Performance on

Compression Makes Matters Light

Fri, 07 Dec 2018 18:56:43 -0600

A dive into compression algorithms available when building for the web

Http2; the Magic Elixir of Performance

Thu, 06 Dec 2018 22:51:36 -0600

Though we as developers can influence how the browser downloads resources, the browser ultimately gets the last say when it comes to the order in which to load content. In this post, we dive into the new and exciting features that HTTP/2 brings.

Dont Be Such a Render Block

Wed, 05 Dec 2018 19:02:43 -0600

In previous posts, we talked about optimizing our websites to reduce page weight and inadvertently decrease overall page load time. This page load metric, though incredibly important, doesn’t fully take into account the user’s perception of a websites’ performance. At the very least, a user’s goal when visiting a website is to view the page content. As a result, they are more likely attuned to the time it takes for a page to be viewable (first meaningful paint) or usable (time to interactive) rather than on the time it takes for the entire page to load (page load time). Optimizing for render performance requires a sound understanding of the steps the browser takes when going from initial page request to rendering pixels to the screen.

If You Can Read This Fonts Work

Tue, 04 Dec 2018 19:15:38 -0600

High performance web fonts.

Video Killed the Web Performance Star

Mon, 03 Dec 2018 21:06:38 -0600

Video is one of the most sought out mediums on the web and is used widely in web page designs today. According to a Cisco report, video constitutes the majority of the world’s internet traffic. In 2017, video was reported to have constituted 75% of all internet traffic and this number is slated to surpass 80% by 2022. This should come as no surprise to most of use, considering the fact that video content is a powerful medium for visual communication and offers a great way to keep users engaged. Adding video to websites however, can oftentimes be a double-edged sword; We may make some gains via a richer, more delightful user experience but risk performance issues if our websites are not optimized appropriately. This, alongside the rapid growth of traffic originating from mobile and wireless connections means we as developers are increasingly responsible for optimizing our sites for performance. In this post, we’ll dive into video optimization strategies so we can reap the benefits video provides without driving users away.

Images Are Worth Optimizing For

Sun, 02 Dec 2018 21:05:54 -0600

Images make up a large portion of a webpage’s payload. According to the HTTP Archive, the average image size has grown almost twofold and now constitute a whopping 63% of total bytes of a webpage. This growth in images on the web has coincided with faster network speeds and growing bandwidth; meaning that loading webpages today has never been faster— for some of us. High network latencies and low bandwidth (mostly over mobile connections) is unfortunately commonplace for a large percentage of the world. This means incredibly slow webpage load times and an increasingly frustrating experience browsing webpages. While doing away with images altogether would theoretically solve the problem of slow page load—removing all images from the top 1,000 websites, these sites would load 30% faster on average over 3G (high performance images)—a text only webpage would significantly hamper user engagement. Thankfully, there are many tricks to optimizing images for the web so we don’t have to skimp on the overall design and user experience of a webpage.

Weighing in on Page Weight

Sat, 01 Dec 2018 21:38:21 -0600

Early on in my career, when web performance metrics were brought up in conversation, I would take how others reacted to the number as a cue to understanding what those numbers meant (read: I had no idea what those numbers meant). A high number elicited shock and horror, while a low number drew admiration and praise. This could only mean, high page weight bad, low page weight good. Though my naïveté around web performance at the time was a result of my overall lack of experience, it did highlight a point worth considering; the concept of a “page weight” is somewhat of a confusing term especially when seen in isolation.