The Fast & Slow Web was a presentation intended to illustrate the concepts of the Fast Web and Slow web, as described in Jack Cheng’s essay, The Slow Web. This presentation was given at The University of Texas at Austin as part of my studies in the Digital Art & Media, Bridging Disciplines Program and Elements of Computing Program.
— Taylor McCaslin (@Taylor4484) November 15, 2012
Have you ever heard of the Internet described in terms of speed? No, I’m not talking about your bandwidth of uploading and downloading speed, but the term “Fast Web” and “Slow Web.” These are probably foreign to you because the web is simply just the Internet right? Up until recently that was true, but there is a new movement developing called the Slow Web Movement.
The terms slow web and fast web are relatively new concepts to classify two very different approaches to the consumption of information on the World Wide Web. However the terms are actually misnomers because they don’t actually refer to the speed of anything. They instead refer to the user experience of a website or service. User experience (UX) is the way a person feels about using a product, system or service. User experience is subjective in nature, because it is about an individual’s feelings and thoughts about the system. User experience is dynamic, because it changes over time as the circumstances change. The dynamic nature of user experience is the core driver for this new slow web movement.