Page length considerations
The longer a web page is, the slower it will be to download. This is particularly important when publishing information for use by local people who may have a slow internet connection.
Keep pages short - the equivalent of one page of A4 text is usually sufficient. If pages are longer than this, it is best to break them down into smaller pages or - if that is not practicable - to break them up with headings and bookmark hyperlinks.
Internet pollution
"Let's clean up our information environment. Are you saying something that benefits your customers, or simply spewing word count? If users don't need it, don't write it. Stop polluting now."
Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox - 11 August 2003
When breaking down documents it is important that individual pages are meaningful in isolation and so consideration needs to be given to page titles.
If you include long documents provide information near the top of the text about total page length or size so that users are aware that there may be a delay in loading the page itself.
This page was last updated on 3 October 2009
