Section 3.1. Desirable Attributes of Ajax Applications

3.1. Desirable Attributes of Ajax Applications

Ajax is about improving user experience and delivering value to the organizations that own and use web applications. Here, we'll look at the key attributes of an ideal Ajax application. Reality dictates that you'll never get the best of all worlds, so you'll have to make trade-offs based on how important you consider each attribute. The Ajax Patterns are intended to help you deal with these trade-offs.

Usability

Ajax applications should be as intuitive, productive, and fun to use as possible.

Developer productivity

Development should be as efficient as possible, with a clean, maintainable code base.

Efficiency

Ajax applications should consume minimal bandwidth and server resources.

Reliability

Ajax applications should provide accurate information and preserve the integrity of data.

Privacy

While user-generated data can and should be used to improve the user experience, users' privacy should also be respected, and users should be aware of when and how their data is used.

Accessibility

Ajax applications should work for users with particular disabilities and of different ages and cultural backgrounds.

Compatibility

As an extension to accessibility, Ajax applications should work on a wide range of browser applications, hardware devices, and operating systems.