Professional Web Design: Techniques and Templates, Fourth Edition

Understanding Bandwidth 25
Subsequently, Google logs user information whenever someone visits any page
with the code on it. The designer can then log into Analytics and read compiled
user data at any time. Not only does this method require less technical knowledge,
but it also doesn’t take nearly as long to set up. The only downside is that
the code needs to be added on any page the designer wants to track.
After all this information is collected and analyzed, the designer can use
the results to best modify a site to increase conversion rates for desired visitor
usage.
Branching Pages
The inconsistent support of XHTML, JavaScript, and CSS by IE and Netscape
years ago made some developers resort to branching their code. In other words,
once a user hits a page, a basic JavaScript code is used to determine a user’s
software information, such as which browser is being used and what version of
JavaScript, if any, it supports. Once the browser version, for example, is
determined, one piece of script can be used for Netscape while another is used
for IE.
Prior to CSS-driven drop-down menus, branching was advantageous to use with
Javascript drop-down menus that only worked with Netscape’s DOM (Document
Object Model) or IE’s DOM. Such scripts, however, not only increase the
download time of a page, but, more importantly, they also increase the amount
of work necessary to maintain a site.
If a designer treats IE and Netscape with equal significance, using branching
scripts for style sheets is usually unnecessary. If the style sheets are written
correctly, the way the text and images are displayed should not be significantly
different. All of the style sheets used in the designs for this book are supported
by all the major browsers, which not only decreases download time, but also
eliminates the headache of maintaining two different pieces of code.
Understanding Bandwidth
Bandwidth is the amount of data that is either uploaded or downloaded over
a specified time. In other words, for designers, how quickly can a site be downloaded
without losing the user? Studies in the past have shown that the numberone
complaint of users is that a site is too slow, which makes speed a high
priority when designing.