mark.anderson
Latest Articles by mark.anderson
Fixit – GZip Encoding
January 14, 2014, by mark.anderson
This test determines if your page is transferred using GZip encoding. GZip encoding, or compression, reduces the data being sent and this speeds up the transfer time considerably. Where possible all web assets should use GZip encoding for transmission... Read More
Fixit – Stylesheet Placement
January 14, 2014, by mark.anderson
This test determines if your page has Stylesheet includes in inappropriate places. Grouping Stylesheet includes together in the head of the page markup is optimal for page load. Due to the HTTP specification putting Stylesheet includes elsewhere in the page, at the bottom for instance, will result in the design loading blocking while the Stylesheets are downloaded... Read More
Automated Mobile UI Testing with CasperJS
January 13, 2014, by mark.anderson
While real user testing is critical to almost any web effort, the benefits and speed provided by automated testing make it a powerful addition to any test regime. In this article we'll be discussing the automation of UI testing with CasperJS, and PhantomJS... Read More
Fixit – Javascript Placement
January 9, 2014, by mark.anderson
This test determines if your page has Javascript includes in inappropriate places. Grouping Javascript includes together at the end of the page markup is optimal for page load. Due to the HTTP specification putting Javascript includes elsewhere in the page, at the top for instance, will result in loading blocking while the Javascript files are downloaded... Read More
Fixit – CSS Expression
January 9, 2014, by mark.anderson
This test determines if your page makes use of the CSS expression directive. The expession directive encapsulates Javascript code into CSS rules, effectively mixing styling data with functional logic. This is considered bad practice as they will affect page load time. But these Javascript expressions will also be re-evaluated when the user scrolls or interacts with the page... Read More
Fixit – DNS Lookups
January 9, 2014, by mark.anderson
This test determines if your page uses more domain names than best practice recommends. Each unique domain name referenced by a webpage requires an additional DNS lookup, a timely network process that will ultimately slow the page loading. Grouping content on a small number of domains ensures the browser can quickly iterate through DNS lookups and proceed with page loading... Read More
Fixit – Duplicate Resources
January 9, 2014, by mark.anderson
This test determines if your page makes use of duplicated resources. Including the same Javascript file or CSS file for instance will likely result in double the transfer time and will impact page load time. Duplication of page resources is typically the result of human error and should be avoided whenever possible... Read More
Fixit – ETag Support
January 9, 2014, by mark.anderson
This test determines if your page resources are delivered using valid Etag caching support. Etags allow the browser to better understand which content can be cached and which should be re-validated on each page load... Read More
Fixit – DOM Size
January 9, 2014, by mark.anderson
This test determines if your page DOM (Document Object Model) is excessively large. Larger page DOMs require more memory and their extra complexity require additional data transfer time. Reducing the DOM complexity and size drastically affects page load time... Read More
Fixit – Redirect On Load
January 9, 2014, by mark.anderson
This test determines if your page experiences any redirects on initial load. Redirects require the browser to resend page requests and significantly increases initial page load time... Read More
