Forwarded. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Yann Forget <yannfo(a)gmail.com> Date: Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 6:57 AM Subject: Usability: page weight To: foundation-l-owner(a)lists.wikimedia.org Hello, While we are talking about usability issues, I would like to mention an issue which was not mentioned up to now : page weight. I am now surfing most of time with a 3G key with a bandwidth of 16 KB/s maximum, and often less. My experience of Wikimedia sites compared with the other websites I am using regularly, GMail and Facebook, shows that these load much faster than Wikimedia pages, even if the page is mostly empty. It seems that these sites use some fancy caching for that. Page weight is a major hurdle for working on any Wikimedia sites affecting users who do not enjoy a broadband connection. And I believe that small wikis with non-European languages are more affected than others (a study would be interesting here). For improving outreach of Wikimedia outside of the Western world, improving the page weight should be a priority. What can be done?

Page weight is a major hurdle for working on any Wikimedia sites affecting users who do not enjoy a broadband connection. And I believe that small wikis with non-European languages are more affected than others (a study would be interesting here). For improving outreach of Wikimedia outside of the Western world, improving the page weight should be a priority. What can be done?