As a web designer, do I still need to aim for under 50kb files?

bristolcat — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:48:35 -0800

Web designers, what is the maximum recommended file size for site designs in this day and age? I'm sitting here putzing around with a website I'm building, trying to optimize images and trim down code and I'm getting frustrated. This site design is for a friend's rock band and it has a lot of imagery and graphics associated with it. I was originally taught to aim for building sites that totaled under 50kbs, but that was in 2003. Here we are five years later and I find myself questioning this, considering how many people must be on DSL or cable internet now.

So, all things considered, can I consider upping my max total to 100kb or maybe even more? I look at other sites and see beautiful, crisp graphics and I'm jealous!

Details that may matter:
-This design is going to be a template for Joomla.
-My client may or may not want to have a streaming MP3 player on the front page, which would obviously add to the size.
-There is a gallery plugin which will show 3-4 thumbnails from a gallery component on the front page.
-I'm going to limit how much content can be shown on the front page - it's a fixed height and any news/tour dates/images will spill over into respective pages.
-The audience for this website is intended to be college age to late twenties. Whether this makes them more likely to have high speed internet, well, I'd have to assume so but I would like to hear what you think.
-This is a tableless design and will be styled by an external style sheet.
-I'm using Photoshop CS3 and Dreamweaver CS3.
-I have a little over half of the images in place so far and the Firefox Web Developer Toolbar is telling me that the site totals 39 KB. It is not attached to Joomla yet. I'd love to bring the quality up on the images that are already implemented in the design.
-I'm planning develop a separate mobile site that loads upon detection.

Any tips for image optimization or code optimization would be very helpful, too.

Thanks in advance!

Graphic/Design Heavy Post In Wordpress?

ISeemToBeAVerb — Mon, 19 May 2008 19:36:36 -0800

Is there a way I can integrate graphic-type web content into a Wordpress page/post? I'm not talking about just adding an image to a post/page, I'm looking to add photo/graphic content with clickable links similar to something like this. In other words, something similar to what you could do with a normal web page. I know you can add HTML to Wordpress posts/pages, but I'm not sure I understand how to design something in Photoshop/Dreamweaver and then translate that over to Wordpress. I'm using Wordpress 2.5.1. I know Photoshop and I also have a copy of Dreamweaver at my disposal if needed. Bonus to anyone that can tell me how to make the resulting graphic page SEO friendly. Thanks!

Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with webgraphics

As a web designer, do I still need to aim for under 50kb files?

Graphic/Design Heavy Post In Wordpress?