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I spent a lot of time shrinking down a site of mine last year. It bulked up a little bit later but is still only 22k even with images and mobile friendliness :)

I spent a lot of time shrinking down a site of mine last year. It bulked up a little bit later but is still only 22k even with images and mobile friendliness :) https://gtmetrix.com/reports/concise-encoding.org/IbSyhS6i/ https://gtmetrix.com/reports/concise-encoding.org/IbSyhS6i/

marginalia_nu 5y ago
I hope you don't mind a critique; I struggled a bit understanding what your site was about. Took quite a bit to figure out it was an encoding scheme, after being confused whether it was a start-up or a library or what. You're answering the questions a visitor has in a sensible enough order: 1. What is it? 2. Why should I use it? 3. What does it look like? I think the proportions are off. In terms of detail, the first question is answered in a brief slogan that is very easily glossed over because it's put in a place where very little informative text usually gets put, then the second question gets a huge amount of space and details and the same points are repeated multiple times with different phrasing. Everyone claims to be "fast", "simple", "effective", "secure", "private", "cheap", "future-proof", "optimized", etc. It very easily gets dismissed as noise when you are at the same time scanning the page for clues as to what it even is about. It's hard to make a sell when what you're selling isn't clear. Maybe you could overlap 1 and 2 a bit, somehow. If it had said "the encoding scheme is easy to use" rather than "easy to use", my question would be largely answered. My sites aren't a marvel of intuitive navigation either, I don't claim to be better, but it's sometimes hard to see sometimes how other people view our sites.
- kstenerud 5y ago
  Thank you! I'm of average skill when it comes to UX, which is definitely hurting the visibility of this. I'm also worried about how approachable the spec itself is, considering how hard it is to put onesself in the shoes of someone coming at it fresh. There's so much information, but nobody wants to be inundated... I'll play around with the positioning and ordering to see if I can make it easier to find answers to the primary questions.
  - marginalia_nu 5y ago
    UX is very hard. I've been approaching it in terms of visitor archetypes, like in the case just now of a person who doesn't know what you're about, or someone looking for the spec, etc. What questions do they have, and can it be answered easily. I also think being deliberate about where you draw attention to is big. Colors, images, do they serve a function or are they merely to fulfill an aesthetic? Regardless of why you put them there, for better or worse, they will draw the eyes of your visitors. Possibly away from what they are looking for.
- throwawayin16 5y ago
- kstenerud 5y ago
  @throwawayin16 your account is shadowbanned, so I can't reply directly. I get the feeling that the page is at a "roughly good enough" phase that the largest segment of people can find it and get a little interested (or at least I hope that's the case!) The fine tuning is always a pain. The main page is supposed to be a little markety, and then for the technically minded there's the spec and the design doc. I've played around with what gets emphasized first. It used to be the dual format aspect, but now since switching to the security aspect I've gotten more traction. It's always a struggle striking the right balance between information and text density. I'll probably end up playing around for awhile yet...

marginalia_nu 5y ago

I hope you don't mind a critique; I struggled a bit understanding what your site was about. Took quite a bit to figure out it was an encoding scheme, after being confused whether it was a start-up or a library or what. You're answering the questions a visitor has in a sensible enough order: 1. What is it? 2. Why should I use it? 3. What does it look like? I think the proportions are off. In terms of detail, the first question is answered in a brief slogan that is very easily glossed over because it's put in a place where very little informative text usually gets put, then the second question gets a huge amount of space and details and the same points are repeated multiple times with different phrasing. Everyone claims to be "fast", "simple", "effective", "secure", "private", "cheap", "future-proof", "optimized", etc. It very easily gets dismissed as noise when you are at the same time scanning the page for clues as to what it even is about. It's hard to make a sell when what you're selling isn't clear. Maybe you could overlap 1 and 2 a bit, somehow. If it had said "the encoding scheme is easy to use" rather than "easy to use", my question would be largely answered. My sites aren't a marvel of intuitive navigation either, I don't claim to be better, but it's sometimes hard to see sometimes how other people view our sites.

kstenerud 5y ago
Thank you! I'm of average skill when it comes to UX, which is definitely hurting the visibility of this. I'm also worried about how approachable the spec itself is, considering how hard it is to put onesself in the shoes of someone coming at it fresh. There's so much information, but nobody wants to be inundated... I'll play around with the positioning and ordering to see if I can make it easier to find answers to the primary questions.
- marginalia_nu 5y ago
  UX is very hard. I've been approaching it in terms of visitor archetypes, like in the case just now of a person who doesn't know what you're about, or someone looking for the spec, etc. What questions do they have, and can it be answered easily. I also think being deliberate about where you draw attention to is big. Colors, images, do they serve a function or are they merely to fulfill an aesthetic? Regardless of why you put them there, for better or worse, they will draw the eyes of your visitors. Possibly away from what they are looking for.
throwawayin16 5y ago
kstenerud 5y ago
@throwawayin16 your account is shadowbanned, so I can't reply directly. I get the feeling that the page is at a "roughly good enough" phase that the largest segment of people can find it and get a little interested (or at least I hope that's the case!) The fine tuning is always a pain. The main page is supposed to be a little markety, and then for the technically minded there's the spec and the design doc. I've played around with what gets emphasized first. It used to be the dual format aspect, but now since switching to the security aspect I've gotten more traction. It's always a struggle striking the right balance between information and text density. I'll probably end up playing around for awhile yet...