We’ve all felt the clean slickness of a well-oiled Ajax app. But think back to the last time something went wrong while you were using an Ajax app: how did it feel?
Chances are, it felt awkward and foreign. You probably stared at the little spinning “wait” graphic and wondered whether or not you should reload the page. You might have glanced at your watch and thought that the app was taking its sweet time—or maybe you wondered if your request had been made at all. You didn’t know what was going on—and you’re a developer! Imagine what a non-technical user goes through every time there’s a hiccup.
When good apps go bad
Ajax is handy because it avoids needless browser behavior such as page reloads, but it can also be dangerous because it avoids useful browser behavior like error handling. Gone are the “Server not found” error messages and that familiar escape hatch, the Back button. When Ajax circumvents useful behavior, we have to make sure we replace it as well as we can.
