When tackling a big refactor, what are the things you should focus on and what performance improvements can you expect? Dealing with themes for large platforms and CMS, legacy issues often become a bottleneck. In this article, Carson Shold discusses how his team improved the performance and organization of their Shopify themes, and improved maintainability along the way.
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This article showcases a case study of Bookaway’s landing page performance. It’s about a couple of things that Bookaway faced and Liran Cohen (as part of a company in the traveling industry) managed to optimize the pages, so that the HTML they send is smaller. Smaller HTML means less time for Google to download and process those long strings of text. Today you’ll see how taking care of the props you send to Next.js pages can make loading times and Web Vitals better.
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No matter how experienced you are, mistakes are an inevitable part of software development. But we can learn to repair them! During the course of this article, you’ll witness many disasters — but you’ll see that virtually nothing is beyond repair in Git! Once you know the right commands, you can always find a way to save your neck. And this is what Tobias will be looking at in this two-part series: how to undo mistakes using Git.
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In this episode, we’re starting our new season of the Smashing Podcast with a look at the future of CSS. What new specs will be landing in browsers soon? Drew McLellan talks to expert Miriam Suzanne to find out.
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Web-oriented databases, frameworks like Nuxt and Next.js, and even frameworkless approaches are evolving the Jamstack, but the core principles are more powerful than ever. As the developer community has grown, there’s also been more noise, and we’re even starting to test the boundaries of Jamstack’s best practices. It feels like the right time to both revisit the original vision some of us had five years ago, and look ahead at what the changes in the technological landscape will mean for the future of the Jamstack architecture and the web.
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Do you need a little inspiration boost? Well, then our new collection of wallpapers is for you. Designed with love by the community for the community, the wallpapers are available with and without a calendar for May 2021.
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Images have also been a key part of the web. They communicate ideas instantly, but they are also a lot heavier than text to load. This means that it’s essential to get loading and displaying them right, if you want to give your users a fantastic first impression. An excerpt from Addy Osmani’s new book (also, check a free PDF preview). We’re happy and honored to have teamed up with Addy to publish a dedicated book on image optimization, and the book is now finally here!
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The cat is out! For the last year, we’ve been working with Addy Osmani on a new Smashing Book all around image optimization. And now it’s here. Meet “Image Optimization”, our practical modern guide to delivering high-quality images on the web with the best performance. Image optimization, loading behavior and rendering in the browser require understanding of image formats and image compression techniques, image decoding and browser rendering, image CDNs and adaptive media loading, not to mention effective caching and preloading. Let’s figure it all out.
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Easing functions can change the look and feel of an animation by affecting the rate, or speed, of an animation. As human beings, we are accustomed to a natural, non-linear motion. Using those custom-easing functions in the animations can lead to an improved impression on users and a more delightful user experience. In this article, we’re going to take a deep dive into easing functions and see how we can use them to create those natural and stunning animations.
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Accessibility experts Kate Kalcevich and Mike Gifford introduce readers to “layered accessibility testing”, a practice of using a variety of tools and approaches at different stages in the digital product lifecycle to catch accessibility issues early — when it’s easier and cheaper to fix them. In this article, Kate Kalcevich & Mike Gifford will share how to “layer” accessibility testing by using a variety of tools and approaches at different stages in the digital product lifecycle to catch accessibility issues early. Taking a layered approach to testing your site for accessibility also improves the usability of your site — which in turn increases your customer base and reduces customer service inquiries. It can both make and save you money.
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