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"It’s also no secret that the average size of a website is huge, and it’s only going to get larger." This attitude seems common, that websites are just going t
by scblock 5y ago
"It’s also no secret that the average size of a website is huge, and it’s only going to get larger."
This attitude seems common, that websites are just going to be fat and get fatter. That's a lie.
Not if you, as a web developer, stop the bloat. The power is in your hands, you just need to use it.
No, you don't need that 8 MB hero image. No, you don't need that bloated framework. No, you don't need those 37 tracking libraries. No, you don't need a "Read More" button hiding most of the content. No, you don't need dynamically loaded clickbait at the bottom of the page. No, you don't need an autoplaying video. No, you don't need load a script to inject text into a copy operation. No, you don't need 87 cookies. No you don't need to load random unvetted code from a third party advertiser. No, you don't need the page text to fade in on scroll. No, you don't need any of that.
In case you forgot, https://idlewords.com/talks/website_obesity.htm https://idlewords.com/talks/website_obesity.htm
- jahewson 5y agoBut… marketing put the 8MB hero image there using their CMS. The other marketing people put the 37 trackers there using Google Tag Manager. There’s also mystery JS that slows down everything and breaks random parts of our app - that’s your Chrome extensions :)
- nine_k 5y agoThe technical worker who codes up the web site and its backend does have a say, but not a lot of it. Product and sales people have a stronger say, because they optimize for the money the web site produces. Explaining them how much worse the bloat makes the site's experience for the user, showing how many pages are left partially loaded because the user did not have the patience and navigated away, how the competitor's site loads faster, may help convince them to keep the experience reasonably slim.
- bitwize 5y agoThis. Asking for web sites that don't have 27 trackers, enormous hero images, a full copy of framework of the week, etc. is like asking for native games under Linux: the money isn't there to justify the added hassle and support costs.
- arnaudsm 5y agoThe whole point of the article is that poor optimisation make you loose a big part of your audience. The money is there, you just don't notice it.
- MattGaiser 5y agoAnd as a dev, I make none of those decisions.
- Gigachad 5y agoAlso as a dev, I don’t really care. It’s not my money on the line, it’s the companies. If the site sucks and users don’t like it, the company loses profits and they will be forced to change. The only thing I take a stand on is when the product is actively harmful and immoral. Just being shit or slow is not my problem.
- sergiotapia 5y agoDangerously based response, Gigachad.
- zerocount 5y agoI agree. The few times I've cared fell on deaf ears.
- chrismorgan 5y agoTrouble is that your users are generally in a similar situation, not getting to choose what tools they use. By producing bad software, you’re making their life harder personally.
- rovr138 5y agoAs a dev, I don't produce bad software. Users of the features we develop are the ones that produce bad websites.
- ronsor 5y agoYou don't need those 37 tracking libraries, but management does.
- kisamoto 5y agoMore often than not I feel these decisions are out of the developers hands. As a dev, I want to use tree shaking to make my bundles small and optimize to make my website lighthouse score 100 across the board. What happens? Marketing needs tag manager installed and then proceeds to async load 50 tracking scripts in the background. Design wants the large hero images because on the high Res devices they use it looks slightly pixelated and when you push back, a quick screenshot to the PM will guarantee the ticket is added to the backlog. Point being I'm not sure claiming that Devs hold the power is particularly constructive as there is a large portion on non-techies who have their own priorities to push.
- Dylan16807 5y agoWe need to figure out a better way to manage images that have multiple qualities. Something that can take connection into account.
- 5e92cb50239222b 5y agohttps://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/HTML/Multimedia_and_embedding/Responsive_images https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/HTML/Multimed... No?
- thundermuffin 5y agoI've had the exact situation kisamoto is talking about happen to me countless times, and I can probably count on one hand the amount of times I've won the battle over images. Sadly, the folks calling the shots on what images to use and exactly how they need to look do not care that I'm using responsive imagery to serve images to our users with appropriate file sizes, reasonable resolutions, and ensure crops have editor selected focal points. When I say these folks get upset over slight pixelization, I'm not even talking about pixelization where everyone can tell it's a low quality image. I'm talking about situations where people are upset they can't read an iPhone screen someone is holding in the background when they are viewing it on their 4K display (note: that particular phone isn't the focal point of the shot, nor does it have anything to add to it; it's just someone staged back there to make the shot feel more alive, mind you!). It's disheartening because I do want to deliver the best experience possible and try to do everything in my power to accomplish it, but sometimes I lose out and folks force their megabyte imagery.
- atoav 5y agoCool bonus: if you skip a lot of that stuff you also wont need a cookie banner, your page will load faster and feel better
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]