Tags: jank

The Main Thread Is Not Yours — Den Odell

Every millisecond you spend executing JavaScript is a millisecond the browser can’t spend responding to a click, updating a scroll position, or acknowledging that the user did just try to type something. When your code runs long, you’re not causing “jank” in some abstract technical sense; you’re ignoring someone who’s trying to talk to you.

This is a great way to think about client-side JavaScript!

Also:

Before your application code runs a single line, your framework has already spent some of the user’s main thread budget on initialization, hydration, and virtual DOM reconciliation.

Faster Connectivity !== Faster Websites - Jim Nielsen’s Blog

The bar to overriding browser defaults should be way higher than it is.

Amen!

Care

I know that the number one cause of jank and breakage is another developer having messed with the browser’s default way of doing things.

THIS!!! A thousand times, THIS!

The Design Genome Project | InVision

A beautiful looking site from InVision collecting case studies of design-led companies (although this site is weirdly over-engineered and entirely dependent on JavaScript for rendering some text on a screen—prepare yourself for janky scrolling).