Re:Rich client side web apps gone too far (2014)
by nostrademons on Sunday March 29, 2015 @02:24AM
(#9284081)
The idea behind progressive enhancement is that you prioritize your features, and then make the most fundamental features of your site work without Javascript while still giving JS-enabled users something extra to play with.
So in your example - no, you would not send AJAX requests back to the server in a real-time search application. It would not be "real time" at all. But you would still be able to search, and get back results. Then you add JS, and you can search as you type.
Relatively few sites do it like this these days - in general, anything that's a SPA that talks to JSON won't work at all with JS disabled. It takes a good understanding of your tools and of your users to prioritize like this, as well as a good dose of humility. But it also often results in better usability and UX design overall, because you know which features are really key and which are "nice to haves", and you don't compromise key features for extras.
So in your example - no, you would not send AJAX requests back to the server in a real-time search application. It would not be "real time" at all. But you would still be able to search, and get back results. Then you add JS, and you can search as you type.
Relatively few sites do it like this these days - in general, anything that's a SPA that talks to JSON won't work at all with JS disabled. It takes a good understanding of your tools and of your users to prioritize like this, as well as a good dose of humility. But it also often results in better usability and UX design overall, because you know which features are really key and which are "nice to haves", and you don't compromise key features for extras.