03 · CASE STUDY · FOX CORPORATION
Fast, tested frontends for millions of viewers.
- PRODUCT
- FOX.com and TheUSFL.com
- ROLE
- Technical Lead Engineer
- PLATFORMS
- Web
- STACK
- React, Next.js, Vue, Nuxt.js, Optimizely
The problem
FOX.com and TheUSFL.com serve multi-million-user audiences for Fox Networks and Fox Sports. At that scale, pages have to load fast, and changes to them need to be tested rather than guessed at.
The approach
Treat each site as a long-lived product, and measure it. I worked on setting up A/B tests on Optimizely so changes could be tested before the team committed to them, and led an end-to-end performance optimization effort. The front ends were architected in React (Next.js) and Vue (Nuxt.js), and owned from inception through long-term maintenance.
INPUT
A change to the site
A/B TESTING
Tested on Optimizely before it is committed to
PERFORMANCE
End-to-end optimization, tracked with Lighthouse
ARCHITECTURE
React (Next.js) and Vue (Nuxt.js) front ends
OUTPUT
A faster, tested release
What I built
- Led a team of 5 engineers on the frontends of TheUSFL.com and FOX.com.
- Architected the front ends in React (Next.js) and Vue (Nuxt.js), owning projects from inception through long-term maintenance.
- Led the end-to-end performance optimization.
- Worked on setting up A/B tests on Optimizely, and carried that knowledge into other parts of the work.
The outcome
Lighthouse performance scores improved by 75%, and A/B testing on Optimizely gave the team a way to test changes before committing to them. FOX.com and TheUSFL.com now redirect to newer versions, so the sites as they were can be seen through the Internet Archive, below.
The sites as they were
Both sites now redirect to newer versions, so these are Internet Archive snapshots from February 2023. They are not an accurate picture of how the sites ran when they were live, only a look back at the technology built at the time.
