Comments on: Increasing the Strength of Ajax

By: Max Kiesler - Designer » Blog Archive » Downloadable Web 2.0 and AJAX Widgets

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:24:44 +0000

[...] and what not to do with AJAX. Have fun. : ) Jeffrey Veen posts: Designing for the subtlety of Ajax Increasing the Strength of Ajax Alex Bosworth posts Ajax [...]

By: Dustin Kirk

Dustin Kirk — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 15:03:14 +0000

Data loading is something that I imagine will quickly have to be adopted by browsers. For example status indicator such as that at the bottom of IE will likely need to function much more like that of the loading indicator on Google Earth. Not only should one know that something is happening, but also how much is happening. An icon shouldn’t throb simply because a connection is left open, but should also indicate if data is being loaded and how much is expected. Sites may supplement this indication temporarily via their own indicators, but at some point soon this will need to be handled by the browser.

By: Meriblog: Meri Williams’ Weblog » Links II

Meriblog: Meri Williams’ Weblog » Links II — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 15:17:37 +0000

[...] ind this elusive Web 2.0 idea… On that note, Eric has written a great article about the demands Ajax places on web design. I agree that we’re goi [...]

By: Julian Turner

Julian Turner — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 10:19:35 +0000

In my rough (and not very cross browser) attemps at AJAX, I inserted a status bar at the bottom, which advises of status, and flashes orange when loading is complete.

By: Anup Shah

Anup Shah — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 12:46:30 +0000

Good points Eric. The other issue with Ajax for web sites may also be accessibility.

Parts of a page automatically updating will cause some screen readers to start reading the updated content, and thus lead to a LOT of disorientation due to the unexpected change.

Not sure if there is always an easy way around this, depends on the nature of the particular web site being developed. (And becomes even more of a gray area when considering if it is a web application as opposed to a web site!)

Perhaps it implies again that “progressive enhancement” is a key — start with semantic markup, add css, add javascript, add Ajax? (But how does one ‘disable’ the Ajax, or even know they might need to…?)

Many questions, in what is otherwise an interesting area!

By: Nico Edtinger

Nico Edtinger — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 10:34:57 +0000

When I did a webpage with AJAX I added a throbber. That’s what my browser does next to the URI and at each tab. Having this rotating animation tells me “something’s loading”. And it worked quite well.

b4n

By: Gregory Wild-smith

Gregory Wild-smith — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 10:15:28 +0000

Reading that back it sounds like I missed your point, which I didn’t, so I should clarify.

Surely rather than making a list of “AJAX Mistakes” it is better to talk about “common UI mistakes in web applications”? Because else it is like blaming JavaScript for popups – accurate, but not really getting to the root of the problem.

Therefore isn’t it less about increasing the strength of AJAX, and more about increasing the strength of the web?

By: Gregory Wild-smith

Gregory Wild-smith — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 10:11:14 +0000

Surely this isn’t anything to do with AJAX, it’s about UI design? AJAX is just exposing how little most web-designers know about application design.

Putting the blame on AJAX enabled pages is wrong, but does seem to be what people are doing. As you say Eric – it wasn’t the AJAX that foxed you – it was the lack of responce.

Basically it’s starting to sort out who knows good web design, and who just knows how to create something pretty…