Simon Hearne is a web performance and user experience advocate focused on building faster, more accessible websites. He writes and speaks about performance optimization, UX, accessibility, and data visualisation.
54 articles from this blog
Analysis of Chrome's Save-data client hint, exploring global opt-in rates, user demographics, and technical implementations for data-saving web experiences.
A technical guide on measuring web performance when cookie consent popups are present, covering synthetic testing and RUM tools.
Explores why network requests can sometimes be faster than retrieving cached resources, analyzing browser performance data and the Firefox RCWN feature.
The article argues for rebranding 'web performance' to more specific terms like 'site speed' to improve communication and business buy-in.
A tutorial on collecting and storing Samsung SmartThings smart home sensor data into InfluxDB on a Raspberry Pi for visualization in Grafana.
A tutorial on setting up a Python script to run SpeedTest.net CLI tests and log the results to InfluxDB on a Raspberry Pi for monitoring with Grafana.
A tutorial on using a Python script to collect Raspberry Pi system metrics and send them to InfluxDB for monitoring with Grafana.
A step-by-step guide to installing InfluxDB and Grafana on a Raspberry Pi for creating a local monitoring dashboard.
A guide to configuring essential HTTP response headers like Content-Security-Policy and Cache-Control for improved security and performance on static sites hosted on Netlify.
A look at six emerging web performance technologies for 2020, focusing on practical improvements beyond hype around 5G and HTTP/3.
Discusses Chrome's new native lazy loading for images, its current limitations, and why developers should be cautious about adopting it immediately.
Troubleshooting a WebPageTest private instance where SSL redirects caused agents to fail to submit results, and the fix.
Analyzes the critical impact of website speed on user engagement and revenue for both subscription-based and ad-driven online publishers.
A summary of key talks from Day 1 of the Lead Developer Conference, covering containers, tech leadership, and code reviews.
A summary of key talks from Day 2 of the Delta V Conference, focusing on web performance metrics and Progressive Web Apps (PWAs).
Highlights from Day 1 of the Delta V conference, covering web performance strategies, metrics, and team structures from Pinterest and other tech talks.
Analysis of Twitter Lite as a Progressive Web App (PWA), comparing it to the native app and discussing its benefits for users with limited connectivity.
Critique of using Google Analytics for site speed data, highlighting sampling flaws and recommending real user monitoring for accurate performance insights.
A guide to optimizing CSS image sprites for better web performance, covering file separation, PNG8, UTF-8 icons, and memory management.
Key takeaways from Velocity Europe on web performance measurement, focusing on flawed KPIs, user perception, and the pitfalls of gaming metrics.
