Fast is a Feature
11 mentions of speed in Apple iPhone 6 keynote
What does this mean for mobile journalism?
You have less than 10 seconds “A 10-second delay will often make users leave a site immediately.” - Jakob Nielsen
On mobile you have 1 second “Our research says page load times above one second interrupt user flow of thought.” - Google
Put something on the screen in 1 second
1000 ms ms of 3G network latency ms of domain name lookup ms of HTTP request loop 400 ms
You really only have 400 milliseconds
Average site load on mobile is 7 seconds
Text Images Video Interactives Context Ads 3rd party buttons (social) ‘Read more’ Comments
Easy, just build a native app
native apps are fast but hard to find
Search 20% of Google searches are on mobile Google tracks page load time and uses it as a signal
Social Is Mobile is Social In-App Browsers
Facebook thinks your pages are too slow… and they’ll be happy to host your content!
Making data-informed trade-offs (building products)
How fast is Vox Media on mobile? Never fast enough
15 seconds first load 9 seconds repeat load -webpagetest.org
5 seconds first load 1 second repeat load -webpagetest.org
Performance Dashboard Make speed a company-wide metric like unique visitors
Inline Performance Metrics Measure. Optimize. Test.
Dedicated performance team: 3 engineers
Fast Cars Need Good Drivers Speed isn’t just about technology, it’s about being quick to deliver the news
Thanks! Trei Brundrett Chief Product Officer Vox