A client recently approached us with the plan to render most of their website in AJAX (otherwise known as Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), a web development technique used in online forms and other interactive web apps.
For Responsive Webpages and Forms
AJAX is designed to make web pages more responsive - it allows for a page to be ’seamlessly’ refreshed with new data without requiring a reload and effecting the look and speed of the interaction. It’s fantastic in application forms where instant feedback or additional details may be required.
AJAX - Handle with Care!
But AJAX should be used with care. It can have a negative impact on a site’s search engine optimisation (SEO) and can prove problematic for disabled users. So here’s a quick breakdown of what AJAX is good at and what it’s not so good at…
What AJAX is good at:
- Delivering small blocks of content - for small quick changes it works well.
- Reducing the number of steps in a process - it’s great for forms with options (like application forms).
- Delivering instant feedback such as validation of form fields and quick feedback on from submissions.
AJAX is not very good at:
- Making content visible to search engines and any device that is not JavaScript enabled.
- Bookmarking - once you’re some way down an application process in an AJAX rendered environment, you cannot bookmark individual steps like you could if each stage of the app is delivered in standard HTML.
- Providing content for disabled users - the blind and vision-impaired are not able to access AJAX rendered content (and can have legal ramifications as in this example with Target in the United States and with the Sydney Olympics Website).
- Providing speed benefits to users with slower machines as it puts the processing onus onto the user’s machine.
- SEO: a typical implementation of AJAX is invisible to search engines. As you can replicate AJAX functionality with HTML, you’re better off using the latter for web content if you’re concerned about ranking on search engines.
To see an example of AJAX functionality, play around with the flight booking engine on Bezurk.com