6 slide slide show taking long to load

[letsgofishing]

Hi all,
I've created a single page website for a client that has a slide show at the top using the Xara slide show widget - there are just 6 images totaling 730kb in size, but the page takes along time to load. There are 2 lines of text that fade in after the first image is loaded.
Also, a black rectangle comes up first before the first slide loads - the client is not happy with this.
Could some members please take a look and feed back what hey experience the load times to be and what might be the cause.
The folder of index_htm files contains +- 10 megs of .pdf files which are accessed upon clicking a link on the site.
Of all the other files in the folder, the biggest is 394kb.
I notice that while the site is loading in the bottom LH corner of the browser window you can see what it is waiting for : - youtube, google maps, TLS handshake and something else that is too quick to read.
Many thanks
LGF

Here's the link: http://www.logostore.co.za

[RKissane]

I took a look and your site is real slow.

I ran it through speed test on https://tools.pingdom.com/ and it came back with several Java script errors. Maybe this is causing your problems or can point you in the right direction. Run the test yourself, it does not require a subscription or a fee to use.

Ray

[letsgofishing]

Hi Ray,
Many thanks (i think ) -
The worst offender (grade F) states:
This page makes 82 parallelizable requests to www.logostore.co.za. Increase download parallelization by distributing these requests across multiple hostnames:
What follows are all the images on the site and I haven't a clue what "distributing these requests across multiple hostnames" means!
I'll follow up at google developers though.

Mike

[Acorn]

Frankly, the site is way too heavy.
You are loading in over 50 images and these are fighting with Google Maps and the other social media widgets, all requiring handshakes.

Ask yourself what would you lose by having a conventional website? Transitions.
Ask yourself what would you lose by having a Supersite with vertical transitions? Customers.
The current http://www.34south.biz/ is conventional but quick; 3 seconds versus 30 seconds for the new one.
I would create two sites: Home page with slider and Contact Us; the rest as a Supersite.

Your NavBar is also badly structured with links back up the page failing and PDFs being invoked, without warning.

I like your changes but use the logo and NavBar as your left and right edges for all the following pages.
The white text on blue probably needs to be fully or centre justified to transmit the balance through the pages.

Acorn

[letsgofishing]

Frankly, the site is way too heavy.
You are loading in over 50 images and these are fighting with Google Maps and the other social media widgets, all requiring handshakes.

Ask yourself what would you lose by having a conventional website? Transitions.
Ask yourself what would you lose by having a Supersite with vertical transitions? Customers.
The current http://www.34south.biz/ is conventional but quick; 3 seconds versus 30 seconds for the new one.
I would create two sites: Home page with slider and Contact Us; the rest as a Supersite.

Your NavBar is also badly structured with links back up the page failing and PDFs being invoked, without warning.

I like your changes but use the logo and NavBar as your left and right edges for all the following pages.
The white text on blue probably needs to be fully or centre justified to transmit the balance through the pages.

Acorn

Many thanks for your time and feedback Acorn.
Not sure how to cut back on the amount of images - client wants lots of pics of the restaurant and food....
Interested in your suggestion of 2 sites - how do I "connect" the 2 sites?
I will fix the nav bar issues - thanks for pointing that out.

[letsgofishing]

Hi Acorn,
I've taken a look at the new design and a few of your comments puzzle me -

There's a trend today towards single page websites and a lot of them have slide shows on the home page.
Is it really such a bad thing to expect that a xara site can handle the following:
- a slide show on the home page with 6 small file size images
- 2 photo galleries of 12 images each
- 3 links to small videos on youtube
- and a map?

I'm not knocking your comments - just making observations of xara and/or websites in general.

Why would WDP offer these features and a designer get "penalised' for using them efficiency-wise?

Out of interest, I deleted the slide show and the text that scrolls in - load time is now 2-3 seconds....

[siran]

At the moment the site is fast and displays the slideshow (fist time opening and with CTRL F5).

[Acorn]

Hi Acorn,
I've taken a look at the new design and a few of your comments puzzle me -

There's a trend today towards single page websites and a lot of them have slide shows on the home page.
Is it really such a bad thing to expect that a xara site can handle the following:
- a slide show on the home page with 6 small file size images
- 2 photo galleries of 12 images each
- 3 links to small videos on youtube
- and a map?

I'm not knocking your comments - just making observations of xara and/or websites in general.

Why would WDP offer these features and a designer get "penalised' for using them efficiency-wise?

Out of interest, I deleted the slide show and the text that scrolls in - load time is now 2-3 seconds....

If you have a lot of assets, each requiring a server call, then you will have quite a delay until the page is fully assembled and it displays as you want.
Perhaps the ordering of of the slider is the problem.

I build my sites, feature by feature, so I can discover what works and what hangs.

You may be "penalised" with the slider as it relies on a CDN source from Xara. Try another approach that has the images in your server's domain.
Look, the NavBar approach that Xara uses renders the elements as images. I use CSS so the elements are still textual so I would save around 20 server calls.

Your Up button is an image, I would use the same Font Awesome symbol as text and save up to 7 server calls.

My logic for splitting the site is: I am in a hurry to phone 34deg South. I'll access their site, wait for 6 MB download for the number that is on the seventh page.

Designing is knowing the tool and particularly its limitations.

Acorn

[Acorn]

At the moment the site is fast and displays the slideshow (fist time opening and with CTRL F5).

Yes, it is now much faster.

Acorn

[letsgofishing]

Many thanks for your time and explanations Acorn - really much appreciated.

PS: their phone number is on the home page under the logo which loads almost instantly