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College of Fine Arts Web Instruction | College of Fine Arts | University of Texas At Austin

College of Fine Arts Web instruction

University of Texas At Austin

  • Welcome
  • About Us
    • WordPress & Drupal
    • Find a Content Owner
  • Getting Started
    • Learn Best Practices for Web
    • Vocabulary Terms
    • Do you need a website?
    • Ways to Get a Website
      • Website Options On Campus
      • Initiate a Project with the Web Team
      • Outsource or DIY
    • Know Your Audience
    • Navigation & Menu Items
  • Requirements
    • Americans with Disabilities Legal Obligations
      • Alternate Text
      • Use of Color & Contrast
      • Link Text & Appearance
        • Non-Visible Link Context
      • PDF Files
      • Software Plug-in Link
      • Captions, Audio Description & Transcripts
        • webVTT Caption File
        • Caption Using Amara
        • Writing Captions & Audio Description
        • Video & Remote Communications
      • Additional ADA Issues
        • Accessible Social Media
        • Video & Remote Communications
    • UT Web Accessibility Policy
    • UT Web Privacy Policy
    • Records Retention – Backups, Archives and Revisions
    • College of Fine Arts Brand
    • UT Brand Guidelines
    • Information Security Office Policies
  • Best Practices
    • College of Fine Arts Communications Written Style Guide
    • Using a Rich Text Editor
      • Using an External HTML Editor
    • Links & URLs
      • Link Text & Appearance
        • Non-Visible Link Context
      • Absolute vs. Relative Paths
      • HTTP vs HTTPS
      • Anchor Links
      • Changing URLs
      • Shorten a URL for Marketing
    • Images
      • JPG vs PNG
      • Image Editing and Troubleshooting
    • Web Forms & Surveys
    • Standards & Structure
      • Hierarchical Headers
      • Computer File Names
      • URL address names
        • UT Short Links Service
      • HTML
        • Common HTML Errors
        • Multiple Rows with Floated Images
        • Responsive Word Wrapping
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Test & Evaluate
    • Wikipedia
    • Social Media & Networking
      • Accessible Social Media
    • RSS & Feeds
    • UT Austin Web Publishing Guidelines
  • Site Performance
    • Page Load Time
      • Fonts
    • Respond to a Variety of Devices
      • Telephone Numbers on Smart Phones
    • Analytics & Visitor Data
      • Outreach Campaign Link Tracking
        • Campaign URL Builder
        • Campaign Link Tracking Worksheet
    • Page Not Found Traffic
    • Tips to Increase Traffic
    • Optimize for AI Chat and Search
  • Site Specific Instructions
    • COFA/UT WordPress Instruction
    • COFA Drupal Instruction
    • UT Drupal Kit Managed

Page Load Time, Speed, Performance and Optimization

Too much content, especially large images, audio, video, custom fonts, social media widgets, and downloads can slow down page load time and create other issues that may frustrate visitors, particularly if they are trying to retrieve the content on a mobile phone, slow connection, or assistive technology.

Optimization is the process of making something as perfect, functional, or effective as possible.  In terms of a website, the optimization process pertains to content, images and other rich media. The goal is to provide robust content while still keeping it concise.

On this page:

  • Image Optimization
  • Multimedia Optimization
  • Downloads

Image Optimization

When too large an image is included on a Web page load time of the page increases and there is even a risk that the image may not load on some devices. Please follow best practices for images on your website.

Multimedia Optimization & Best Practices

Please use services such as Vimeo, YouTube and SoundCloud to host multimedia that you want to embed on your website. These services re-encodes the files to optimize their playback quality. If this is not possible then please contact us.

  • All multimedia must have a Captions, Audio Description or Transcripts
  • Do not set multimedia to auto play.
  • Provide alternate access to the media in case access is hindered. If the embedded video won’t play a visitor can still access the media from a direct link to the content on YouTube, SoundCloud, etc. or other alternate option which may play better for your visitor. This is a really helpful failsafe for when code breaks or devices are incompatible.
  • You are also encouraged to include your email address with an invitation to contact you if for any reason the visitor is unable to access the media.
  • Technology, browsers, multimedia and embed codes are constantly changing. Review pages with multimedia frequently and be aware of changes in the cloud services.
  • Because this content is so “shifty,” we highly recommend running these pages through the recommended tests and evaluations.

See the how to instructions for WordPress or Drupal for specific details.

For more specific details about the requirements from the WebAIM site and for solution ideas see the DIAGRAM (Digital Image and Graphic Resources for Accessible Materials) Center.

Downloads

Linking to a download won’t effect your webpage load time but could ruin your visitor’s day if they click on the link to the download and aren’t expecting the download. Make sure you have compressed the file and don’t forget to make the document accessible before linking to it.

Be courteous and make sure people know what they’re getting themselves into. Make sure links to downloads clearly state the file size and type. Some people may be on a bad connection, a cell phone or in any other situation where trying to download some mega file could really mess them up — even crash their device.

If practical for your content, you could offer a summary or sample file, under 1MB, a low-res version and then the full-res version.

Historically, the common recommendation is for documents, such as pdf, to be below 1 MB, which is not always possible. Also be aware, that many email services balk if you try to attach a file larger the 10MB.

For PDF files follow these instructions to make the document accessible and try this site to compress it: https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/online/compress-pdf.html. There are many different ways to build a PDF so we’re not able to provide instructions on how to optimize the file. There should be options in the editor to clean, compress and/or optimize. There may also be a save for the web option. A quick search for optimizing for your editor should result in the solution.

Primary Sidebar

Open Office / Co-Working Sessions

Second Monday of the month:

11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Fourth Thursday of the month:

2 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Email us for the Zoom link.

College of Fine Arts WordPress Instruction
College of Fine Arts Drupal Instruction
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Contact Us

The COFA Web team can be reached by emailing us at cofawebmaster@austin.utexas.edu


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