04/26/16 - Page speed optimisation: lazy loading, preview and preloading photos

Page load speed is an important factor for quality user experience. An element notably taken into account by the search engines in results ranking. Our priority is to ensure that visitors obtain the requested content without having to wait.

We have just added 3 optimisations that have exactly this effect, an effect all the more evident when the internet connection is slower (mobiles, saturated wifi, etc.).

1. Lazy loading. This consists in only sending the browser the content actually visible on the screen. The photos and videos are loaded as and when the user scrolls down the page.
2. Preview. This consists in sending a low-resolution photo (weight divided by 15) to the browser so that it will load virtually immediately, even with a slow internet connection. At the same time the high resolution photo loads over the top.
3. Preloading. In the photo galleries, the "next" photo is loaded to the page being viewed. This means that when the visitor accesses the next photo, it will appear instantly because it is already present in the browser's cache. And as they are viewing this new photo, the browser will already be preloading the next picture and so on.