as sound travels in waves and are continuous where as digital sound waves are expressed in a regular intervals with a small gap in  between that is so small that the human ear can’t detect or hear the pause. Compressing digital sound will result in hearing the pause when compressed to that level, in contrast the size will get smaller.

Changing the file type can also reduce the file size, .wav file types tend to be quiet big in size as they tend to replicate the instruments in a very good way, as the sound would in as appear if it’s made by it. If the file was changed to .MP3 the file size is likely for it to be smaller. This mostly down to the fact that it tends to stores the low sample rate. Yet using this method will enable more tracks to be stored   on a given drive or simple make the downloading process quicker. The higher the rate the better the quality of the sound yet larger the file which may cause problems to downloading.

Consideration to users will also include whether they have the right plug ins on their browser, if the music file is uploaded on Internet Explorer 9 because it has sound plug-in the sound will be played. this is what most modern users are likely to have. But if they are using Internet Explorer 5 they may need to install the plug-in before being able to hearing the sound.

Video/Animation files:

Videos and animations files are most likely to cause problems to users. Having these types of files on the webpage may cause it to significantly slow down. Because even small animations/videos tend to still be bigger in size than an image.

 Due to the size of them they may be hard to control a large proportion of bandwidth will be send out of the web server, even with the highest speed internet the connection may still be slow and big files may take too long to download and cause the customer to leave the page. The more video and animation is used in the website the slower the website will operate.

User side factors:

The users connection to the internet speed will vary how much data they can receive.

Dail-up: speeds up to 56kbp

ADSL: speeds from 1Mbps to 8Mbps

Broadband: speeds up to 150mps

As speed connection will determine the rate of download so will the computer’s hardware, things such CPU, RAM and the Hard drive. Consideration should take place whether the customer will be able to handle x amount of data sent to them , if too much is put on the website they might not be able to open it because it will take too long.

Server Side factors:

 The servers capabilities should also be taken into a account if the server cannot sent out enough data across the website may not be able to function.

Bandwidth is the factor which determines how much data can be send across by the web server. Also differentiating how much download material can be extracted from it. This can be thought as a pipe,  bigger the pipe the more data can be send down it, bigger the website in terms of popularity and users which download such items the bigger bandwidth will be required for it to function, meaning the fewer users will be able to download items.