Today, a Web page can be delivered to desktop computers, televisions, or handheld devices like tablets or phones. While a technique like responsive design helps ensure that our websites look good across that spectrum of devices we may forget that we need to make sure that our websites also perform well across that same spectrum. More and more of our users are shifting their Internet usage to these more varied platforms and connection speeds with some moving entirely to mobile Internet. In this session, we’ll look at the tools that can help you understand, measure and improve the performance of your websites and applications. The talk will also discuss how new server-side techniques might help us optimize our front-end performance. Finally, since the best way to test is to have devices in your hand, we’ll discuss some tips for getting your hands on them cheaply. This presentation builds upon Dave Olsen’s “Optimization for Mobile” chapter in Smashing Magazine’s “The Mobile Book.”

1. Measuring Web
Performance
Dave Olsen, West Virginia University
HighEdWeb, October 6
@dmolsen, dmolsen.com

2. Dave Olsen
Professional Technologist
West Virginia University
About Me
@dmolsen

3. What I’ll Talk About
• Quick Intro About Why We
Should Care About Web Perf
• How to Add Performance to
Your Workflow
• Setting Up a Device Lab

4. Why ShouldYou Care
About Web Performance?
Part Une:

5. The average weight of a home page today.
Source: HTTP Archive
Images JavaScript
Flash
HTML
CSS
Other
77%
1.5 MB

6. “RWD makes your website
mobile friendly.”
The marketing of
responsive web design...

7. RWD sites whose
small screen design
weighs the same as the
large screen design.
Source: Podjarny
72%

8. The way in which CSS media
queries have been promoted for
mobile hides tough problems
and gives developers a false
promise of a simple solution for
designing for small screens.
Source: Jason Grigsby on Speakerdeck
“
”- Jason Grigsby
@grigs

9. Over Downloading
Download & Hide
Download & Shrink
Download & Ignore
PRIMARY PERFORMANCE ISSUES FOR RWD
Poor Networks
High Latency
Variable Bandwidth
Packet Loss

10. Current Dev Practices
+ Desktop First RWD
Web Performance Blues

11. RWD could also mean
responsible web design.
Start with the
small screen & its
constraints.

12. Mobile first means
performance first.
First Steps

13. Adding Web Performance
to Your Workflow
Part Deux:

14. Web Perf Optimization Tenets
Reduce requests. Reduce asset size.
Reduce page render time.

15. Introducing the Team
Because performance is a team effort.

16. Introducing the Team
“Dave”
full stack dev
“Adam”
front-end dev
Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Serious.

17. Parts of a Project
The Six Parts of a Project*
1. First Steps
2.Design & Production
3.Programming
4.Testing
5.Deployment
6.Monitoring
* - For the purposes of this talk.

18. First Steps
The Six Parts of a Project
1. First Steps
2.Design & Production
3.Programming
4.Testing
5.Deployment
6.Monitoring

19. The New Project Should...
1. Look cool
2.Have pizzazz
3.Use brand colors
...
99. Be fast
98. Look good on an iPhone
First Steps

20. Set a Performance Budget
First Steps
A budget is a guide, not a hard & fast limit.
Performance tweaks are compromises.
http://timkadlec.com/2013/01/setting-a-performance-budget/

21. First Steps
Learn to Love the Inspector
http://bit.ly/15sWYsx

22. First Steps
Save Yourself a Headache &
Disable Your Cache When Testing

23. 1. First Steps
2.Design & Production
3.Programming
4.Testing
5.Deployment
6.Monitoring
Design & Performance
The Six Parts of a Project

24. Design & Performance
Things to Keep in Mind...
Images are the devil. Consider using
CSS, sprites, symbol fonts, & SVG.
display: none; is definitely the devil.
Lots of things are the devil. Just
understand the trade-offs when using
social widgets, web fonts & CSS.
The “devil” talk is tongue-in-cheek. Serious.

25. Responsive Images
Most solutions are silly & verbose.
Focus on properly formatting
images. Lazy load them & don’t
worry about “high DPI.”
Addy Osmani’s Tool List
http://addyosmani.com/blog/image-
optimization-tools/

26. Design & Performance
Explaining the Network Panel:
The Waterfall

27. Design & Performance
Explaining the Network Panel:
Resource Size
transferred size
real size
re-order

28. Design & Performance
latency + download
latency
re-order
Explaining the Network Panel:
Latency

29. Design & Performance
domcontentloaded
onload
Explaining the Network Panel:
Events

30. Design & Performance
save HAR file locally
Explaining the Network Panel:
Saving Files for Comparison

31. Best request is no request.
Worst request is one that
blocks the parser.
Source: Ilya Grigorik
- Ilya Grigorik
@ilyagrigorik
“
”
Design & Performance

32. Corollary: The next best request
is the one not parsed.
Source: My brain
- Me
@dmolsen
“
”
Design & Performance

33. Design & Performance
Your goal when using the Network
Panel is to shorten & compress
the waterfall by focusing on the
critical path.
Focus on delivering content that’s
above the fold.
Remember, test the squishy too.

34. Design & Performance
Explaining the Profiles Panel:
CSS Selectors

35. Design & Performance
Explaining the Profiles Panel:
CSS Selectors

36. CodeKit
CodeKit:Web Perf in Your Workflow
http://incident57.com/codekit/
Design & Performance

37. Programming & Performance
The Six Parts of a Project
1. First Steps
2.Design & Production
3.Programming
4.Testing
5.Deployment
6.Monitoring

38. Programming & Performance
Things to Keep in Mind...
JavaScript libraries are devils. Consider
using microjs.com or vanilla JS.
Defer loading of JavaScript. Use
onTouch events when appropriate.
Reflow & repaints are the devil.
The “devil” talk is tongue-in-cheek. Serious.

39. Programming & Performance
Explaining the Timeline Panel

40. Test & Optimize Performance with jsPerf
http://jsperf.com
Programming & Performance

41. Responsive Design + Server-side
http://www.slideshare.net/dmolsenwvu/ress-an-evolution-of-responsive-web-design
http://www.slideshare.net/dmolsenwvu/ress-an-evolution-of-responsive-web-design

42. Testing
The Six Parts of a Project
1. First Steps
2.Design & Production
3.Programming
4.Testing
5.Deployment
6.Monitoring

43. PageSpeed Insights Extension
https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights
Testing

44. Remote Debugging
Testing

45. Google Analytics Site Speed
http://www.httpwatch.com
IE & Firefox Performance Issues
Testing

46. Testing
WebPagetest
http://www.webpagetest.org

47. Google Analytics Site Speed
http://www.slideshare.net/AndyDavies/web-page-test-beyond-the-basics
WebPagetest - Beyond the Basics
Testing

48. Google Analytics Site Speed
Customizing WebPagetest:
Capturing Events After onLoad
Testing

49. Customizing WebPagetest:
Blackholes for Requests
Testing

50. Google Analytics Site Speed
Customizing WebPagetest:
Scripting & Custom Viewports
Testing

51. Customizing WebPageTest:
Video Comparison
Testing

52. Customizing WebPageTest:
Video Comparison - Small Viewport
Testing

53. charlesproxy.com
SLOWING THINGS DOWN
ThrottleCharles
Testing

54. Using Charles Proxy
http://blog.cloudfour.com/using-charles-proxy-to-examine-ios-apps/
Testing

55. Testing
BrowserStack
http://browserstack.com

56. Deployment
The Six Parts of a Project
1. First Steps
2.Design & Production
3.Programming
4.Testing
5.Deployment
6.Monitoring

57. Deployment
Finally getting to “traditional”
performance techniques...
Performance can’t simply be
tacked onto the end of a project.

58. Concatenate files within reason.
Minify files as appropriate.
Make sure the server supports file
compression & cache headers.
Deployment
Things to Keep in Mind...

59. mod_pagespeed Automates a Lot
http://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/mod
Deployment

60. The Six Parts of a Project
Monitoring
1. First Steps
2.Design & Production
3.Programming
4.Testing
5.Deployment
6.Monitoring

61. Google Analytics’ Site Speed
Monitoring

62. PageSpeed Insights Extension
https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights
Monitoring

63. Setting Up a Device Lab
Part Trois:

64. eBay
MobileKarma.com
Cellphone store leftovers
Open device labs
GET YOUR HANDS ON
REAL DEVICES
http://flic.kr/p/7972f6

65. OpenDeviceLab.com

66. Base on:
WiFi-capable, Analytics
Rank, OS, Screen
Dimensions, & Cost
Suggested focus:
iPod Touch, mid-level
Android, high-end Android,
a tablet, Blackberry,
Windows Phone 7
HOW TO DECIDE WHICH TO GET
iPod Touch w/ Retina
Samsung Fascinate +
Google Nexus One +
$537
Example:

67. WEB PERF TWEEPS TO FOLLOW
@ilyagrigorik
@andydavies
@souders @patmeenan
@stoyanstefanov
@tameverts @yoavweiss@scottjehl
just a sampling...

68. Questions?

69. Dave Olsen
Professional Technologist
West Virginia University
@dmolsen
Thanks for Listening
Illustrations by Graham Curry