February 17, 2026 Smashing Newsletter: Issue #546
This newsletter issue was sent out to 178,335 subscribers on Tuesday, February 17, 2026.
Editorial
It’s web performance time! What’s the state of web performance today? How do we boost the performance of JavaScript-heavy applications? And what tools can we use to diagnose and improve performance?
In this newsletter, we look at helpful practices and techniques across web performance — from the shiny new Web Perf Almanac to Performance tooling in 2026 to optimizing React performance.
As always, you can connect with us in the online world: here’s a quick overview of our upcoming online workshops:
- Design Patterns For AI Interfaces UX
with Vitaly Friedman. Feb 16–March 2 - Designing For Complex UI Masterclass Design
with Vitaly Friedman. Mar 3–17 - Building Interactive, Accessible Components with Modern CSS & JS Dev
with Stephanie Eckles. Mar 5–13 - Figma Workflow Masterclass UX
with Christine Vallaure. Mar 18–24 - UX Design Leadership Masterclass UX
with Paul Boag. Mar 18–26 - Designing Better Products Masterclass UX
with Stéphanie Walter. Mar 23 – Apr 6 - Jump to all workshops →
Also, meet our friendly, practical and fun SmashingConfs 2026:
- SmashingConf Amsterdam 🇳🇱 (Apr 13–16, 2026)
- SmashingConf Freiburg 🇩🇪 (Sep 7–10, 2026)
- SmashingConf Antwerp 🇧🇪 (Oct 12–15, 2026)
Wishing you a truly smashing week ahead!
1. Mitigating Third-Party Impact
In December, Facebook shipped an update that reintroduced the unload event, so if your site uses Facebook, you might have noticed performance or UX issues because unload breaks the browser’s instant bfcache on desktop. Erwin Hofman shares a fix to limit the damage that third parties have on your site’s performance and user experience.
2. Optimizing Video Embeds
Lazy-loading videos on interaction, without any JavaScript, even above the fold, and with only native HTML and CSS? It’s possible, as Stefan Bauer shows. Whether you want to embed a YouTube or Vimeo video, a CodePen, or even a map, the solution works with any heavy embed, delivering faster initial load and a clean user experience.
3. Throttling Individual Network Requests
Let’s say you want to test how your application handles a third-party API struggling with latency or a large hero image loading on a slow connection. Starting with Chrome 145, DevTools allows you to throttle individual network requests to test scenarios like these, without having to slow down the entire page.
4. Diagnosing Discrepancies
Maybe you’ve experienced it before: You’ve run a Lighthouse audit, and the same URL got different Performance scores, depending on whether you’ve run Lighthouse locally on your computer, on PageSpeed Insights, or in a web performance monitoring tool. Matt Zeunert explains why these discrepancies happen and how to identify what’s causing them.
5. CrUX, RUM, And Synthetic Monitoring
CrUX, RUM, or synthetic monitoring — which one should you use? Mark Zeman summarized the strengths and limitations of each monitoring tool and what each of them is best used for. A handy overview to help you make the right choice so you don’t miss any valuable insights.
6. Optimizing React Performance
Whether it’s unnecessary re-renders, bloated bundles, or lagging interactions, React applications tend to slow down as they grow. To help you identify performance bottlenecks in your React app, Anna Monus wrote a practical guide to measuring and optimizing React performance.
7. Web Performance Almanac
What’s the current state of web performance? For its Performance chapter, the Web Almanac analyzed real-world data (both lab-based measurements and real-user performance data) to find out. The report highlights where the web is improving, where challenges remain, and which patterns are associated with better user experiences.
8. Web Performance Tooling 2026
With AI-powered tools available, the web performance tooling landscape has evolved significantly. Dan Gayle from the Performance team at Shopify distilled Shopify’s internal web performance workflow into steps you can run yourself. The guide is aimed at merchants, partners, and agencies looking to improve storefront performance, but even if you’re not using Shopify, it gives you a good overview of the tools available.
9. Upcoming Workshops and Conferences
That’s right! We run online workshops on frontend and design, be it accessibility, performance, or design patterns. In fact, we have a couple of workshops coming up soon, and we thought that, you know, you might want to join in as well.
As always, here’s a quick overview:
- Design Patterns For AI Interfaces + video course UX
with Vitaly Friedman. Feb 16–March 2 - Designing For Complex UI Masterclass Design
with Vitaly Friedman. Mar 3–17 - Building Interactive, Accessible Components with Modern CSS & JS Dev
with Stephanie Eckles. Mar 5–13 - Figma Workflow Masterclass UX
with Christine Vallaure. Mar 18–24 - UX Design Leadership Masterclass UX
with Paul Boag. Mar 18–26 - Designing Better Products Masterclass UX
with Stéphanie Walter. Mar 23 – Apr 6 - How To Measure UX & Design Impact (video course + UX training), with Vitaly Friedman.
- Jump to all workshops →
10. Accessible UX Research, eBook Now Available For Download 📚
We’ve got exciting news! eBook versions of Accessible UX Research, a new Smashing Book by Michele A. Williams, are now available for download, and shipping will start soon. Order the eBook for instant download now or reserve your print copy at the presale price.
Accessible UX Research is your practical guide to making UX research more inclusive of participants with different needs — from planning and recruiting to facilitation, asking better questions, avoiding bias, and building trust. Download a free sample (PDF, 2.3MB) or get the eBook right away.
That’s All, Folks!
Thank you so much for reading and for your support in helping us keep the web dev and design community strong with our newsletter. See you next time!
This newsletter issue was written and edited by Geoff Graham (gg), Cosima Mielke (cm), Vitaly Friedman (vf), and Iris Lješnjanin (il).
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