Single Page Interfaces
After Jesse James Garret’s article about Ajax there have been several interesting posts.
Cameron Adams argues that it’s acceptable for some sites to exclude visitors that have JavaScript switched off, especially for web applications (as opposed to content-rich sites). I agree: there are some standards-enthusiasts who promote unobtrusive JavaScript, but they usually come from a content-publishing background.
Tantek Celik proposes a new name for Ajax, to get rid of associations with soap or football clubs. He proposes Cadex, short for CSS Asynchronous DOM Ecmascript XML/XHTML. What I don’t like about both Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript + XML) and Cadex is that they focus on technology instead of usability. What I see as the main different between Ajax and old web interface is that it’s actually a single-page interface, instead of a multi-page interface. Maybe the name it’s somewhat simplistic, but I would suggest using Single-Page Interface instead of Ajax.
To continue on the usability angle: Jason Fried explains that Ajax in itself does not improve the user experience: it enables it. The example of the Yellow Fade technique is one of the first examples I’ve seen with clear usability benefits. I’m myself working on a website with a Single-Page Interface, and it’s easy to come up with all kinds of spectacular effects, but difficult to find those effects that really enhance usability. A peak preview of what our technology is capable of can be seen in a shop and a portal demo, and the result of my project can be seen in a couple of months at Backbase.com. In the mean time I’ll be scouring the web for more usability best practices for single page interfaces. And if you know any great usability examples, please let me know.
Cameron Adams argues that it’s acceptable for some sites to exclude visitors that have JavaScript switched off, especially for web applications (as opposed to content-rich sites). I agree: there are some standards-enthusiasts who promote unobtrusive JavaScript, but they usually come from a content-publishing background.
Tantek Celik proposes a new name for Ajax, to get rid of associations with soap or football clubs. He proposes Cadex, short for CSS Asynchronous DOM Ecmascript XML/XHTML. What I don’t like about both Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript + XML) and Cadex is that they focus on technology instead of usability. What I see as the main different between Ajax and old web interface is that it’s actually a single-page interface, instead of a multi-page interface. Maybe the name it’s somewhat simplistic, but I would suggest using Single-Page Interface instead of Ajax.
To continue on the usability angle: Jason Fried explains that Ajax in itself does not improve the user experience: it enables it. The example of the Yellow Fade technique is one of the first examples I’ve seen with clear usability benefits. I’m myself working on a website with a Single-Page Interface, and it’s easy to come up with all kinds of spectacular effects, but difficult to find those effects that really enhance usability. A peak preview of what our technology is capable of can be seen in a shop and a portal demo, and the result of my project can be seen in a couple of months at Backbase.com. In the mean time I’ll be scouring the web for more usability best practices for single page interfaces. And if you know any great usability examples, please let me know.
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