Update ISO.org Case Study

Author: csswizardry

case-studies/iso.md

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 title: "Setting a New Standard for ISO.org"
-meta: ""
+meta: "How I helped ISO.org achieve all-green Core Web Vitals for the first time ever. LCP down 29%, CLS down 94%."
 permalink: /case-studies/iso-org/
 next-case-study-title: "Cache in the cloud—fixing caching at Cloudinary"
 next-case-study-url: /case-studies/cloudinary/
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-<img src="/img/content/case-studies/iso-org/iso-logo.png" alt="" width="128" height="106"
+ISO is _the_ standard in standards. So imagine my delight when they got in touch
+asking me to make ISO.org faster for their millions of monthly visitors!
+
+<img src="{{ site.cloudinary  }}/img/content/case-studies/iso-org/iso-logo.png" alt="" width="128" height="106"
      class="u-outdent"
      style="float: left;
             margin-right: 24px;
-            shape-outside: url(/img/content/case-studies/iso-org/iso-logo.png);">
+            shape-outside: url({{ site.cloudinary  }}/img/content/case-studies/iso-org/iso-logo.png);">
 
-Imagine my delight when ISO got in touch. I love a spec, I love a standard, so
-working with _the_ [International Organization for
-Standardization](https://www.iso.org/) is a bit of a dream come true! As a Brit,
-[ISO 8601](https://www.iso.org/iso-8601-date-and-time-format.html) and [ISO
+I love a spec, I love a standard, so working with _the_ [International
+Organization for Standardization](https://www.iso.org/) is a bit of a dream come
+true! As a Brit, [ISO
+8601](https://www.iso.org/iso-8601-date-and-time-format.html) and [ISO
 3103:2019](https://www.iso.org/standard/73224.html) are particularly close to my
-heart, so to work with the folk that write them…? It’s a yes from me.
+heart, so to work with the folk that wrote them…? It’s a yes from me.
 
-Conversations stared in October 2024 with a view to kicking off the project in
-early 2025. This gave us ample time to [design the perfect
+Conversations started in October 2024 with a view to kicking off the project in
+spring 2025. This gave us ample time to [design the perfect
 engagement](/services/) and be very well prepared into the run-up. The brief was
-simple: improve the user experience. The focus wasn’t on
+simple: <q>improve the user experience</q>. The focus wasn’t on
 [SEO](/2023/07/core-web-vitals-for-search-engine-optimisation/) or revenue, but
 simply on improving the user experience. After all, improve UX, and all else
 follows. It’s a wise move!
 
-We decided to benchmark on [Core Web Vitals](/workshops/core-web-vitals-on-ios/)
-as they’re arguably the most sensible place to start for a fledgling project.
-Their biggest sticking points were Largest Contentful Paint and Cumulative
-Layout Shift. Interaction to Next Paint wasn’t much of a concern for them as
-they’d made smart decisions in the past and not gone all-in on JavaScript.
+We decided to benchmark against [Core Web
+Vitals](/workshops/core-web-vitals-on-ios/) as they’re arguably the most
+sensible place to start for a fledgling project. Their biggest sticking points
+were Largest Contentful Paint and Cumulative Layout Shift. Interaction to Next
+Paint wasn’t much of a concern for them as they’d made smart decisions in the
+past and not gone all-in on JavaScript.
 
 The project was to be incredibly tactical—a quick-fire round of specific
 improvements built out into a backlog that the team could pick up as and when
 they were ready. What was nice about this approach, and not running a big
 reveal-style project, is that we were able to realise performance improvements
 while the project was in flight. Not only was this highly motivating, it
-demonstrated immediate value in the project. It was the right thing to do!
+demonstrated immediate value. It was definitely the right thing to do!
 
 And how did it go? It went very well:
 
 <figure>
-<img src="/img/content/case-studies/iso-org/crux.png" alt="Graphs showing significant and sustained improvements in all three Core Web Vitals since the project started" width="1500" height="348" loading="lazy">
-<figcaption>I think the numbers speak for themselves…</figcaption>
+<img src="{{ site.cloudinary  }}/img/content/case-studies/iso-org/crux.png" alt="Graphs showing significant and sustained improvements in all three Core Web Vitals since the project started" width="1500" height="348" loading="lazy">
+<figcaption>I think the numbers speak for themselves… <a href="{{ site.cloudinary  }}/img/content/case-studies/iso-org/crux.png">View full sie (32.5KB)</a></figcaption>
 </figure>
 
-As is customary, I handed over a full Trello backlog (half of which were already
-live), and an Executive Summary document for the non-technical stakeholders and
-sponsors.
+You can see in the graphs above that our first performance-facing deployments
+began in the last week of March. Taking the CrUX data for then versus the time
+of writing (July 2025), the headline results are:
+
+* **LCP was improved by 800ms**, from 2.8s down to 2s.
+  * A 29% improvement!
+* **INP was improved by 7ms**, from 85ms down to 78ms.
+  * It’s an 8% improvement, but at this scale it simply doesn’t count.
+* **CLS was improved by 0.08**, from 0.18 down to 0.01.
+  * This represents a 94% improvement!
+
+<!--
+| Metric  | Before  | After | Δ%    |
+|:--------|--------:|------:|------:|
+| **LCP** | 2.8s    | 2.0s  | −29%  |
+| **INP** | 85ms    | 78ms  | −8%   |
+| **CLS** | 0.18    | 0.01  | −94%  |
+-->
+
+The team—and I!—are understandably very very happy with these results. The
+project was a short one, and I have ideas of how we can take these numbers even
+further with a little bit more of a push, but for the first time _ever_, ISO.org
+is all green.
+
+As is customary, I handed over a full [Trello](/2014/05/my-trello-workflow/)
+backlog (half of which was already live), and an Executive Summary document for
+the non-technical stakeholders and sponsors.
 
 It was about as targeted as a [web performance audit](/performance-audits/) can
 get: in and out, job done.