There are a number of Lazy Loading plugins for WordPress however, as usual, I am always looking for the most simple solution.
It’s likely that you’ve implemented lazy load in some shape or form before and it’s equally as likely that you’ve encountered issues with this technique.
A search for lazy loading in the WordPress plugin repository returns plugins that are either:
- not actively updated (i.e. doesn’t work with responsive images in WP4.4+)
- not currently supported (lots of people with broken sites in the support forums)
- trying to solve lots of issues (lazy load everything or bundled in as part of a performance-based plugin)
- have too many settings that may be confusing to the user
From a UX point of view any one of those issues above is a red flag when choosing a plugin. I find that key characteristic of a good plugin are:
- up to date with current standards
- easily supportable and well supported
- solves one issue, well
- doesn’t have a myriad of options
I’ve tried to follow this mantra when creating the my WP Image Lazy Load plugin.
The plugin itself filters the post content and lazy loads these images when the user scrolls to where the image is on the page. This is the main area that theme authors do not have control over therefore I found it ‘plugin territory’ in which to introduce this functionality.
If you want to check out the plugin then head over to Github and grab a copy. Developers – I’d love your feedback in order to improve this.