I have been managing web-based software development for more than 15 years. There are many factors that can play into how successful a program is from the beginning. I don’t know how much time developers have had to work on HealthCare.gov, what their budget was, how precise the tech specs were or how many times project scope changed during development. Because I don’t know these factors and other important details, I cannot judge them in any way.
One thing that I do know, however, is that it is extremely difficult to make a brand new software app or tech system go live from zero to 8 million visitors in one day, without any issues. I think that a lot of the bad press that has been associated with HealthCare.gov has more to do with political motivations, rather than the actual capabilities of the website. I believe that many people want to see the system fail so they are magnifying the issues on this website, to use it as evidence against those who created the health care system.
I have been listening to the issues associated with this new online health insurance marketplace for exactly three weeks, and finally, I decided to visit it – just out of curiosity (thanks to company I work for – we have health insurance). I didn’t get a chance to explore too much of it, but something at the very first “Let’s get started” page struck me (https://www.healthcare.gov/pre-registration.html, http://archive.is/ECyNa – cached) – even with a fast internet connection, center image load time was slow. The image in the center of the page appeared to be 775 KB in size. Although I am not a web designer, that size seems way too big, considering the forms and colors this image has. When I saved the image “for Web & Devices…” in Photoshop, I got a 30KB file size. Now, I have 20/20 vision and I could not see a difference between the 30KB size file and 775KB size file. You can actually reload this page and observe down below how original image is loading.
Original: 775KB
Saved for Web & Devices: 30KB
Web page loading time is one of the most important factors in website user experience and SEO. This makes sense because people don’t want to spend all of their time waiting to complete something online. They want to get things done quickly and efficiently. Search engines also know this and that is why websites with a better user experience (shorted loading time) get shown in search results first.
It is clear that HealthCare.gov doesn’t need SEO management. People will get to that site no matter what. I also know that we can’t look at site performance too critically right after the site is deployed, but if you are expecting to start a website with 8 million visitors right away, find a moment to check images: make sure they are small and possibly placed on a Content Delivery Network.
You may realize that one minute with Photoshop can bring you a loading time that is 25 times faster, and it can bring you more website visitors who are happier with your site.
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