Performance as a Design Opportunity

Every “perfectly loaded” mockup is a lie developers will have to fix. Performance usually lands on developers after design is signed off, leaving them to improvise loaders, errors, way too much data, and more. Meanwhile, designers see performance as a constraint, or as a checklist item: “don’t forget the spinner.” What if we saw it as a design opportunity instead?

Based on real-life projects, from simple sites to complex enterprise apps, this talk explores what developers should expect from their designers for everything that happens before, during and after loading, and how to ask for it. We’ll look at practical patterns, the trade-offs behind them, and how to document them together so nobody has to guess again.

Stéphanie Walter

Maltem

Stéphanie is a UX Researcher & Strategist based in Luxembourg with over 15+ years of experience, specialized in enterprise UX, inclusive design and accessibility. She teaches, speaks, and writes about design, UX research, cognitive biases, and the design-dev relationship, among other topics.

When she doesn’t work, she enjoys good tea, bike rides, and drawing illustrations. Her D&D alignment is chaotic neutral, and she is better at keeping her teammates alive in video games than her plants, though she makes an effort. 🌱