I ran a dedicated optimization pass on the Rituals careers platform, tackling performance bottlenecks across rendering, state management, and image loading. The goal was a noticeably faster, smoother experience without changing the visual design.

Canvas-based animated backgrounds

The original gradient backgrounds relied on CSS animations, which caused jank on lower-end devices. I replaced these with canvas-based animations using requestAnimationFrame, giving precise control over frame timing and dramatically reducing paint costs.

LQIP image preloading

The existing image library preloaded images at 1px width, which gave no useful preview. I optimized it to preload low-quality image placeholders (LQIP) instead, so users see a blurred preview that sharpens into the full image. This makes the loading feel faster even when it takes the same amount of time.

State via query params

Filter and navigation state was previously managed in React state, which meant losing context on refresh or when sharing links. I moved this state to query parameters, making URLs shareable and preserving state across page loads.

React patterns refactor

I refactored data fetching patterns throughout the app, replacing useEffect-based fetching with useMemo and proper memoization where possible. This reduced unnecessary re-renders and made the component tree more predictable.