Medhat Dawoud, an software engineer at Miro and a Google Developer Expert in web application performance, will be a featured speaker at this year’s Infobip Shift conference in Zadar.
Through his blog, video courses, and lectures, Medhat shares practical advice on writing clean, maintainable code, leveraging powerful development tools, and improving website performance. He aims to help developers build fast, high-quality web applications that are accessible to everyone.
We interviewed Medhat to get a sneak peek at the knowledge he’ll share with Infobip Shift attendees!
To find solutions, we first asked Medhat about common factors developers often overlook when building fast and accessible web applications.
He immediately emphasized that he never separates performance from accessibility, as the two are closely linked. His goal isn’t just to make a website fast, but also accessible:
We want people worldwide – on different devices, networks, and browsers – to have a good experience. Speed is part of that, but ultimately, it all comes down to inclusivity.
Medhat’s presentation at Shift will focus on “speculation rules.” This API helps pre-load or pre-render pages based on where users are expected to navigate next. “It’s like the browser guesses your next step, so when you click a link, it feels instant – as if the site runs on your local machine.”
This technology aims to improve navigation performance.
Medhat notes two types of performance: initial load performance and navigation performance. While “speculation rules” don’t help with the initial page load, they can significantly boost navigation speed once a page loads:
The goal is for moving from page to page to feel like flipping through a book – seamless and instant.
Medhat highlights that Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers like Edge and Opera largely support this enhancement of navigation performance. Chrome alone accounts for about 70% of user browser share, a significant number. While Safari and Firefox don’t yet offer full support, it’s on its way.
The good news, Medhat points out, is that you can treat this as a progressive enhancement: “You can start using it today without worrying about a worse experience for users on unsupported browsers.”
Finally, Medhat revealed that at the end of his Shift lecture, he will share scripts attendees can copy directly onto their websites – no installation or complex setup required!
It’s a lightweight enhancement that can instantly improve navigation for many users. I’m truly excited about it because there are no barriers to implementing it.
Want to dive deeper into Medhat’s insights? Don’t miss your chance to see him live at Infobip Shift Zadar from September 14th to 16th.
