How many seconds to load these pages?

Hi there

We would appreciate your testing the following pages and responding with
*only* the following information for each of the pages. Please copy and
paste *just the following* into your reply for each page.

* Time in seconds until you saw the street image appear: xx seconds
* Your country:
* Broadband speed: xx Mb/s
* Browser: FF / IE / Safari (delete as applicable)

NB:
! The site is designed for Broadband so please do not test using dial-up
! JavaScript must be enabled
! Designed for IE, FF and Safari only so please do not test elsewhere (Opera
limitations on div widths prevent it working currently)

The pages to test and paste the above results under each of these 3:

1) George St: http://tinyurl.com/35mwxr
2) Portobello Rd: http://tinyurl.com/324fqj
3) Oxford St: http://tinyurl.com/fe2kw


(We appreciate you may have other feedback however this poster *cannot*
enter into any other dialogue or pass on any other comments. Market
research is a separate thing and all feedback there has already been
considered. What we are looking for is just some specific info, thank you.)

Many thanks to all posters able to reply as requested above.

"Mika" <anon (AT) anon (DOT) com> writes:

We would appreciate your testing the following pages and responding with
*only* the following information for each of the pages.

This is not a help desk. If I have other comments, I'll make them whether
you think I should or not.

We appreciate you may have other feedback however this poster *cannot*
enter into any other dialogue

Maybe, but the rest of us can, and we don't need your permission to do so.

sherm--

--
WV News, Blogging, and Discussion: http://wv-www.com
Cocoa programming in Perl: http://camelbones.sourceforge.net

Mika,

I was initially unable to follow your instructions. The main reason was
that the 'street' image hangs off the bottom of my 1024 X 768 window so,
although I can see when it BEGINS to load (from the top), I cannot see when
it has completed loading without scrolling vertically, which contaminates
the measurement.

This is complicated by the fact that before the image appears, an "image
coming" message occupies its space, but that message is smaller than the
final image, so things jump downward when the image does finally arrive.

Nevertheless, knowing what to expect, I cleared cache and repeated the test,
scrolling downward while the 'Coming soon" message was on the screen so I
could watch the street appear.

Results:

1) George St: http://tinyurl.com/35mwxr
* Time in seconds until you saw the street image appear: 29 seconds
* Your country: USA
* Broadband speed: 1.536 Mb/s
* Browser: FF
2) Portobello Rd: http://tinyurl.com/324fqj
* Time in seconds until you saw the street image appear: 17 seconds
* Your country: USA
* Broadband speed: 1.536 Mb/s
* Browser: FF
3) Oxford St: http://tinyurl.com/fe2kw
* Time in seconds until you saw the street image appear: 34 seconds
* Your country: USA
* Broadband speed: 1.536 Mb/s
* Browser: FF

Notes on the three pages:
1) After the specified load time, the image vanished briefly, then
reappeared. Had I been an actual user, this would have made me stop and
pause to see if more updates were going to occur before I started to
interact with the page.
3) The center of the bus never appeared. In its place was a rectangle
that was either gray or a residual chunk of the the "coming soon" message.
When I did scroll horizontally down the street, several more gray rectangles
(missing pieces of the image) appeared.

I tried using the arrow keys to walk down the street, but left and right
were reversed, i.e. the right arrow moved the STREET to the right, whereas I
expected it to move ME (perceptually) to the right along the street. Hmm,
OK it seems to depend on which side of the street I'm on; I find that
distracting.

I couldn't use the arrow keys at all until I had first clicked (with the
mouse) on some part of the street away from a doorway.

I listened to the street sounds for a while, but could not fathom why I
would want to do that.

When positioned over any of the shop entrances, my cursor flickered (no
doubt from excitement over thoughts of the treasures within).

When I positioned my cursor over the little man in the map, it became a
pointing finger, which usually indicates a link. Clicking on it did
nothing. I also tried to drag the little man along the street (hoping to go
quickly to a new vantage point), but that got me the "can't do this" symbol.

Interesting concept.

Chris Beall

"Mika" <anon (AT) anon (DOT) com> wrote

Hi there

We would appreciate your testing the following pages and responding with
*only* the following information for each of the pages. Please copy and
paste *just the following* into your reply for each page.

* Time in seconds until you saw the street image appear: xx seconds
* Your country:
* Broadband speed: xx Mb/s
* Browser: FF / IE / Safari (delete as applicable)

NB:
! The site is designed for Broadband so please do not test using dial-up
! JavaScript must be enabled
! Designed for IE, FF and Safari only so please do not test elsewhere
(Opera
limitations on div widths prevent it working currently)

The pages to test and paste the above results under each of these 3:

1) George St: http://tinyurl.com/35mwxr
2) Portobello Rd: http://tinyurl.com/324fqj
3) Oxford St: http://tinyurl.com/fe2kw


(We appreciate you may have other feedback however this poster *cannot*
enter into any other dialogue or pass on any other comments. Market
research is a separate thing and all feedback there has already been
considered. What we are looking for is just some specific info, thank
you.)

Many thanks to all posters able to reply as requested above.

"Chris Beall" <Chris_Beall (AT) prodigy (DOT) net> wrote

I was initially unable to follow your instructions. The main reason was
that the 'street' image hangs off the bottom of my 1024 X 768 window so,

Yes, for obvious reasons we had to cater for the masses and 1024x768 is I
hope you will agree on the way out, with 1280 becoming the norm. Again we
are thinking ahead and not wanting to stifle the majority, but appreciate
and apologise it was not ideal for you. The screen res is covered in the
FAQ along with other recommended settings.

Results:

1) George St: http://tinyurl.com/35mwxr
* Time in seconds until you saw the street image appear: 29 seconds
* Your country: USA
* Broadband speed: 1.536 Mb/s
* Browser: FF
2) Portobello Rd: http://tinyurl.com/324fqj
* Time in seconds until you saw the street image appear: 17 seconds
* Your country: USA
* Broadband speed: 1.536 Mb/s
* Browser: FF
3) Oxford St: http://tinyurl.com/fe2kw
* Time in seconds until you saw the street image appear: 34 seconds
* Your country: USA
* Broadband speed: 1.536 Mb/s
* Browser: FF

Okay, these are just about bearable given the site is designed for UK users
where the hop times are much faster. If someone is interested in the
concept and visiting from the USA, although they won't be able to order any
goods for delivery to there, it is hoped 17 seconds is livable.

3) The center of the bus never appeared. In its place was a rectangle
that was either gray or a residual chunk of the the "coming soon" message.
When I did scroll horizontally down the street, several more gray
rectangles
(missing pieces of the image) appeared.

These are adverts or 'ePosters' which load from external sources we have
little control over as hop times to their servers may be slower than to
ours. In the UK they load in about 300ms.

I tried using the arrow keys to walk down the street, but left and right
were reversed, i.e. the right arrow moved the STREET to the right, whereas
I
expected it to move ME (perceptually) to the right along the street. Hmm,
OK it seems to depend on which side of the street I'm on; I find that
distracting.

Yes, there is no other way to do it. He walks in the direction shown on the
map. Left is always West, Right is always East.

I couldn't use the arrow keys at all until I had first clicked (with the
mouse) on some part of the street away from a doorway.

A limitation of the JS script in some browsers - when you click a certain
element, it stops the script. This is covered in the help guidebook icon
above the street: Click any shop wall to activate arrow keys.

I listened to the street sounds for a while, but could not fathom why I
would want to do that.

Sight is one sense. Sound is another. If you turn on the sound and are of
the disposition to want to experience it, you can almost imagine you are on
a deserted version of the world's busiest shopping street. We think this is
quite fun and certainly not something any other website in existence can
provide. Some people like it, others don't, and that's life! Choices are
good.

When positioned over any of the shop entrances, my cursor flickered (no
doubt from excitement over thoughts of the treasures within).

Exactly.

When I positioned my cursor over the little man in the map, it became a
pointing finger, which usually indicates a link. Clicking on it did
nothing. I also tried to drag the little man along the street (hoping to
go
quickly to a new vantage point), but that got me the "can't do this"
symbol.

This is Google Maps giving you the chance to drag the streetmap, not the man
himself. The only possible actions are those shown in the guidebook icon,
but thanks for trying

Interesting concept.

Many thanks for your time, constructive feedback and timings.

"Mika" <anon (AT) anon (DOT) com> wrote

"Chris Beall" <Chris_Beall (AT) prodigy (DOT) net> wrote in message
news:Siq3j.28317$Pv2.10577 (AT) newssvr23 (DOT) news.prodigy.net...

I was initially unable to follow your instructions. The main reason was
that the 'street' image hangs off the bottom of my 1024 X 768 window so,

Yes, for obvious reasons we had to cater for the masses and 1024x768 is I
hope you will agree on the way out, with 1280 becoming the norm.
(snip)

Mika,

Sorry to shatter your hope, but I normally use 600 X 800 on a CRT display.
I'm using 1024 X 768 now because that's the native hardware resolution of my
LCD laptop display. And people with large displays often take advantage of
them to tile multiple windows across the display real estate.

Any time you make an assumption about the user's window size, you are going
to be wrong a significant percentage of the time. If, on the other hand,
you assume that you don't know the user's window size, you will satisfy ALL
of the users (and, IMO, have a lot more fun designing to meet that
requirement...)

Chris Beall

"Chris Beall" <Chris_Beall (AT) prodigy (DOT) net> wrote

"Mika" <anon (AT) anon (DOT) com> wrote in message
news:VPu3j.54802$c_1.38548 (AT) text (DOT) news.blueyonder.co.uk...
"Chris Beall" <Chris_Beall (AT) prodigy (DOT) net> wrote in message
news:Siq3j.28317$Pv2.10577 (AT) newssvr23 (DOT) news.prodigy.net...

I was initially unable to follow your instructions. The main reason
was
that the 'street' image hangs off the bottom of my 1024 X 768 window
so,

Yes, for obvious reasons we had to cater for the masses and 1024x768 is I
hope you will agree on the way out, with 1280 becoming the norm.
(snip)

Mika,

Sorry to shatter your hope, but I normally use 600 X 800 on a CRT display.
I'm using 1024 X 768 now because that's the native hardware resolution of
my
LCD laptop display. And people with large displays often take advantage
of
them to tile multiple windows across the display real estate.

Any time you make an assumption about the user's window size, you are
going
to be wrong a significant percentage of the time. If, on the other hand,
you assume that you don't know the user's window size, you will satisfy
ALL
of the users (and, IMO, have a lot more fun designing to meet that
requirement...)

Chris, you haven't shattered our hope, we took a calculated decision knowing
the vast majority of displays are at least 1024x768 currently. I forget the
% but it is huge. Our site is thus designed for 1024x768. We had a lot of
difficult decisions to make when planning such a 'different' idea. To
scroll a street, the user needs to see a significant portion of panorama
that cannot be achieved at your 600x800 or other low resoultions. We either
cater for the masses with 1024+ or spoil the experience for them by catering
for the few. As the situation will only improve further, I hope you see why
we thought this out a lot and came to the right decision.

Thanks for the input, it is all something we have considered.

Mika