Performance Newsletter |
ARTICLE
Speeding up e-commerce sites with React
Abof.com, an online fashion store with over 60% of traffic coming from mobile devices, was rewritten recently to address a few serious performance issues.
In an excellent case study, Ankur Sethi describes staggering optimizations achieved with an isomorphic React application—decreasing bounce rate by 40% and 3G load times from 20 to 7 seconds. Bravo! 👏
OPEN SOURCE
Guetzli: saving 35% more than other image encoding algorithms
Google continues their ongoing support for web performance and bettering user experience by releasing Guetzli, a new JPEG encoder offering 35% higher savings that other existing compression methods.
Guetzli strikes a balance between minimal loss and file size but does come with a significant processing time. Nonetheless, it’s definitely worth giving a go.
APPS
Block unwanted apps to save data
Traveling internationally might still cause headaches when public networks are scarce and SIM cards troublesome to get. Often bigger data plans are simply unavailable and we’re left little to no bandwidth.
Fortunately, TripMode, available for both Mac OS and Windows, can block traffic from selected applications. It can also offer insights into data usage per app or within a given timeframe. A lifesaver. 💪🏻
SLIDE DECK
Real World Connectivity: Beyond the Bubble
Over a week ago one of the best tech conferences worldwide were hosted in Berlin—JSConf and CSSConf EU. There was no shortage of #perfmatters talks featuring Ben Schwarz’s insightful “Real World Connectivity: Beyond the Bubble”.
Studying the state of global connectivity it re-centres how we think about our role as designers and developers for the Web. A mandatory read for all of us.
Make sure to check other presentations too:
- CSS and the First Meaningful Paint by Patrick Hamann
- Go Offline To Save the World by Maureen McElaney
- Look out for Addy Osmani’s “The Browser Hackers Guide To Instantly Loading Everything” when it’s published
The videos are already being released on YouTube. 📺
ARTICLE
JavaScript Start-up Performance
Historically we’ve been too focused on the delivery aspect of performance, neglecting how costly and lengthy parse and compilation steps can be. Understanding how browser engines work and leveraging the full potential of developer tools is not a trivial task.
Luckily, in re:loading, Google’s new Medium publication with ideas for efficient loading on the Web, Addy Osmani comes to the rescue through explaining how common bottlenecks arise and advising on to mitigating them. 🎉
APPS
Blazing fast, data-saving Twitter Lite
Twitter’s mobile version has recently seen some serious love. Relaunched as a progressive web app and leveraging a modern JavaScript stack it’s interactive under 5s on 3G connections. Now with offline support and a “Data Saver” mode its network conditions resilience rose significantly.
Congratulations to Nicolas Gallagher and the Twitter Lite team 🍾 Head to mobile.twitter.com to try it out.
NEW IN CALIBRE
Announcing Test Profiles and Budgets 2.0
Since the last dispatch Calibre has seen the most powerful release to date. Now it’s easy to emulate real-world conditions such as mobile devices or connection speeds, getting closer to what your customers are really experiencing. Set up budgets against profiles or pages and dig into detailed metric pages. Boom!
Read through the release notes or check out brand new How it Works page. ⚡️ If you haven’t used it yet, but are looking for a continuous performance testing, give it a go with 14-day, free trial.
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