Though it's light on implementation, I hope this idea is useful. I haven't actually implemented it, so I'll be interested to learn if others see pitfalls.
I think the issue isn't dialup vs. broadband, it's simply speed of rendering; even broadband connections can be slow at times. Therefore, I wouldn't be inclined to do client detection -- I'd plan for all users to get the same opt-out from the rich UI. I don't have implementation details, but I know that it's possible to render some text before the rest of the content. Yours could say something like, "Loading too slow? Click here to use the lightweight version of Vanguard.com" and then disappear once all items on the page are rendered. There are some nice JS display techniques (e.g., see jQuery) that would allow you to slide the message down and then back up again gracefully, so that the rest of the screen doesn't jump around. You could also add a short delay that covers a typical broadband user's render time, so that they only see it when the page is loading slowly. -Sarah -----Original Message----- Thanks to everyone who suggested Speakeasy's speed test and the speedtest.net site... but these solutions appear to tell me-the-user what the connection speed of my computer is. I'm looking for a script or code that we-the-developers can put on our pages to detect the speed at which our users are connecting to our servers, so we can redirect slow connections to lighter weight pages. ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
