Web performance during a pandemic
A few weeks ago, Karolina Szczur published a must read article on performance during a pandemic.
With so many people being always at home and unable to see their co-workers, friends and loved ones, the demand for reliable network services and fast, accessible sites and apps is skyrocketing. What does this all mean for performance? …
Nations with more severe outbreaks are observing higher rates of speed slowdowns. For example, in the Hubei province in China, the mean mobile download speed fell from 70 to 30 Mbps.
Several European countries recorded 10 to 20 Mbps drops. With the increased at-home usage, especially in communication (teleconferencing and calls) and streaming, internet service providers are experiencing more than peak hours traffic, at all times.
You may have already experienced this yourself.
Some video streaming services, like YouTube and Netflix, are deliberately throttling performance in harder hit areas to ease the demands on networks there.
If your performance metrics are good (Performance Score above 85 and Time to Interactive under 5s), the difference might not be noticeable. However, for sites and applications with poor to average scores, this decrease will cause far more frustrating user experiences.
Karolina offers some ideas on what you can do to make sure your site isn’t yet another source of frustration for people during these trying times.