Our latest poll asked:
What’s the web performance situation on your main project?
Then provided five possible answers related to the general attitude of the team as it relates to web performance, ranging from “everybody cares” to “nobody cares”.
With over 13,000 votes, the data is in!
See the Pen Data on Performance Culture by Chris Coyier (@chriscoyier) on CodePen.
The good news is that between “Everybody cares and actively works to maintain and improve.” (19%) and “Some people care, but isn’t often an active priority.” (34%), that’s 54% of projects where that at least multiple people caring about performance. For a subject that feels like it’s only recently been in the spotlight, that seems pretty good.
You gotta feel for the quarter of people who voted “I care, but I’m the single lonely voice.” (26%) and especially for the projects where there is no consensus “There are warring factions. (e.g. dev is on board, but management isn’t)” (8%).
That leaves only “Nobody cares at all.” with only 13% of projects.
You gotta wonder how this will evolve. Will performance awareness and active effort become a bigger thing on projects? Perhaps entire teams like DevOps has become? Or are we at peak performance-caring-abouting?
Obviously better website performance and reduced load times are always a good thing, but whenever the issue of website performance comes up (and peripheral ideas like responsive images) I also wonder how ever-increasing device and network performance will affect the practice (or lack thereof) in the long term.
For example, with responsive images, will there be a time when device/network speeds are so high that the (server-side?) process of determining which image size to load/send takes longer than just downloading the biggest image in the first place?
The more speed we get, the more crap we stuff onto pages. At the moment, we’ve been stuffing more crap on at a faster rate than internet speed has been improving, as I understand it.
I certainly wish that the internet would all the sudden become so amazingly fast that we didn’t have to worry about it anymore. That would make everyone’s lives better, not just developers.
Another random thought. Maybe we should add “on a mountaintop in Sibera” when we talk about internet speeds so it frames the conversation. Like instead of saying
“ever-increasing network performance means we need to worry less about file sizes”
we say
“ever-increasing network performance on a mountaintop in Sibera means we need to worry less about file sizes”
and then not say it if it ain’t true ;)
That’s all obviously a given in current and foreseeable real-world practice. But as theoretical food-for-thought, as in any market of cost/benefit, there is potentially a point where the economics of web performance changes.
As someone still lingering with a 128kbps internet connection, Chris’s comment about the Siberian Mountaintop made me smile.
There’s always the outliers we need to think about. Hardware to deliver the software, and whatnot.
(“Hardware to deliver the software” is also my answer when someone asks why printers still suck.)
“For example, oyun oyna with responsive images, will there be a time when device/network speeds are so high that the (server-side?) process of determining which image size to load/send takes longer than just downloading the biggest image in the first place?”
wuwwww
Go read this post – http://pxlnv.com/blog/iphone-6s-indonesia/ – about traveling in Indonesia with an iPhone 6. The photo stuff isn’t the point here, but rather the very real limits Heer experienced with connectivity in what is a mid-range developing country and also for the reminder that services which we use aren’t what everyone uses.
Responsive things are good and there are now lots of devices coming along for web like phones, tabs and now watches even. But at a certain level I feel have that old approach of mobile or mini websites seemed better as have to just keep on beating the bushes when ever there is an design bug or performance matter with devices other than desktop or laptops.
I think that no matter how fast servers and devices get we should always think about optimizing performance. I do understand how much can really go into it, but I think it’s more of a mindset as you develop.
Now, that’s not to say technology won’t change what actually constitutes the way we optimize things for the web, but it should always be taken into account. Now this may just be me, but I feel that even if we have the bandwidth, if we also have the ability to take up less, then that’s what should be done. It just makes for an overall better experience.