AJAX: Highly Interactive Web Applications  

AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. AJAX has recently been gaining attention as a way to make web applications more interactive. While it can reduce apparent latency between user interaction and application response, it can cause user interface, maintainability, and accessibility issues.

Giglio, Jason. Psychemorphic (2006). Design>Web Design>Interaction Design>Ajax

Ajax Mistakes

Ajax is an awesome technology that is driving a new generation of web apps, from maps.google.com to colr.org to backpackit.com. But Ajax is also a dangerous technology for web developers, its power introduces a huge amount of UI problems as well as server side state problems and server load problems.

Bosworth, Alex. Sourcelabs.com (2005). Articles>Web Design>DHTML>Ajax

Ajax RSS Reader

Learn how to build an Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) Really Simple Syndication (RSS) reader, as well as a Web component that you can place on any Web site to look at the articles in the RSS feeds.

Herrington, Jack D. IBM (2006). Design>Web Design>XML>Ajax

Ajax Tradeoffs: The Many Flavors of XML

Ajax stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML and the idea is that with modern Web browsers you can, with acceptable reliability, keep a channel open to the server to pass data back and forth as your Web application is used. This contrasts with standard Web techniques that follow links, causing the entire page to load anew. Many aspects of Ajax-based development require design different decisions than traditional Web pages: How to manage the back button, how to display updated data, how often to send updates, and more. The focus for now will be on just one group of related aspects: what format should the data exchange take?

Elza, Dethe and David Mertz. IBM (2007). Design>Web Design>XML>Ajax

The Ajax Transport Method

Discover three Ajax data transport mechanisms (XMLHttp, script tags, and frames or iframes) and their relative strengths and weaknesses. This tutorial provides code for both the server side and the client side and explains it in detail to provide the techniques you need to put efficient Ajax controls anywhere you need them.

Herrington, Jack D. IBM (2006). Design>Web Design>Interaction Design>Ajax

AJAX Usability Metrics

A look at how to quantify or measure the benefits of a better user interface built with Ajax.

Charland, Andre. SlideShare (2006). Presentations>Web Design>Usability>Ajax

Ajax: Usable Interactivity with Remote Scripting

This article aims to give you an introduction to the foundations of remote scripting, in particular, the emerging XMLHttpRequest protocol. We'll then walk through an example application that demonstrates how to implement that protocol, while creating a usable interface.

Adams, Cameron. SitePoint (2005). Design>Web Design>Interaction Design>Ajax

Ajax Wireframing Approaches

Goes over a few techniques and approaches we use to create the foundation of every prototype--wireframes. In addition to serving as documentation for those working with the markup, wireframes are a great way to create screenshots and debug rendering problems that are happening during DOM manipulation. Whenever we find something looking funny during the development process, we always refer back to our wireframes to see if it’s a markup / presentation problem. If it renders right in the browser statically, then we know to look for the problem in the JavaScript or server side programming.

Hale, Kevin. Particletree (2006). Design>Web Design>DHTML>Ajax

Ajax-Based Persistent Object Mapping

The Persevere persistent object framework brings persistent object mapping to the browser JavaScript environment. Object persistence has seen great popularity in the Java(TM) programming and Ruby worlds, and the dynamic JavaScript language is naturally well suited to mapping objects to persisted data. Persevere automates mapping and communication in Asynchronous JavaScript + XML (Ajax)-based Web applications in addition to simplifying much of the development challenge by providing a manageable data model, transparent client-server Ajax interchanges, automatic state change storage, and implicit transaction management.

Zyp, Kristopher William. IBM (2007). Design>Web Design>Ajax

Aktionsbündnis für Barrierefreie Informationstechnik

Im Aktionsbündnis für barrierefreie Informationstechnik (AbI) haben sich Behindertenverbände und Experten zusammengeschlossen, um die Umsetzung von Barrierefreiheit in der Informationstechnik zu unterstützen.

FTB. (German) Design>Web Design>Accessibility

ALA Primer: A Guide for New Readers

ALA production manager Erin Lynch sifts through our archives and offers up a list of starting points for new readers.

Lynch, Erin. List Apart, A (2006). Design>Web Design

The ALA Primer Part Two: Resources For Beginners

ALA Production Manager Erin Lynch and the ALA staff offer a few starting points for the next generation of people who make websites.

Lynch, Erin and ALA Staff. List Apart, A (2006). Design>Web Design

Alan Cooper Speaks! Impressions from BayCHI April 2002

On the second Tuesday of every month, BayCHI, the Bay Area chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery's (ACM) special interest group on Computer-Human Interaction convenes. Brad Lauster shares his impressions of the discussion with Alan Cooper and the nature of Interaction Design.

Lauster, Brad. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Design>Web Design>Interaction Design

Alertbox #200

Jakob Nielsen has published 200 Alertbox columns on the Web since 1995; in addition to promoting usability, the column's readership statistics validate the practice of archiving content.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2003). Articles>Usability>Web Design

Alien Typography

Many of the principles that the print typographer has learned and holds sacred, are no longer true when the medium is a neon sign, a television title sequence or a Web page. Text that is not printed on paper takes them into alien territory.

Gillespie, Joe. Digital Web Magazine (2001). Design>Typography>Online

Alignment

Alignment is another way of creating associations between visual elements, which help users quickly understand the relationships of objects on a page.

Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Design>Web Design>Document Design

All About Title Tags

The title tag is one of the most important factors in achieving high search engine rankings.

Whalen, Jill. High Rankings Advisor (2004). Design>Web Design>Search>Search Engine Optimization

All About Users

A blog from Bangalore based on everything related to the user experience and interaction.

Monteiro, Percy. Blogspot. Resources>Usability>User Centered Design>Blogs

All Hail Shale: Shale Isn't Struts

What Shale isn't is a shrink-wrapped, well-documented, well-tested product complete with an automated installer and a polished management interface. Now find out what it is, as Brett McLaughlin unveils this mighty -- and rightful-- heir to the legacy of Struts. In this first of a five-part series, Brett explains what Shale is, how it's different from the Struts framework, and how to install and set it up in your development environment.

McLaughlin, Brett D. IBM (2006). Articles>Web Design>Programming

All the Access Money Can Buy

Just when you think online multimedia will never be truly accessible, someone proves you wrong. In BMW Films, Clark sees a tantalizing glimpse of a better web.

Clark, Joe. List Apart, A (2000). Design>Accessibility>Web Design>Multimedia

Alphabetizing Menu Commands  

Ever forget the exact location of a menu command in InDesign? You can use this tip to make your menu commands easier to locate.

Cole, Tim. Adobe Evangelists (2006). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign

Alt and Beyond: Making Web Graphics Accessible

Many developers still view graphics and accessibility as being on opposing ends of the web development scale. The truth is that including graphics in your documents does not mean your page has to be any less accessible. In fact, as we will see later in this article, graphics can be used to enhance the accessibility of a page. There are, however, a few key techniques that you can employ to ensure that you don't have to construct alternative 'Text-Only' documents. The web truly is the last frontier where we can treat all people equally with 'one size fits all' web documents. There is just a little bit extra we need to do to achieve this.

Roberts, Tim. evolt (2002). Design>Web Design>Accessibility

Alter Table Row Background Colors Using JavaScript

Many sites that present tabular data use alternating background colors to increase the readability of that data. And as I developed a site, I realised I wanted to do that, too. The problem? In my case the table was not generated by a server side application or script of which you can find numerous examples on the Web.

Svanberg, Kennet. SitePoint (2005). Design>Web Design>CSS>DHTML

Alternate Fonts

Kenn Munk designs wonderfully different fonts and dingbats that allow the user to 'build' words, or in the case of dingbats - images. This obsesion is probably due to the hours and hours spent playing with LEGO bricks in his childhood. Shhhhh... be quiet!

Munk, Kenn. Design, Typography and Graphics (2004). Design>Typography

The Alternative Guide to Technical Communication

This guide summarizes alternative resources relevant to people in Technical Communication. 'Alternative' refers to the unconventional types of resources on this list as well the diversity of topics that are covered -- none of these resources talk about 'technical communication.'

Wei, Carolyn. University of Washington-Seattle. Resources>TC>User Centered Design