design-optimize

Identify and fix performance issues to create faster, smoother user experiences.

Assess Performance Issues

Understand current performance and identify problems:

1. Measure current state:

   • Core Web Vitals: LCP, FID/INP, CLS scores
   • Load time: Time to interactive, first contentful paint
   • Bundle size: JavaScript, CSS, image sizes
   • Runtime performance: Frame rate, memory usage, CPU usage
   • Network: Request count, payload sizes, waterfall

2. Identify bottlenecks:

   • What is slow? (Initial load? Interactions? Animations?)
   • What is causing it? (Large images? Expensive JavaScript? Layout thrashing?)
   • How bad is it? (Perceivable? Annoying? Blocking?)
   • Who is affected? (All users? Mobile only? Slow connections?)

Measure before and after. Premature optimization wastes time. Optimize what actually matters.

Optimization Strategy

Create systematic improvement plan:

Loading Performance

Optimize images:

• Use modern formats (WebP, AVIF)
• Proper sizing (do not load 3000px image for 300px display)
• Lazy loading for below-fold images
• Responsive images (srcset, picture element)
• Compress images (80-85% quality is usually imperceptible)
• Use CDN for faster delivery

<img
  src="hero.webp"
  srcset="hero-400.webp 400w, hero-800.webp 800w, hero-1200.webp 1200w"
  sizes="(max-width: 400px) 400px, (max-width: 800px) 800px, 1200px"
  loading="lazy"
  alt="Hero image"
/>

Reduce JavaScript bundle:

• Code splitting (route-based, component-based)
• Tree shaking (remove unused code)
• Remove unused dependencies
• Lazy load non-critical code
• Use dynamic imports for large components

const HeavyChart = lazy(() => import('./HeavyChart'));

Optimize CSS: Remove unused CSS, critical CSS inline, rest async, minimize files, use CSS containment.

Optimize fonts:

• Use font-display: swap or optional
• Subset fonts (only characters you need)
• Preload critical fonts
• Use system fonts when appropriate
• Limit font weights loaded

@font-face {
  font-family: 'CustomFont';
  src: url('/fonts/custom.woff2') format('woff2');
  font-display: swap;
  unicode-range: U+0020-007F;
}

Optimize loading strategy: Critical resources first (async/defer non-critical), preload critical assets, prefetch likely next pages, service worker for offline/caching, HTTP/2 or HTTP/3.

Rendering Performance

Avoid layout thrashing:

// Bad: Alternating reads and writes
elements.forEach(el => {
  const height = el.offsetHeight;
  el.style.height = height * 2;
});

// Good: Batch reads, then batch writes
const heights = elements.map(el => el.offsetHeight);
elements.forEach((el, i) => {
  el.style.height = heights[i] * 2;
});

Optimize rendering: Use CSS contain, minimize DOM depth, reduce DOM size, use content-visibility: auto for long lists, virtual scrolling for very long lists.

Reduce paint and composite: Use transform and opacity for animations (GPU-accelerated). Avoid animating layout properties. Use will-change sparingly.

Animation Performance

GPU acceleration:

/* GPU-accelerated (fast) */
.animated {
  transform: translateX(100px);
  opacity: 0.5;
}

/* CPU-bound (slow) */
.animated-slow {
  left: 100px;
  width: 300px;
}

Smooth 60fps: Target 16ms per frame. Use requestAnimationFrame for JS animations. Debounce/throttle scroll handlers. Use CSS animations when possible.

Intersection Observer:

const observer = new IntersectionObserver((entries) => {
  entries.forEach(entry => {
    if (entry.isIntersecting) {
      // Element is visible, lazy load or animate
    }
  });
});

React/Framework Optimization

React-specific: Use memo() for expensive components, useMemo() and useCallback() for expensive computations, virtualize long lists, code split routes, avoid inline function creation in render, use React DevTools Profiler.

Framework-agnostic: Minimize re-renders, debounce expensive operations, memoize computed values, lazy load routes and components.

Network Optimization

Reduce requests: Combine small files, use SVG sprites for icons, inline small critical assets, remove unused third-party scripts.

Optimize APIs: Pagination, GraphQL for needed fields only, response compression (gzip, brotli), HTTP caching headers, CDN for static assets.

Optimize for slow connections: Adaptive loading based on connection, optimistic UI updates, request prioritization, progressive enhancement.

Core Web Vitals Optimization

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP < 2.5s)

Optimize hero images, inline critical CSS, preload key resources, use CDN, server-side rendering.

First Input Delay (FID < 100ms) / INP (< 200ms)

Break up long tasks, defer non-critical JavaScript, use web workers for heavy computation.

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS < 0.1)

Set dimensions on images and videos, do not inject content above existing content, use aspect-ratio, reserve space for ads/embeds.

.image-container {
  aspect-ratio: 16 / 9;
}

Performance Monitoring

Tools: Chrome DevTools (Lighthouse, Performance panel), WebPageTest, Core Web Vitals, bundle analyzers, performance monitoring (Sentry, DataDog, New Relic).

Key metrics: LCP, FID/INP, CLS, TTI, FCP, TBT, bundle size, request count.

Measure on real devices with real network conditions. Desktop Chrome with fast connection is not representative.

NEVER:

• Optimize without measuring
• Sacrifice accessibility for performance
• Break functionality while optimizing
• Use will-change everywhere
• Lazy load above-fold content
• Optimize micro-optimizations while ignoring major issues
• Forget about mobile performance

Verify Improvements

• Before/after metrics: Compare Lighthouse scores
• Real user monitoring: Track improvements for real users
• Different devices: Test on low-end Android, not just flagship iPhone
• Slow connections: Throttle to 3G, test experience
• No regressions: Ensure functionality still works
• User perception: Does it feel faster?