CSS and JavaScript: More Files or Less?

If you do much reading about web optimization, you will have heard people say that you should cram all your CSS into a single large file, and all the JavaScript into another, in order to save on loading times.

80% of the end-user response time is spent on the front-end. Most of this time is tied up in downloading all the components in the page: images, stylesheets, scripts, Flash, etc. Reducing the number of components in turn reduces the number of HTTP requests required to render the page. This is the key to faster pages. (Yahoo Developer Network)

In other places, you will be told that you should separate your CSS into multiple files to make it easier to manage. One for layout, one for typography, one for colors…

Which do you think is a better idea? Personally, I prefer quick loading times. Your users will thank you for faster pages; they don’t care if it’s easy to edit parts of your site or not. Generally I prefer to put all of the main CSS into one file, but on pages that require a large amount of unique styles, I include a separate file with the page-specific styles.

.Blog, .LOL, .Microsoft, .Whatever

If it wasn’t already hard enough to remember the TLD for that website you heard about, it just got harder. You don’t just have .com, .net, and the other usual suspects to worry about anymore. ICANN has voted on and approved a plan, starting…

WordPress Theme of the Month: StudioPress

This month’s featured WordPress theme is StudioPress by DailyBlogTips.com. Note: Though the original blue coloration is shown here, there are three aditional color schemes available.

CNET Redesign Coming, Unfortunately

Last Monday CNET announced on their Outside the Lines blog that a redesign is underway. Normally I enjoy seeing new designs released, but not this time. I’m a big fan of CNET’s current design. It’s got a great look, and it’s inspired elements of…

10 Design Roundups You Shouldn’t Have Missed

It seems that a new post showcasing a collection of interesting web designs surfaces every week or so, sometimes more often. Here are a few older ones that 25 Beautiful Minimalistic Website Designs Part 2 (also see parts 1 and 3) 32 Lightweight Designs…

BlogBuzz June 28, 2008

Flash Page Peel Ads

One thing I’ve found interesting of late is Flash Page Peel Ads. They’re an intriguing form of advertisement. You’ve probably seen them in some form or another by now. In a textbook case, a page with one of the ads on it appears to…

Firefox: Going Strong

On Firefox 3 “Download Day,” over 8 million copies of the updates browser were downloaded. And countless more copies have undoubtedly been downloaded since the end of the record-setting event. Pretty impressive, isn’t it? Firefox accounts for an estimated 22% of internet users currently,…

Book Review: Designing the Obvious

I recently came a across a mention online of Designing the Obvious by Robert Hoekman Jr. Being a cheapskate as usual, I checked the local library’s catalog for the book, and checked it out the next time I went there. Designing the Obvious is…

WordPress 2.6 Beta 1

The next version of WordPress has reached it’s first Beta version! If you like to experiment with the cutting edge, or if you want to know what will go into the release, head over here. Note that it is not recommended that you use…