Ajax is a Flash in the pan

Spot the similarity?*

The use of Ajax in Windows Live is what makes the user experience so appalling.

Search for "usability"

click on the first result to view the page

click the back button to return to the search results

And lose all of your search results. If Microsoft think that this nightmare of an experience is their path to future success then they need to start talking to their own usability people rather than swallowing too much Web 2.0 hype.

*They both break your back button.

Ajax Mistakes : Breaking the back button (May 2005)

Flash Usability : (Digital Web - January 2002)

Top-10 New Mistakes of Web Design (Alertbox - May 1999) : 1. Breaking the Back Button

Comments

[Kevin Miller]

Wow. I cannot believe the responses I am reading in regards to AJAX. I guess its time for me to stop reading and post :)

1. Windows Live is a joke, period. I could produce this same app in a weekend with a case of pepsi and some good TV in the background.

2. IT BREAKS THE BACK BUTTON! Seriously people, the app or page is not about you and what you think is right or cool, it comes down to the people using it, and they use the BACK button. More tnan that, they expect it to work, end of story. If it doesn't, you failed at your task. The fact that this is up for debate amoung some of the nets most prominent developers tells me one thing... stop reading these peoples articles, they apparently have Peter Griffins problem of not not listening to the words coming out of their mouths and just fading in and out! ( Family Guy for those of you whom I lost ).

3. AJAX should never be used if it comprimises what the average user believes to be standard function of how they use their computer, the browser, and even the web.

Too finish the dumbest thing I have read in awhile.... from this comment string actually ( look up )

"Look forwards, not backwards. Frankly if a user need to press back, haven't you failed to engage with them?"

Jason, if you insist on handing out advice on websites at least do so form the right perspective (ie the one we are discussing). To engage a user is soley on the end of the content and the marketing folk, if you are trying to retain viewers and 'engage' them based upon your implementation of a design, well I wanna see what you mean! No one lands on espn.com and says "Oh my gawd, this site is so beatiful... I hadn't meant to click on that link but since I am hear and I am dumbstruck by the shear brilliance of the of the use of red I am going to continue to click through to random crap that I never wanted to see anyways, just because". I have got an idea for you Jason, lets take the REVERSE off of all new cars, after all... move forwards not backwards... even if there is a wall in front of you.

I am so happy AJAX came out, now I know which blogs to weed from my weekly reading and which to keep.

Keep up the good word Chris!

[professional web design]

i dont AJAx is the flash in the pan. totlaly diffrent

[Jason Hyland]

Chris, get used to it. You work in an organisation that *intentionally* has a design paridigm to break the back button.

Look forwards, not backwards. Frankly if a user need to press back, haven't you failed to engage with them?

Really.....

[Michael Mahemoff]

Chris, there's a lot of things to get right wrt URLs - back button, refresh, bookmarking, the example you give. Ajax presents some unique problems on these, but let's face it: navigation problems happened ten years ago and still happen now ... they're not the exclusive domain of MS or Ajax. There are indeed Ajax solutions to these problems, the simplest of which is to perform a standard page refresh when a significant change occurs.

"The use of Ajax in Windows Live is what makes the user experience so appalling."

If you go by the definition of Ajax as a general technique for rich browser UI, then the drag-and-drop technique (among other things on windows live) must qualify as Ajax too. Surely that's a better experience than submitting the page every time you want to move a portlet half an inch.

Nice pic btw. The one on the left seems a bit shinier, but they make a good pair together.

[Ian Lloyd]

Actually, I take it back. There will be bad AJAX apps around for years, just as there are are still bad examples of 'normal' JavaScript around.

[Ian Lloyd]

I don't agree that Ajax is a flash in the pan. I do agree that Ajax used badly and carelessly will prove to be a flash in the pan, though. Anyway, did you expect MS to do a *good* job with something? ;-)