A new way of expressing website performance is being finalized, it’s called web vitals:
That page is somewhat readable, the intent behind the new metrics is a good one, in summary it is trying synthesize different performance characteristics in three numbers covering three main areas:
page loading performance
page interactivity
page visual stability
Loading performance is affected by a mix of factors, including how fast your web hosting is. This metric is a continuation of the previous generation page speed indicators, where Sparkle was already doing great.
Regarding page interactivity, I’d find it really strange if a regular website would make that slow in any way, I think it’s mostly associated with webapps that have a heavy code base they need to download. Anyway Sparkle sites shine here.
Visual stability, technically called “cumulative layout shift”, is a measure of how much the page moves around while loading. It’s the annoying thing that happens when you try to click or tap on something on the page, and that something moves up or down on the page. I think it’s great that this has become a performance metric. Sparkle produces neatly and precisely laid out content, so Sparkle sites shine on this metric too.
So all in all I’m happy to report that Sparkle is already doing a great job with these new metrics, and we’re tweaking it to be even better. These new measurements will be soon available in Google’s pagespeed, for the time being you can test your own site now using this tool:
Hello @duncan thank you for sharing this, very interesting.
Indeed the Sparkle created website shines on all tests however I got an “F” for Security. When I clicked the “F” I was brought to a Snyk site that explained to me that there were many security issues with my website including a JavaScript Library with vulnerabilities.
I am totally new in the world of website creation but I was just wondering if I should be concerned regarding these potential security issues? Thank you…
Hi @duncan when I tried out the webpagetest.org test for my website (it is currently just an under construction home page), I get the following test results in the top right:
In addition to the JavaScript library possible vulnerability, on the right side there is a bunch of Security headers potential issues. I do not know what any of this means I was just wanted to share with you the result and was wondering if you any feedback… thanks again!
Yeah as it says the security headers “enable better browser security policies”. I don’t think any of the issues are as problematic as they make it sound. Clearly they are in the business of scaring you, to get you to buy their product or service.
Security concern is useless if your customer is using Windows. If you really cared, you could test to see if access is from a Windows platform, then warn your customer that they need to get something else. Anything else.
