It’s not at all difficult to find plugins, scripts, tools, utilities, and effects that generate cool effects with minimal work. Tools like this generally provide some slick functionality and are easy to setup.
The thing is, you never know what kind of quality of work you’re going to get – assuming that just because it works may not be enough. Simply plugging scripts and/or plugins into your project can have unintended side effects in your user’s experience on your site.
Here are three things you can do to make sure adding new functioanlity is adding value and not bloat…
1. View The Source
Today, most scripts take advantage of a JavaScript library – be it MooTools, Prototype, or jQuery.
Good scripts will generally check to see if the library is already included in your page and, if not, will then add it. Poorly architected scripts will add another instance of the library into your page this creating additional, useless overhead and potentially breaking any other scripts that are relying on the initial library.
To verify this, look at your source before including a script. If it includes a library and then you notice a second inclusion of the library after including your script, either remove your included library or remove the script.
2. Use Your Developer Tools
After including the script, start up Firebug or Chrome Developer Tools. Specifically, look for any JavaScript errors or warnings that coming from the newly added plugin.
If you see any errors, you’ve got a malfunctioning script and it will likely affect the user experience.
You may want to notify the plugin author of the errors, as well.
3. Benchmark Performance
If you’re a performance geek, then you know adding things to a page or project will automatically affect the performance – it’s simply a question of “how much?”
Using tools such as Google Page Speed or YSlow can be enlightening. Benchmark the site’s load time before adding the plugin and after including the plugin. If you see anything beyond a few milliseconds of performance difference, the script is likely requiring more memory and/or processing power than necessary.
Of course, these are just suggestions.
Feel free to add more to the list (as there is more :)).
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