Will animation slow my site down?
A slow page loses visitors, so it is a fair question. The short answer: an animation from bernard’s library costs your page very little, and it is built not to get in the way.
The prompt
“Check whether the animations on my [which page] page make it slower or make anything jump while it loads.”
Signed in, Get my prompt fills in your site for you. Otherwise press Copy and fill in the [bracketed] parts. First time? Connect your AI to bernard once: Use your own AI (opens in a new tab).
Why the library stays light
- One small library for all of them. Every animation in bernard’s library shares the same small file and stylesheet, so adding more animations does not add more to download.
- It rests when nobody can see it. Animations pause when they scroll off screen and when the visitor switches to another tab.
- Nothing jumps. The animations move things by sliding, fading and scaling them, so the rest of your page stays where it is while one plays. bernard’s own tests measure this for every animation in its library, in a real browser.
- Your words arrive first. The words and pictures are part of your page, not something the animation builds, so they show even before the animation starts.
An animation written just for you
When bernard writes a new animation for you (see Can bernard make an animation that is not in the library?), it checks the code before it goes into your draft: that it is small, that it changes only its own part of the page, and that it moves things only in ways that do not push the page about. Those checks read the code; they do not yet run it, so look at it in the preview.
The best speed advice is still restraint
Two or three animations on a page is plenty. Photos are usually what makes a page heavy; see Keep images small and fast.
Questions people ask
- Does every animation add more to download?
- No. All the animations in bernard’s library share one small file and one small stylesheet, added to your site with the first animation. A second or third animation uses the same ones.
- Do animations keep running in the background?
- No. bernard’s animations pause when they are off screen and when the visitor switches to another tab.
- What about an animation bernard writes just for me?
- bernard checks its size and how it moves things before it goes into your draft, and refuses one that is too big or that would push the page about. Watch it in the preview before you approve it by publishing.