Does anyone still factor in people on dialup when they are designing these days?

I don't think about it when I pay for designs because I think there’s a very small % of net users still on slow connections.

A lot of the bigger sites are going down the route of multimedia-intensive sites.

Yes, I always tell friends who are designing webpages to keep them in mind, and the screen resolutions also...

I remember the modem / BBS days... now I have a freaken 10Mbit burstable to 15Mbit connection to my apartment :D

I'm not sure if it's accurate to say "... very small % of net users still on slow connections" as I think there might be more then you think.

Regardless, the answer to your question will depend on your target audience. We personally DO NOT keep the 56K user in mind for the simple fact that our target audience needs a highspeed connection to utilize the services we offer. So targetting to the user with a 56k connection makes no sense.

Just think about your user base and go from there!

We design with that in mind. Load speed, usability, screen size and connection. More users than you think still have dialup, and even with a fast connection, large images and complicated layouts take (sometimes marginally) more time to load.
I'd rather sacrifice a bit of 'spiffy' for load speed if possible.

Oh, absolutely! Heck, often times we're thinking about the 28.8 modem user when we design a site! Yes, it depends on the target audience to some extent, but you never really know how your target audience is going to connect to you. With mobile browsing on the rise, the audience using slower connections is actually holding quite steady, and internationally, broadband is not always available. In fact, I have a casual customer (done a couple small things here and there for him) who can only get 19.9 from his home in rural Idaho. That's just how it is.

Is the broadband market rising? Yes it is. But overall connectivity is rising as well. It is many. many years too early to disregard dialup users.

Always,
our site was designed by yours truly, and loads very quickly, and is very 28.8 friendly..

I never designerd with this in mind. My sites are not as heavy image loaded, but I don't design with the loading time in mind that much

It really depends on the content of your site.

If it is for bandwidth intensive games that modem users cant play, then being high bandwidth is fine. But keep in mind the extra hosting costs you will incur with a bandwidth intensive website.

Generally, quick download time is a good thing. On the internet people are impatient, if your site does not load within 2 seconds they might hit the refresh button (and eat even more of your bandwidth) or (worse) the back button and go elsewhere.

I had to show a prospective client on of my more bandwidth intense sites during a presentation on 56k. That was awkward waiting.

Yes definatly. I make al my designs with the 56k, 800x600 users in mind. I try to keep load time to 30sec max because as the others said, there are more people still on 56k than you probably think.

i speak personally that i do not design for 56k users. i only take screen size as a diffrential between computers.
maybe if everyone designed for broadband, 56k would become extinct.

56K users go to hell, I design for braud-band or higher! We're not living in the middle ages anymore ~ the cost of braud-band and 56K are the same so there is no reason why people should use a 56K, plus, when you get your package it comes with a free external modem on most or all companys - there's no excuse!

the cost of braud-band and 56K are the same so there is no reason why people should use a 56K, plus, when you get your package it comes with a free external modem on most or all companys - there's no excuse!

John881 - That is a BOLD statement. This statement might apply to your location, but not every location in the WORLD. Prices may vary location to location. Not every location in the world is heavily populated and have the technology to support high-speed internet. There are still many people all over the world, including the US, that have dial-up. I am sorry, but your statements are just pathetic and not thought out.

No.. I dont think of people that use 56k. To bad for them :P

Paul pretty much summed it up.

And what about people who have images/js disabled, or use a screen reader? Those 350kb pages aren't going to last a second.

Actually Dan, the people with images disabled have an advantage, because they can generally bypass a whole lot of downloading lag time and get right to the meat of the site :)

although we also don,t like 56k but in most part or world peoples use it bcause they don,t have the latest technolgies in their country as few states of America.so we shouldn,t discourage those peoples

I find it interesting that all the people who don't design for dialup users have less than 22 posts here.

I try to make my page loads as quick as possible, with coding, scripting, graphic and php gzip compression.

I don't necessarily design for 56k but I do make sure all my pages are fast loading.
I'm not afraid to use images but I don't overuse them. Sites that have extensive menus or use too many graphics just annoy me too much.

The only things I do specifically design for are multiple browsers (FF and IE) and screen size (1024x768 and 800x600)

I'm very impatient by the way so quick loading is a must. Not just downloading speeds but how fast the browser renders the page.
Basically I design sites for myself. If it doesn't load fast enough for me, then that's what I go by.

I don't think of dialup users when designing, it's just me, me, me all the way! :D

i only think about 56k'ers