Quick Summary
The ZURB Foundation Performance Guide is a comprehensive resource for optimizing websites and applications built with the ZURB Foundation framework. Written by James Michael Stone, this guide focuses on front-end performance best practices, tools for performance analysis, and specific techniques for improving ZURB Foundation implementations. It emphasizes the mobile-first philosophy and provides practical solutions for common performance challenges, with detailed metrics and real-world examples.
Detailed Summary
Overview
This guide explores the relationship between ZURB Foundation and web performance, starting with an introduction to ZURB and the Foundation framework. It addresses the question of whether web development can be fun while maintaining high performance standards, and explains the significance of the Yeti mascot in ZURB’s development philosophy. The book strongly advocates for a mobile-first approach to web development and provides a detailed analysis of performance tools like Pingdom, JSpeed, CSS Stats, Style Stats, and Stress CSS.
Key Concepts
The guide covers essential performance optimization techniques, including:
- Removing unused SCSS components to reduce CSS footprint (from 147k to 50k compressed)
- Optimizing JavaScript by selectively loading only needed components
- Image optimization strategies for retina displays (1.5x vs 2x debate)
- Development workflow best practices across development, staging, and production environments
- Detailed analysis of Foundation’s component sizes and their impact on performance
- Strategies for going “Sass Only” to reduce JavaScript dependencies
- Server-side optimization techniques including gzip compression
- Build and deployment strategies using Grunt, Rake, and rsync
Practical Applications
The book provides concrete implementation strategies, including:
- Detailed examples of minimal SCSS configurations with specific component selections
- JavaScript optimization techniques and component loading strategies
- Image optimization approaches for different display densities (60% compression for retina, 80% for non-retina)
- Build script examples using Grunt and Rake
- Deployment strategies using rsync
- Special considerations for Rails Asset Pipeline and Heroku deployments
- Real-world examples of performance improvements and their impact
- Detailed file size comparisons and optimization metrics