When redesigning a website, the visual aspects like design, layout, and user experience often take center stage. However, there’s an equally vital aspect to consider: web performance. Improving website performance through faster load times, optimized resources, and cleaner code can significantly impact user experience and site maintainability.
This article focuses on the technical considerations for enhancing performance during a website redesign. Let’s explore how a redesign can be leveraged to improve performance at different levels.
Table of contents
The Importance of Clean, Optimized Code
A website redesign is the perfect opportunity to reevaluate the code your site runs on. Over time, websites collect obsolete scripts, dead dependencies, and unused elements, increasing the clutter in the codebase. This piles up code, making future updates more complicated and slowing your site down.
Unused code and dependencies should be removed during a redesign as well. It will reduce load time and will be easy to maintain in the future. For example, eliminating unused JavaScript libraries and frameworks can significantly improve speed and reliability.
This endeavor to streamline the code will help the site operate more smoothly and will make it easier to manage in the long term.
Optimizing Resources for Faster Load Times
Any redesign usually introduces new resources, whether images, videos, or added features. Though all these additions can improve the overall design, they can make the site slower if not correctly optimized.
Optimizing page load times is crucial for user experience. This is particularly true in industries where visual content is paramount, such as in website design for estate agents, where high-quality property images and virtual tours are essential. One approach to addressing page load issues in such cases is to lazy-load non-essential assets, such as pictures or videos that aren’t visible to users immediately. For instance, images of additional property features or floor plans below the fold might load only after scrolling down, which halts hang-ups upon the initial loading. The ‘top’ level of resources are the ones that the browser will spend the most time on while loading, so prioritizing these can make the site feel much faster as the most critical parts of the page load first.
Such minor optimizations greatly enhance the experience of the site without requiring significant visceral design changes.
Backend Performance: A Key Area of Focus
We focus a lot on front-end performance, but backend performance is just as crucial. Whether the website runs on a CMS, uses a series of API calls, or engages in complex database queries, the back end is essential in providing a speedy, reliable experience.
Website redesigns are an excellent opportunity to examine how data is processed and served. Revisiting how API requests are structured or reviewing how data is cached, for example, can help streamline backend processes. Making as few requests as possible and decreasing payload sizes improve website performance, responsiveness, and scalability.
Review the backend, look for bottlenecks, and see if you can simplify queries or improve the caching strategies. This status is all the more relevant for sites that serve dynamic content; the backend can often become a performance bottleneck here.
User Experience and Interactivity
When considering performance, it’s important to consider the user experience. Performance is not just about how quickly a page loads; it’s also about how responsive the site feels during interaction.
Metrics like First Input Delay (FID) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) measure how quickly the site responds to user input and how stable the layout is during page load. For instance, a delay in button clicks or page elements shifting unexpectedly can create a frustrating experience for users.
Improving these areas is often just as important as speeding up load times. Simple adjustments, like ensuring elements are appropriately sized before content loads or reducing JavaScript execution delays, can significantly improve the overall user experience
Testing Across Real-World Scenarios
After the new design goes live, we must test it under several conditions to see how it behaves for end users. Testing a site on a fast connection is simpler, but a site might look and feel different to users who might have slower Internet speeds or older devices.
Performance Data Collection Real-user monitoring (RUM) provides one way to capture performance data from actual visitors, leading to a more accurate representation of how the site performs in the real world. By testing under more diverse devices, network speeds, and environments, you can check what issues may arise that would not have been seen in a controlled setting.
For example, a user using a 3G internet connection may have a different experience from one using a fiber-optic one. Testing under these conditions can help ensure the site is optimized for many users.
Keep Things Simple
While adding more features, animations, or complex interactions during a redesign is tempting, sometimes, less is more. Every new feature or animation adds to the site’s complexity, which can affect its performance.
During the redesign process, prioritize simplicity. Remove unnecessary elements that don’t serve a clear purpose or enhance the user experience. A streamlined design focusing on essential functionality and usability is usually more efficient and performs better than a flashy, feature-heavy design.
For example, avoiding heavy animations and complex transitions can keep the site feeling fast and responsive, even on devices with less processing power.
Monitoring and Continuous Improvement
Once the redesign goes live, it’s essential to continue monitoring performance. As new content and features are added, performance can degrade, mainly if updates are not carefully managed.
Regular performance checks are crucial for ensuring the site meets performance standards. Monitoring tools can help track key metrics and highlight areas for improvement. By staying on top of these metrics, you can make adjustments before performance issues affect user experience.
Wrapping Up
A website redesign is a valuable opportunity to refresh your site’s look and feel and improve its underlying performance. By optimizing code, resources, and backend processes and focusing on key user experience metrics, you can ensure that your site remains fast, responsive, and easy to maintain.
Performance improvements are an ongoing effort. After the redesign is live, regular monitoring and adjustments can keep the site optimized and provide a better user experience in the long run.
