Lean Websites

Performance simply matters

This is a practical book on website performance for web developers, concentrating mainly on front-end performance improvement. It covers plenty of solid theory, but is also packed with useful, real world hints and tips that you can use on your sites today.

This book, Lean Websites, examines the causes behind bloated and slow websites, dissects which assets of your page are necessary, which are nice to have, and which are not necessary at all and can be removed to shed some weight. It will help you understand what causes websites to be slow, and how to look for efficiency while maintaining the quality originally envisioned for your site.

The title of the book includes the word lean. So what does the word mean? ‘Lean’ is used in this book to describe both the nature of the product we create and the process of creating it. Keeping a product lean means removing anything that might impede its performance. In the case of a website, this means keeping a clear focus on elements that add value to the site, and ensuring that these elements are optimized to provide the best possible user experience. Likewise, the more we practice building healthy, lightweight websites, the leaner and more efficient the process becomes—hopefully becoming part of our DNA when deploying our sites.

This is a practical book on website performance for web developers, concentrating mainly on front-end performance improvement. It covers plenty of solid theory, but is also packed with useful, real world hints and tips that you can use on your sites today.

Topics covered include:

• User experience, design and performance
• Measuring and monitoring performance
• Setting up a page weight budget
• Network and server improvements
• Optimizing images and video
• Optimizing scripts and third party content
• Lean DOM operations