I think we can all agree we are living in interesting times. It’s going to be some time before the effect the COVID-19 outbreak is having on higher-ed will be fully realized. Many universities, including Notre Dame, have suspended in-person classes for the remainder of the semester. And during this time it’s incredibly important that our coronavirus informational sites be as helpful and available as possible.
Google Switching to Mobile First Indexing for the Whole Web
If you still had any questions regarding the importance of mobile support.
While we continue to support various ways of making mobile websites, we recommend responsive web design for new websites. We suggest not using separate mobile URLs because of issues and confusion we’ve seen over the years, both from search engines and users.
Page Speed Benchmarks
A new performance visualiztion tool was just launched by @speedcurve which they describe as:
…an interactive dashboard that lets you explore and compare web performance data for leading websites across several industries – from retail to media.
I’d love so see a higher education category in the near future.
The Fastest Homepages in Higher Ed
I’ve been tracking performance on homepages within higher education since 2012. My current list of domains clocks in at 1,769. I figured it would be fun to take the performance stats from that list and compile a list of the ten fastest when tested under mobile conditions.
Higher Education Homepages
For years I’ve performed performance analysis on a list of independently curated highered responsive websites. I’ve recently wanted to expand that list to include many more highered homepages. So I set out to try and create a list of as many highered homepages as possible.
Preloading Fonts May Delay Start Render
This morning I learned that preloading custom fonts may have an adverse effect on load metrics, especially Start Render.
Our main site uses three custom fonts (four files). Up until this morning we were preloading them. The font display properties were already set to “swap”. By removing the preload, it cut an average of one second off Start Render on iPhone 8, 3G connection tests.
Web Almanac 2019
I’ve just started digging into the report, but so far it looks very informative.
Our mission is to combine the raw stats and trends of the HTTP Archive with the expertise of the web community. The Web Almanac is a comprehensive report on the state of the web, backed by real data and trusted web experts. It is comprised of 20 chapters spanning aspects of page content, user experience, publishing, and distribution.
How to Read a Web Page Test Waterfall Chart
Great article by Matt Hobbs getting into the nitty-gritty of Web Page Test waterfall charts.
ASPIRE
Over the weekend, Scott Jehl of the Filament Group workshopped an acronym that covers the “ideal qualities that I think we should… aspire to, when aiming to create excellent websites”.
Accessible, Secure, Performant, Inclusive, Responsive, and Ethical.
Offline Page Descriptions
This month a couple of articles regarding displaying offline pages in a nice way were posted by Remy Sharp and Jeremy Keith. We’re doing something very similar on www.nd.edu, but since it an informational site and not a blog, it may be helpful to some to show the differences between their implementations and ours.