Ajax – New approach for creating Web Application

From wikipeida, Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) is a web development technique for creating interactive web applications using a combination of: techniques. It is not a technology in itself, but a term that refers to the use of a group of technologies together:

1. XHTML (or HTML) and CSS for presenting information
2. The Document Object Model manipulated through JavaScript to dynamically display and interact with the information presented
3. The XMLHttpRequest object to exchange data asynchronously with the web server.

Advantages:

1. data can be manipulated without having to render the entire page again in the web browser
2. allows web applications to respond more quickly to many types of user interaction
3. avoid repeatedly sending unchanged information across the network
   – save bandwidth and improve speed of loading the page
4. no browser plug-in is required for Ajax, it requires users to have JavaScript enabled in their browsers.
5. because Ajax applications are built using nothing more than current web standards, they are relatively easy to create.
6. freedom from the Page Refresh
7. instant field Checking & Saving
8. Single Screen Interface

Limitation:

1. Major con is some browsers do not support JavaScript or ActiveX. Security settings might cause even Internet Explorer to not support Ajax (ex: JavaScript might be disabled).
2. break the expected behavior of the browser's back button, undo their last change
3. difficult for a user to bookmark a particular state of the application
4. without clear feedback to the user [1], smart preloading of data [2], and proper handling of the XMLHttpRequest object [3] users might experience delay in the interface of the web application
5. provides many challenges for developers interested in adhering to Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) accessibility guidelines
   -Solution: provide content only to specific portions of a web page, Non-Ajax users would optimally continue to load and manipulate the whole page as a fallback

Conclusion:
Ajax: a Solid Alternative:

By allowing more sophisticated functionality using easier-to-implement web standards, Ajax is proving a real alternative for creating powerful web applications.

Reference:
1. Ajax: The New Web Interface Design Development Approach Everyone Talks About

2. Wikipedia

3. Using Ajax for Creating Web Applications

4. Andy's Bookmark

Checklist of Checkpoints for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

W3C has summarized Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 into a Checklist with priorities.

It saves our time in reading all the content of the guideline line by line. Moreover, it has categorized all the points according to their importance. If we got enough time, we can check all of them, otherwise, we can have a clear priority to check those important one first.

There are THREE priorities:
Priority 1: this is a basic requirement for most people to access our site.
E.g. provide text equivalent for non-text elements

Priority 2: this can remove most barriers to access our site.
E.g. ensure foreground and background provide sufficient contrast so that even people with color deficit can view it.

Priority 3: this can further improve the access to our site.
E.g. specify the expansion of the abbreviation when it first appear

For more details, you can visit:
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/full-checklist.html

How People with Disabilities Use the Web

W3C has posted many paper and article about web design. One of the article is useful for us to consider when we are planning and designing a web site. It's about "How People with Disabilities Use the Web".

This paper has included many Case Studies of people with disabilities in using web. It also suggested some tools and methods for web designer to help those people.

This will be a good reminder for us to consider those minor group of our society.

3D Text Creater

From internet, I've found an interesting tools to help us generate 3D text logo easily. You can simply download the evaluation version for free.
The tools is easy to use. You need not to learn OpenGL or other programming language to create 3D graphics:

Banner & button generator

It is a time consuming task in creating logo and buttons for a web site. I've found an interesting site help us to create logo and buttons with different fonts.

The site provided a lot of clip arts, fonts, buttons and useful resources and links to help us create some interesting and beautiful button. It also provides a simple and easy to use interface to help us tailor make our own buttons and banners.

Follow existing methodologies or re-invent your own-wheel?

I've searched the topic “ Web Development Methodology ” in the internet. There are a lot of articles and sites talking about this issue. After skinning some of the sites and I found one interesting point. Although most web design companies claim that their development methodologies are tailor made to meet end user's needs, most of the methodologies are more or less similar: 1) Project Definition (gather information, planning & analysis); 2) Design of the site; 3) Coding and Implementation; 4) Promotion and 5) Evaluation / Innovation. These are what we are learning these two weeks.

I agree that the methodology we learnt has included many useful information and resources for web design / redesign. From my past experience, some problems I faced in one of my previous redesign projects can be solved or reduced if I have adopted this methodology from the beginning. The main problems I faced including “ Scheduling of the tasks ” and “ Addressing Technical Standards ”. If I have a good planning at the beginning, I can save more time and efforts during this project.

However, does it mean we should follow the methodology strictly? From my point of view, it is a good guideline; however, it doesn't mean that it is the only golden rule. The methodology can describe most steps generally; however, it cannot describe all cases specifically. I think it's good for novice designer, like me, to follow at the beginning. Experienced designer will tailor make their own methodologies to fit their company culture and style as those design house mentioned at the beginning.

A useful reference to Web Development Methodologies

I’ve found a useful site about Web Development Methodology". This site introduced six processes and six elements for web development.

For each processes and elements, writer will give a summary at first and follow with detail explanation. This design is more readable as user can has a brief concept first. If user interested in any of the topics, user can simply click on the hyperlink to get more detail information.

One of the most impressive points I read from the web is the five stages of Capability Maturity Model (CMM). It is developed by “Carnegie Mellon University”, one of the world famous universities in technology field. This site give a detail explanation of the five stages (Initial level, Repeatable level, Defined level, Managed level and Optimizing level). They are more or less similar to the 10 tips introduced by Kelly Goto & Emily Cotler. This is a good supplementary to Kelly's Book.