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The Ethics of Web Performance

Web performance isn’t just a technical concern—it’s an ethical issue affecting access, inclusion, and environmental impact. Understanding performance’s broader implications changes how developers approach optimization.

Performance as Accessibility

Slow websites exclude users on:

Limited data plans: A 5MB page costs real money for users on metered connections. Bloated sites can be literally unaffordable for low-income users.

Slow connections: Rural areas, developing nations, and many mobile networks provide slow connectivity. Sites optimized for fast fiber connections don’t work for everyone.

Old devices: Not everyone can afford new phones or computers. Heavy JavaScript overwhelms older hardware, making sites unusable.

Poor performance isn’t just inconvenient—it’s a barrier to access. Fast sites are inclusive sites.

The Global Digital Divide

Internet access varies dramatically worldwide:

Median mobile connection in some countries: <5 Mbps
Data costs as percentage of income: Much higher in developing nations
Device capabilities: Older, less powerful hardware is common globally

Developers in wealthy nations with fast connections and powerful devices often don’t experience the web as most users do. Building only for the best-case scenario excludes the majority.

Environmental Impact

Data transfer and processing consume energy. While one page load is negligible, billions of page loads add up:

Unnecessary bytes: Every unoptimized image, every unused CSS rule, every redundant JavaScript library wastes energy across millions of visits.

Server resources: Inefficient backend code and databases use more computational resources, requiring more servers and energy.

Device battery: Heavy pages drain mobile batteries faster, requiring more frequent charging.

Optimizing performance reduces environmental impact at scale.

The Business Ethics

Deliberately degrading performance for business reasons raises ethical questions:

A/B testing performance: Intentionally serving slow experiences to test user retention is using real users as unwitting test subjects.

Performance dark patterns: Making certain actions (like canceling subscriptions) intentionally slow or difficult is manipulative.

Planned obsolescence: Degrading performance of older app versions to force upgrades exploits users.

Performance optimization should serve users, not just business metrics.

Measuring What Matters

Technical metrics like load time matter, but user experience metrics matter more:

First Contentful Paint: When does the user see something? Time to Interactive: When can the user actually do something? Cumulative Layout Shift: Does content jump around annoyingly?

These metrics capture user experience, not just technical performance.

The Developer Responsibility

Developers control performance through choices about:

Framework selection
Image optimization
Code splitting
Caching strategies
Third-party scripts
Font loading

Each choice affects users worldwide. This responsibility should inform decision-making.

Practical Ethics

Ethical performance practices:

Test on representative devices: Use throttling and old devices to experience slow conditions.

Set performance budgets: Define acceptable limits and enforce them in CI/CD.

Optimize images: Compress and resize images appropriately.

Reduce JavaScript: Ship less code, especially to mobile users.

Use analytics responsibly: Track performance metrics by connection speed and device to identify excluded users.

Prioritize core functionality: Ensure essential features work even in degraded conditions.

Conclusion

Performance optimization is an act of inclusion. Fast websites welcome users regardless of geography, income, or device capabilities.

Every megabyte added, every unnecessary dependency included, every optimization skipped makes the web less accessible to real people with real constraints.

As developers, we have the power and responsibility to build a web that works for everyone. Performance isn’t just about milliseconds—it’s about respect for users and responsible stewardship of shared resources.

Choose to build fast. Not for metrics, but for people.

Learn more about web performance and inclusion at web.dev and WebPageTest.