Set payload budgets before you celebrate another nested JSON tree
Nested graphs that feel tidy on office Wi-Fi punish users on congested mobile networks across Taipei commute corridors.
Backend teams often optimize for developer convenience: one endpoint returns everything a screen might need. On cellular networks, that convenience becomes cold-start pain.
We ask engagements to publish a per-endpoint payload budget — bytes on the wire after compression — and to test against throttled profiles, not only staging Wi-Fi. Pagination and field selection are contract features, not afterthoughts.
Image and media URLs deserve the same discipline. Returning full-resolution assets in list responses is a common mobile regression that looks fine in desktop Postman.
When budgets are explicit, product and backend can negotiate screen needs without improvising mega-responses the week before launch.