Web Watch: Size of Institutional Top Level Pages

brian kelly

Web Watch: Size of Institutional Top Level Pages

Web Watch: Brian Kelly looks at the size of institutional top level pages.

Is your University home page big, bold and brassy? Is it colourful and interactive, making use of new technologies in order to stand out from the crowd? Or is it mean and lean, with a simple design providing rapid download times and universal access?

This survey of the size of the entry points for UK University and College entry points seeks an answer to these questions.

The Methodology

This report is based on use of two Web-based tools: NetMechanic and Bobby. Two tools were used in order to see if there were any differences between the way the tools worked, the results they gave, etc.

The output from the NetMechanic service is illustrated below.

Figure 1: Output From NetMechanic

It should be noted that NetMechanic gives the overall file size, together with the sizes of objects it finds, which includes HTML, images, background images, style sheet and JavaScript files, etc.

The output from the Bobby service is illustrated below.

Figure 2: Output From Bobby

It should be noted that Bobby also gives the overall file size, together with the sizes of HTML and images objects it finds. However the current version of Bobby does not appear to provide information on the size of other objects, such as stylesheet files, external JavaScript files, etc.

It should be noted from Figures 1 and 2 that NetMechanic indicates that the University College Chichester Home Page contains only one image and is 15,839 b whereas Bobby analyses several images and gives a total size of 130.43 Kb. This discrepancy is due to the sites robots.txt file: NetMechanic obeys the directives in this file and will not analyse files in the site's /images directory.

The Survey

On 15^th-31^st May 2001 the NetMechanic and Booby tools were used to obtain information on the size of the institutional entry points for UK Higher Educational Institutions, based on a list taken initially from HESA [1].

In cases of significantly small sizes, the results were manually checked in order to see if the tools were reporting on the page which end users will see. It was noted that in a significant number of cases the tools were not reporting on the page as seen by the end user: instead the tools give figures for pages containing (a) redirect information (b) no-frames alternatives or (c) "splash screens". In addition it was found that if a site's robots.txt file prohibited robots from accessing directories containing image resources used on the entry point, then the sizes of these image files was not included in the overall total.

In a number of cases it was also noted that there were significant discrepancies between the results reported by NetMechanic and Bobby. In these cases the discrepancies were flagged and, in some cases, further analysis was carried out. For example, it was found that if a site's robots.txt file prohibited robots from accessing directories containing image resources used on the entry point, then the sizes of these image files was not included in the overall total.

Findings

A summary of the findings is given below.

Largest Entry Points

The largest entry points is given in Table 1. This table gives details on entry points larger than 100 Kb. It should be noted that if the file sizes reported by NetMechanic and Bobby differ, the largest value is used to determine whether the Web site should be included in the table.

	Institution	Size (NetMechanic)	Size (Bobby)	Comments
1	Dartington	396,225 b Try it	396.22 Kb Try it	Contains large animated GIF and graphical menu items
2	Napier	256,157 b Try it	82.65 Kb Try it	Contains large Javascript menu (173,778 b). Reported by NetMechanic but not Bobby.
3	Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College	180,587 b Try it	Cannot connect Try it	This site spawns new windows, uses frames, has a redirect and uses Javascript, which causes problems for Bobby
4	Stirling	147,642 b Try it	145.76 Kb Try it	Has large image (88,171 b)
5	Surrey Institute of Art and Design	146,975 b Try it	146.53 Kb Try it	Has several medium sized images (6,000-14,000 b)
6	Nottingham	136,253 b Try it	134.93 Kb Try it
7	Chichester, University College	15,839 b Try it	130.43 Kb Try it	Discrepancy
8	Cardiff, University of Wales Institute	124,914 b Try it	122.52 Kb Try it	Has several medium sized images (1,00-25,000 b)
9	Bath Spa	(10,520 b) Try it 123,498 b Try it	(6.06 Kb) Try it 123.38 Kb Try it	Has several medium sized images and a "splash screen". The second set of results give the size of the second page. Note that the combined size of the splash screens is not included.
10	School of Pharmacy, The	123,635 b Try it	85.96 Kb Try it	Contains a single large image (84,554 b) and a large background image (37,680 b)
11	Central Lancashire, The University of	117,642 b Try it	101.45 Kb Try it	Contains a large background image and several medium sized images.
12	Staffordshire	112,364 b Try it	101.81 Kb Try it	Contains a large animated image and several medium sized images.
13	Durham	110,248 b Try it	109.37 Kb Try it
14	Thames Valley University (TVU)	105,628 b Try it	105.63 Kb Try it

Table 1: Largest Entry Points

The Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College entry point is shown below. This can be regarded as an example of a big, bold entry point, which contains a secondary window, frames and a dynamic Javascript menu.

Figure 3: Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College Home Page

It should be noted that, with the exception of Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College and Napier University, the remainder of the large entry points appear to be due to the images. The size of Buckinghamshire Chilterns entry point appears to be due to its complexity, and Napier due to the Javascript program which provides the dynamic menu (shown below).

Figure 4: Napier University Home Page

A rolling demonstration of the pages listed in the above table is available which provides a simple means for comparing these entry points [2].

Smallest Entry Points

A list of the smallest entry points is given in Table 2. It should be noted that if the file sizes reported by NetMechanic and Bobby differ, the largest value is used to determine whether the Web site should be included in the table. However the values are checked to see if they give the size of the entry point which would be seen by an end user. If the value for the file size is based on a redirect message, a no-frames page, etc. the Web site is not included in the table.

	Institution	Size (NetMechanic)	Size (Bobby)	Comments
1	Norwich School of Art and Design	7,046 b Try it	7.07 Kb Try it
2	University of Hull Scarborough Campus	11,148 b Try it	11.15 Kb Try it	Interim page until merge is complete
3	Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama	13,053 b Try it	12.92 Kb Try it
4	Glasgow School of Art	13,345 b Try it	13.34 Kb Try it	NetMechanic and Bobby analysed the splash screen
5	Royal Academy of Music	2,806 b Try it	14.26 Kb Try it
6	King Alfred's College, Winchester	15,463 b Try it	(0.80 Kb) Try it	Bobby processes non-frames version
7	Welsh College of Music and Drama	17,426 b Try it	17.54 Kb Try it
8	St Mary's College	18,360 b Try it	17.95 Kb Try it
9	Newcastle	19,754 b Try it	19.56 Kb Try it

Table 2: Smallest Entry Points

A rolling demonstration of the pages listed in the above table is available which provides a simple means for comparing these entry points [3].

Conclusions

This is believed to be the first survey of the size of UK University and Colleges entry points since the initial WebWatch surveys which were carried out in 1997 (see Ariadne issue 12 [4]) and 1998 (see [5] and [6]).

A histogram of the size of entry points in 1998, taken from the Third Crawl of UK Academic Entry Points report [6] is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Profile Of Size Of Entry Points in 1998

It should be noted that the data represented in Figure 4 in based on the size of the HTML page and inline images - other linked files, such as style sheets, JavaScript, etc. were not included (and were probably not widely deployed at that time).

The range of sizes shown in Figure 4 spans from around 5Kb (Royal College of Music [7]) to around 200 Kb (Kent Institute of Art and Design [8]). The second large outlier (192 Kb) was for the Scottish College of Textiles - an institution which has now merged with Heriot-Watt University.

Detailed comparisons with previous surveys are difficult to make due to the inconsistencies of the tools and the lack of a rigourous definition of what is meant by the size of a page. However it is hoped that the survey has provided a useful overall picture of the UK HE community.

It is also hoped that this survey will stimulate a discussion on the ideal size for an institution's entry point. Should be be now looking to exploit the functionality which is now provided multimedia objects to provide an attractive and memorable interface and provide more functional and, perhaps, usable dynamic interfaces which JavaScript can provide. Or should priority be given to small sizes and speedy download times? Alternatively, is there a compromise, and what should this compromise be?

Future Work

It is intended to carry out further surveys of the size of entry points within the UK HE (and, if resources permit it, FE communities). Future work will attempt to provide a more rigourous, relevant, measurable and reproducible measure for the size of entry points (although, of course, the growth of personalised entry points and changeable entry points containing news items, may not make this feasible).

References

Higher Education Universities and Colleges, HESA
http://www.hesa.ac.uk/links/he_inst.htm
Largest UK HE Entry Points,
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue28/web-watch/rolling-demo-large/
Smallest UK HE Entry Points,
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue28/web-watch/rolling-demo-small/
WebWatching UK Universities and Colleges, Ariadne, issue 12
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue12/web-focus/
How Is My Web Community Doing? Monitoring Trends in Web Service Provision, Journal of Documentation, Vol. 55 No. 1 January 1999, pp 82-95
Third Crawl of UK Academic Entry Points, UKOLN
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/webwatch/reports/hei-nov1998/
Royal College of Music,
http://www.rcm.ac.uk/
Kent Institute of Art and Design,
http://www.kiad.ac.uk/

Appendix 1: Survey Results

CAST's Bobby service and the Net mechanic service were used to analyse UK University institutional entry points. The survey was carried out between 15^th-31^st May 2001.

The following table contains details of the survey. Column 1 gives the name of the institution and a link to the institutional web server. Column 3 gives the information provided by NetMechanic. Column 4 gives the information provided by Bobby.

A summary of the findings is given in the following table. Note that cases in which NetMechanic and Bobby give significant differences in the file sizes are flagged.

Table 3: Information On Size Of UK University and College Entry Points

	Institution	Size (using NetMechanic)	Size (using Bobby)	Comments
1	Aberdeen	49,731 b Try it	49.56 Kb Try it
2	Abertay	99,003 b Try it	1.63 Kb Try it	Bobby analyses the no-frames page
3	Aberystwyth	63,567 b Try it	6,313 Kb Try it
4	Anglia	78,203 b Try it	60.69 Kb Try it
5	Aston	22,837 b Try it	20.14 Kb Try it
6	Bangor	(482 b) Try it 43,929 b Try it	(0.34) Kb Try it 43.77 Kb Try it	Bobby analyses the redirected page - additional details given for <http://www.bangor.ac.uk/home.html>
7	Bath Spa	(10,520 b) Try it 123,498 b Try it	(6.06 Kb) Try it 123.38 Kb Try it	Bobby analyses the "splash screen".
8	Bath	39.580 b Try it	39.58 Kb Try it
9	Belfast, Queen's University of	45,590 b Try it	45.59 Kb Try it
10	Birkbeck	34,948 b Try it	39.72 Kb Try it
11	Birmingham	32,996 b Try it	(8.15 Kb) Try it	Size of images not reported by Bobby due to site's robots.txt file
12	Bishop Grosseteste College	94,830 b Try it	94.83 Kb Try it	Bobby appears to have problems with the site's JavaScript
13	Bolton	79,083 b Try it	79.08 Kb Try it
14	Bournemouth	39,939 b Try it	39.94 Kb Try it
15	Bradford	39,731 b Try it	Not available Try it	Framed page, with full noframes option
16	Bretton Hall	44,208 b Try it	44.21 Kb Try it
17	Brighton	38,049 b Try it	37.72 Kb Try it
18	Bristol	25,215 b Try it	25.06 Kb Try it
19	Brunel	53,842 b Try it	53.84 Kb Try it
20	Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College	180,587 b Try it	Cannot connect Try it	This site spawns new windows, uses frames, has a redirect and uses Javascript, which causes problems for Bobby
21	Cambridge	31,364 b Try it	29.78 Kb Try it
22	Canterbury Christ Church University College	47,818 b Try it	40.67 Kb Try it
23	Cardiff	52,374 b Try it	52.19 Kb Try it
24	Cardiff, University of Wales Institute	124,914 b Try it	122.52 Kb Try it
25	Central England in Birmingham, The University of	82,869 b Try it	82.87 Kb Try it
26	Central Lancashire, The University of	117,642 b Try it	101.45 Kb Try it
27	Central School of Speech and Drama	31,265 b Try it	31.26 Kb Try it	Were all images found?
28	Cheltenham and Gloucester College of HE	(7,477 b) Try it	66.92 Kb Try it	Uses JavaScript to load images - these weren't found by NetMechanic
29	Chester College of HE	60,033 b Try it	59.88 Kb Try it	NOTE CSS file include in NetMechanic analysis
30	Chichester, University College	15,839 b Try it	130.43 Kb Try it	Discrepancy
31	City University	97,006 b Try it	96.05 Kb Try it
32	College of Guidance Studies	2,035 b Try it	2.04 Kb Try it	Organisation has merged with another
33	Coventry	36,115 b Try it	(3.05 Kb) Try it	Bobby analyses "No frames" page
34	Cranfield	58,451 b Try it	52.02 Kb Try it
35	Dartington	396,225 b Try it	396.22 Kb Try it
36	De Montfort University	81,528 b Try it	78.91 Kb Try it
37	Derby	44,185 b Try it	(1.09 Kb) Try it	Note 1: Bobby analyses "no-frames" page. Note 2: Web site spawns new window.
38	Dundee	12,413 b Try it	Notice discrepancy. The robots.txt file bans access to most images.
39	Durham	110,248 b Try it	109.37 Kb Try it
40	East Anglia, The University of	53,438 b Try it	53.44 Kb Try it
41	East London, The University of	29,670 b Try it	29.67 Kb Try it
42	Edge Hill	48,467 b Try it	48.34 Kb Try it
43	Edinburgh College of Art	7,675 b Try it	(7.49 Kb) Try it 30.37 KB Try it	Bobby checks page stating IE or Netscape needed.
44	Edinburgh	42,105 b Try it	41.88 Kb Try it
45	Essex	62,512 b Try it	62.31 Kb Try it
46	Exeter	82,731 b Try it	82.73 Kb Try it
47	Falmouth College of Arts	(711 b) Try it	(0.51 Kb) Try it	NetMechanic and Bobby analyse results from "Loading" message from splash screen
48	University of Glamorgan	84,453 b Try it	(5.68 Kb) Try it	Bobby analyses no-frames page
49	Glasgow Caledonian University	17,562 b Try it	11,18 Kb Try it	NetMechanic does not analyse images. The page is an entry point to a Flash / DHTML menu page.
50	Glasgow School of Art	13,345 b Try it	13.34 Kb Try it	NetMechanic and Bobby analysed the splash screen
51	Glasgow	41,186 b Try it	29.69 Kb Try it	Discrepancy
52	Goldsmiths	52,473 b Try it	50.68 Kb Try it
53	Greenwich	53,198 b Try it	53.20 Kb Try it
54	Harper Adams University College	1,079 b Try it 52,157 b Try it	(1.08 Kb) Try it 44.88 Kb Try it	Bobby analyses the redirect page
55	Heriot-Watt	35,129 b Try it	34.71 Kb Try it
56	Hertfordshire	50,164 b Try it	50.16 Kb Try it
57	Homerton College	Try it	Try it	Same Web site as Cambridge
58	Huddersfield	44,381 b Try it	44.38 Kb Try it
59	Hull	44,381 b Try it	(0.84 Kb) Try it 50.35 Kb Try it	Bobby analyses the redirect page
60	Imperial College	48,473 b Try it	47.30 Kb Try it
61	Institute of Education	66,042b Try it	63.51 Kb Try it	Example of CSS and Javascript (and redirect)
62	Keele	37,001 b Try it	36.88 Kb Try it
63	Kent at Canterbury, The University of	36,892 b Try it	28.40 Kb Try it
64	Kent Institute of Art & Design	25,105 b Try it	(1.86 Kb) Try it	Bobby processes non-frames version
65	King Alfred's College, Winchester	15,463 b Try it	(0.80 Kb) Try it	Bobby processes non-frames version
66	King's College London	26,261 b Try it	26.05 Kb Try it
67	Kingston University	42,527 b Try it	42.55 Kb Try it
68	Lampeter	67,479 b Try it	66.46 Kb Try it
69	Lancaster	31,267 b Try it	31.14 Kb Try it
70	Leeds Metropolitan University	61,546 b Try it	59.56 Kb Try it
71	Leeds	70,309 b Try it	31.15 Kb Try it
72	Leicester	70,684 b Try it	46.87 Kb Try it
73	University of Lincolnshire and Humberside	40,864 b Try it	37.53 Kb Try it
74	Liverpool Hope	50,681 b Try it	48.24 Kb Try it
75	Liverpool John Moores University	47,384 b Try it	47.18 Kb Try it
76	Liverpool	50,875 b Try it	48.90 Kb Try it
77	London Business School	102,019 b Try it	28.93 Kb Try it	Large discrepancy - Netcraft reports on SWF file
78	London Guildhall University	(18,773 b) Try it	(18.77 Kb) Try it	NetMechanic and Bobby analyse splash page
79	London Institute, The	22,663 b Try it	22.66 Kb Try it
80	London Institutes and activities, University of	42,740 b Try it	14.03 Kb Try it
81	London School of Economics and Political Science	68,710 b Try it	73.72 Kb Try it
82	London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine	49,928 b Try it	49.81 Kb Try it
83	Loughborough	48,132 b Try it	50.37 Kb Try it
84	Luton	64,405 b Try it	(0.92 Kb) Try it	Bobby analyses the no-frames page
85	UMIST	(29,615 b) Try it	(18.02 Kb) Try it	NetMechanic did not analyse images. Bobby analyses the no-frames page.
86	MMU	59,679 b Try it	59.13 Kb Try it
87	Manchester	62,915 b Try it	62.73 Kb Try it
88	Middlesex	55,052 b Try it	48.98 Kb Try it
89	Napier	256,157 b Try it	82.65 Kb Try it	Very large according to NetMechanic - due to Javascript menu
90	Newcastle	19,754 b Try it	19.56 Kb Try it
91	Newman College of Higher Education	32,674 b Try it	32,67 Kb Try it
92	Newport, University College of Wales	42,951 b Try it	40.11 Kb Try it
93	North-East Wales Institute of Higher Education	63,377 b Try it	63.48 Kb Try it
94	North London, The University of	22,208 b Try it	22.21 Kb Try it
95	University of Hull Scarborough Campus	11,148 b Try it	11.15 Kb Try it
96	Northampton, University College	64,041 b Try it	63.43 Kb Try it
97	Northern College of Education	70,845 b Try it	(0.94 Kb) Try it	Bobby analyses the no-frames page
98	Northern School of Contemporary Dance	61,281 b Try it	52.01 Kb Try it
99	Northumbria at Newcastle, The University of (UNN)	57,690 b Try it	27.61 Kb Try it
100	Norwich School of Art and Design	7,046 b Try it	7.07 Kb Try it
101	Nottingham Trent University (NTU)	90,450 b Try it	22.00 Kb Try it
102	Nottingham	136,253 b Try it	134.93 Kb Try it
103	Open University	(7,800 b) Try it	6.27 Kb Try it	NetMechanic and Bobby analyse the no-frame page
104	Oxford Brookes	27,907 b Try it	29,79 Kb Try it
105	Oxford	26,836 b Try it	11.56 Kb Try it	Discrepancy
106	Paisley	70,442 b Try it	64.78 Kb Try it	Discrepancy
107	Plymouth	47,098 b Try it	7.74 Kb Try it	Discrepancy
108	Portsmouth	60,532 b Try it	56.46 Kb Try it	Discrepancy
109	Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh	35,081 b Try it	35.08 Kb Try it
110	Queen Mary and Westfield College	66,340 b Try it	66.21 Kb Try it
111	Ravensbourne College	12,745 b Try it	12.74 Kb Try it
112	Reading	42,035 b Try it	42.04 Kb Try it
113	Registry, The University of Wales	13,181 b Try it	59.19 Kb Try it	Discrepancy
114	Ripon and York St John, The College of	37,515 b Try it	37.32 Kb Try it
115	Robert Gordon University (RGU)	59,443 b Try it	1.51 Kb Try it	Bobby analyses the no-frames page
116	Roehampton, University of Surrey	44,103 b Try it	70.67 Kb Try it	Discrepancy
117	Rose Bruford College Speech and Drama	47,616 b Try it	46.82 Kb Try it
118	Royal Academy of Music	(2,806 b) Try it	14.26 Kb Try it	NetMechanic fails to detect the image due to the robots.txt file
119	Royal College of Art	21,023 b Try it	21.02 Kb Try it
120	Royal College of Music	39,675 b Try it	39.68 Kb Try it
121	Royal Holloway and Bedford New College	2,356 b Try it	2.39 Kb Try it	Processes non-Javascript version of page
122	Royal Northern College of Music	9,278 b Try it	50.58 Kb Try it	Discrepancy
123	Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama	13,053 b Try it	12.92 Kb Try it
124	Royal Veterinary College	28,310 b Try it	26.63 Kb Try it
125	St Andrews	67,976 b Try it	65.04 Kb Try it
126	St George's Hospital Medical School	95,461 b Try it	95.46 Kb Try it
127	Saint Mark and St John, College of	1,183 b Try it	0.82 Kb Try it	Analyses redirect page. Also has splash page.
128	St Martin's College	30,890 b Try it	30.89 Kb Try it
129	St Mary's College	18,360 b Try it	17.95 Kb Try it
130	Salford	76,967 b Try it	73.48 Kb Try it
131	School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)	12,104 b Try it	35.01 Kb Try it
132	School of Pharmacy, The	123,635 b Try it	85.96 Kb Try it	Discrepancy
133	Scottish Agricultural College	52,935 b Try it	46.62 Kb Try it	Discrepancy
134	Sheffield Hallam University (SHU)	54,237 b Try it	54.09 Kb Try it
135	Sheffield	41,140 b Try it	37.50 Kb Try it	Discrepancy
136	South Bank University (SBU)	74,294 b Try it	67.26 Kb Try it	Discrepancy
137	Southampton Institute	45,303 b Try it	33.31 Kb Try it	Discrepancy
138	Southampton	49,629 b Try it	46.25 Kb Try it	Discrepancy
139	Staffordshire	112,364 b Try it	101.81 Kb Try it	Discrepancy
140	Stirling	147,642 b Try it	145.76 Kb Try it
141	Strathclyde	84,063 b Try it	76.27 Kb Try it	Discrepancy
142	Sunderland	82,160 b Try it	21.41 Kb Try it	Discrepancy
143	Surrey Institute of Art and Design	146,975 b Try it	146.53 Kb Try it
144	Surrey	65,869 b Try it	65.87 Kb Try it
145	Sussex	46,512 b Try it	34.88 Kb Try it	Discrepancy
146	Swansea Institute of Higher Education	120,197 b Try it	120.20 Kb Try it
147	Swansea	95,078 b Try it	95.08 Kb Try it
148	Teesside	59,658 b Try it	59.49 Kb Try it
149	Thames Valley University (TVU)	105,628 b Try it	105.63 Kb Try it
150	Trinity and All Saints College	67,610 b Try it	(10.23 Kb) Try it	Bobby analyses no-frames version
151	Trinity College of Music	74,488 b Try it	0.80 Kb Try it	Bobby analyses no-frames version
152	Trinity College, Carmarthen	92,206 b Try it	94.06 Kb Try it
153	Ulster, University of	22,835 b Try it	83.54 Kb Try it
154	University College London (UCL)	44,560 b Try it	42.08 Kb Try it
155	Warwick	10,119 b Try it	35.63 Kb Try it	Discrepancy
156	Welsh College of Music and Drama	17,426 b Try it	17.54 Kb Try it
157	West of England, University of the	40,518 b Try it	41.25 Kb Try it
158	Westminster College			Web site no longer exists (was at <http://www.ox-west.ac.uk>)
159	Westminster	41,598 b Try it	41.60 Kb Try it
160	Wolverhampton	59,748 b Try it	57.48 Kb Try it
161	Worcester, University College	57,976 b Try it	57.35 Kb Try it
162	Writtle College	28,235 b Try it	28.24 Kb Try it
163	Wye College	38,918 b Try it	38.80 Kb Try it
164	York	29,937 b Try it	29.94 Kb Try it

The information in the table was collected between 18 and 31 May 2001.

Author Details

Picture of Brian Kelly Brian Kelly
UK Web Focus
UKOLN
University of Bath
Bath
BA2 7AY

Email: b.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk

Brian Kelly is UK Web Focus. He works for UKOLN, which is based at the University of Bath