Christina Dulude

This is the second session in the Usability, Accessibility, and Design Track at HighEdWeb. Presented by Richard Orelup at Valparaiso University.

This presentation discussed the redesign of the Valpo Athletics website. Options included a “Content Puke” and Flash — but there were no Flash developers on staff, and it would make the site less searchable. The solution? Ajax, which allows you to grab data after the page is loaded. Ajax uses the XMLHttpRequest function for this. And contrary to popular opinion, it does not really need to use XML.

The benefits? Ajax is a buzzword, so it’s great for pitching to higher-ups. It allows you to create Flash-like interface without Flash. There are no extra plugins necessary. Also, unlike Flash, there is no rebuilding of SWFs; you can just make changes to a file. Ajax also allows a rich internet experience on devices like the iPhone, which suport Ajax, but not Flash.

Problems? Some people and devices don’t support JavaScript, or partially support it.  So the site needs to gracefully degrade. That way, the site works for anti-JavaScript people/devices, although it might look a little strange.

Pick a framework — most browsers support it by default, and you can save time by not reinventing the wheel. And they make complex things simple.

Negatives of a framework: It can also make a lot of simple things complex (i.e., bare bones JavaScript stuff). Some frameworks are not good for some tasks. Frameworks also add to load time.

Lessons learned: Test in as many browsers and OS’s as possible. “Premature Ajaxulation:” People get excited about Ajax, but don’t know how to use it appropriately. Which leaves you open to SQL injections and cross-site scripting attacks.