Goodbye FID, Hello INP: The Intersection to Next-Paint Coming to Google Core Web Vitals
Goodbye FID, Hello INP: The Intersection to Next-Paint Coming to Google Core Web Vitals
In the ever-evolving landscape of web development, user experience has become a paramount concern for website owners and developers. Slow loading times and unresponsive interfaces can quickly turn away visitors, leading to decreased engagement and potential loss of business. To address these issues, Google introduced Core Web Vitals, a set of metrics that aim to measure and improve user experience on the web. One of the key metrics within Core Web Vitals was First Input Delay (FID). However, Google is now bidding farewell to FID and welcoming a new metric called the Intersection to Next Paint (INP). Let’s explore what this change means for website owners and developers.
Delay (FID)
FID reflects the website’s responsiveness and directly impacts the perceived speed and interactivity. However, FID has its limitations, especially when it comes to measuring user experience accurately in real-world scenarios.
Next Paint (INP)
Enter the Intersection to Next Paint (INP). INP focuses on a different aspect of user experience by measuring the time it takes for a page’s main content to become visually stable and available for user interaction. In simpler terms, INP tracks the time it takes for the page to load and display the critical elements that users need to see and interact with, such as text, images, and buttons.
Switch from FID to INP
Why the switch from FID to INP? One of the main reasons is that INP provides a more comprehensive and realistic representation of user experience. FID only considers the first user interaction, while INP takes into account the entire loading process. With INP, website owners and developers can have a clearer understanding of how quickly users can start engaging with the page, leading to more accurate measurements of user satisfaction.
Critical Content
Moreover, INP aligns better with real-world scenarios where users often interact with a page before it fully loads. For example, users might click on a button or start reading the text while the page is still loading. By measuring the intersection between when a user interacts with the page and when the critical content is visible, INP captures a more user-centric perspective of performance.
Improve INP Scores
So, what implications does this change hold for website owners and developers? Firstly, they need to ensure that their websites are optimized to deliver a fast and visually stable experience. This involves prioritizing the loading of critical resources, such as text and images, to reduce the INP metric. Optimizing code, leveraging caching techniques, and using lazy loading for non-critical elements are some strategies that can help improve INP scores.
Impact the INP Metric
Secondly, website owners and developers should focus on delivering a smooth loading experience, even before the page is fully loaded. This means implementing techniques like skeleton screens or progressive loading, which provide users with a perception of progress and interactivity while the page is still loading. By reducing the perceived load time, website owners can positively impact the INP metric.
In conclusion
The transition from FID to INP within Google’s Core Web Vitals marks a significant shift towards a more comprehensive and user-centric measurement of web performance. INP offers a holistic view of a website’s loading process and ensures that critical content is available for users to interact with as quickly as possible. Website owners and developers should adapt their optimization strategies to prioritize the intersection between user interaction and the visibility of important page elements. By doing so, they can enhance the overall user experience and positively impact their Core Web Vitals scores.