I visited Yahoo! last week to record a talk I had given at the Front End Summit in October. If you are a designer or an F2E it is essential that you understand the ways in which design choices impact overall site performance. This talk establishes guidelines for High Performance Design including 9 Best Practices.
9 Best Practices
- Create a component library of smart objects.
- Use consistent semantic styles.
- Design modules to be transparent on the inside.
- Optimize images and sprites.
- Avoid non-standard browser fonts.
- Use columns rather than rows.
- Choose your bling carefully.
- Be flexible.
- Learn to love grids.
Baby Steps to a Faster Site
In honor of the video being made available on YUI theater, I’ve removed the non-standard browser fonts from my site. While the design was changed slightly it is infinitely more maintainable and I also eliminated an unnecessary HTTP request at the same time. One more step to a faster page.
Web Directions North, Denver, February 2-7
I’ll be speaking more about Design and also CSS best practices at Web Directions North in February where I’ve been invited to give both a Performance Bootcamp Workshop and a CSS Performance for Websites and Web Apps Presentation. I look forward to seeing you there!
They have some really amazing speakers lined up. I’m especially excited to talk to Dan Cederholm, who wrote one of my favorite books.