A Field Guide to Web Performance and Quality at Scale
Smashing Magazine has announced a new book, Success at Scale, a collection of case studies curated by Addy Osmani. The print edition ships in early March 2024, but the eBook is available now.
The book draws from the experiences of industry experts who have worked on production sites of varying sizes. Instead of a purely theoretical approach, it focuses on the practical, often messy reality of maintaining high standards for performance, accessibility, capabilities, and developer experience as systems grow. Short interviews with each contributor follow their case studies, offering additional lessons and challenges they encountered.
What’s Inside
Each chapter examines a core pillar of web engineering through real-world examples, including insights from the people who did the work and key takeaways for applying those lessons to your own projects.
- Performance looks at the nuts and bolts of getting speed under control: measuring, setting budgets, optimizing, and consistent monitoring, plus how to build a culture that prevents performance regression.
- Capabilities tackles closing the gap between the web and native platforms, covering web apps, native apps, and progressive web applications to help you pick the right architecture.
- Accessibility argues that making apps usable for everyone is a baseline, not a luxury. The case studies demonstrate how to support users with temporary or permanent disabilities, noting that most people will experience a disability at some point in their lives.
- Developer Experience focuses on the human side of engineering—the project environments and team cultures that enable support, growth, and effective problem-solving. Strong teams, the book argues, are what build great projects.
Who Should Read It
If you are a professional web developer or part of a team aiming to ship high-quality web experiences, this is aimed at you. It moves beyond introductory topics into the pragmatic strategies needed to address these real-world challenges, covering performance, accessibility, capabilities, and developer experience in depth.
