Building for Performance: Essential Tools and Practices

Performance is no longer just a nice-to-have—it’s the foundation of good user experience, search visibility and success. If you’re not actively tracking and improving these metrics, you could be leaving real value behind.

To make smart decisions around performance, these tools have been essential in my workflow:

• Google Lighthouse: Offers a full report on performance, accessibility, and best practices.
• PageSpeed Insights: Runs Lighthouse tests against real-world Chrome UX data.
• Next.js Analytics: Tracks real user Web Vitals in production.

Here are the practices I’m consistently applying to bring down load times, reduce JavaScript overhead, and create responsive, stable apps:

1. Lazy Loading: Defer what’s not needed immediately. Load images with loading="lazy" or the Next.js component, and dynamically import only when triggered

2. Script and Image Prioritization: use for above-the-fold content, or defer/delay non-critical scripts

3. Prefetching Smartly: use Next.js’s automatic route prefetching via the component.

4. Code Splitting: keep JavaScript bundles tight by splitting routes and dynamic components

5. Asset Size Reduction

• Compress images and videos before upload
• Tree-shake your code to remove unused exports
• Use static delivery (CDNs) wherever possible
• Watch your CSS—unused styles add up fast

Performance is a signal of care. It shows you understand how to build with intention (for user trust and satisfaction). These are the skills modern front-end engineers need to master because they directly impact how people experience the work I produce.

I’d love to connect. Let’s build things that don’t just work—but work fast, work well, and work for everyone.