Dynamic vs. Static web pages

A discussion tonight about dynamic vs. static web pages made me think about how some people believe dynamic web pages are inherently “better” than static. Often, dynamic web pages are prettier, but they are not necessarily better.

Take Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, for example. It dynamically render’s beautiful images on the background of the page. It looks terrific, but it also takes about 5 times longer to load than Google.

If I want to search the net, I don’t need pretty pictures. I don’t need to see great background images. I need a search box, ang Google gives me that as fast as it can.

Sites like Bing and Google actually blur the distinction between dynamic and static–parts of Google’s home page, for example, are static and parts are dynamic. But really, the discussion here is not about static vs. dynamic, it’s about user interface design.

Make your page static. Make it dynamic. Either way–it just doesn’t matter. What matters is something called User Experience. UI design is one element of that. Site performance is another. If your User Experience is crappy, your users don’t come back.

And that’s what you should be concerned about.

Excuse me, sir. Your flood has arrived…

Last night I was heading home from a tutoring gig. It was quite hot, and a gentle rain began to fall. I recall thinking “How nice–a cool rain.”

Soon, the drops began to *hurt*. At that point, I pulled under some shelter and got into my rain gear. While putting on my poncho, the skies opened up. In moments, water was streaming down the road and the drains were overwhelmed.

Cold, dark, wet. Three not-so-great driving conditions when you’re on a scooter. I’ve not travelled the particular road I was on a lot, so I was unfamiliar with the topography. I had to resort closely following other scooters and observing water depths as they fought their way through ‘puddles’. Often, the water was over my footpegs and I was concerned about the engine flooding.

In the end, a 20 minute drive under normal conditions turned into an hour+ slog through the cold and the wet. Several lessons learned:

1) Timbuk2 bags rock. The outside of my messenger bag was soaked. The insides were dry. As it should be (but often isn’t).

2) The normally ‘charming’ habit of Vietnamese drivers who like to drive without headlights takes on a terrifying new meaning in a major rainstorm. WTF? If you’re going to insist on driving without lights of any kind, the very least you can do is avoid *me*. *You* can see *me*.

3) Disc brakes on scooters. Seems silly, but, trust me, well worth it. Especially if the idiot from point 2 *doesn’t* avoid you…