What you need for this book

This book will focus on improving the performance of your responsive sites. We will go through some exercises to encourage you to think of performance as an integral part of the design process.

At its core, the Web is responsive. If you were to create a page with only a few paragraphs of text and a heading or two, you could view that page on any device. The text would automatically reposition itself to fit into any view.

However, as we all know, today's web browsing experience is expected to be much more complex and immersive than a white page with text on it; as we move further into the future of technology, these demands may get bigger and more elaborate. Websites have rich and interactive content, beautiful imagery, interactive elements, and content that spans across wider and wider screens. Along with the complexity of the modern Web, we have seen the arrival of easy-to-use frameworks such as Bootstrap and Foundation to assist with responsiveness; however, even these amazing platforms come with problems of their own, performance being one of the major issues.

In today's immersive, Internet-obsessed world, viewers don't wait longer than a couple of seconds for their content to load, which means that performance is key. We will take a look at principles such as Mobile First, HTTP caching, and dynamic content loading to help make your sites quicker and more responsive, thereby creating an experience that people can enjoy and respond to in a positive way.