Ionrock Dot Org

So, this past week I have seen three different articles bashing AJAX due to the usability issues it causes. While I do not disagree, I believe there is a huge misunderstanding regarding why it is powerful and good for the web in the long run.

The basic idea is that AJAX adds an interactive element that breaks conventional web paradigms. The usability argument against this essentially boils down to innovation forces users to change expectations. In a way this is a very bad thing. There are a myriad of users that are not very web saavy and these folks may have problems working with these new ideas. In fact these folks may have just started using the web last week and are still understanding what all the fuss is about. To this argument, I say touche.

Let's consider for a moment though what the ideas behind AJAX really means. Again there are countless articles and blogs that talk about what is great about AJAX. The essence of these is that AJAX changes the expectations of the user! If you take a minute to look at my summary of what is bad about AJAX, I think you see the obvious pattern here.

I personally think AJAX is a great technology and yes there are going to be people who use AJAX to create monstrous pieces of software that solve no problem and allow no benefit to society. There are other AJAX based applications that would be impossible to do within the confines of the traditional page paradigm see on the web currently. I am sure there were similar arguments as people started to turn from newspapers to radio and television for news. We continue to hear frustration from television news groups that the Internet is taking away viewers.

AJAX is more than a technology. It is old (again as countless articles point out). What is really innovative is the understanding and community surrounding it. Those who preach its praises are those who have lived through and become disgusted with the old ways of the web. I was fortunate to learn web development using CSS before being exposed to complicated tables and font tags. But others who experiences the early web saw the problem with these practices. Zeldman and the rest moved on toward creating pages that actually utilized the strength of XML. This progression changed from creating interesting designs to focusing on content. Information Architect and Usability were both pushed to the forefront as designers really began to understand what the real hype was around XML. In short XML makes languages for machines and people. This is what the web was meant to be and everyone seems to get it.

Now that we reached this point, the web has taken off to new directions. RSS and "tagging" take the concepts of hypertext to new levels. The folks that have been pioneering web based information are starting to see the true semantic web take form. Convention has replaced configuration to increase the speed with which new semantic practices are accepted by large groups. The next step is to move from enhancing our documents to enhancing our experience and applications. This has begun through AJAX. The idea is now the web as a platform. In other words, we are listening to the news on the radio while taking a look at the morning paper.

This is why AJAX is exciting. It is the progress of the web and it is pointless to try and stop it. Instead, we need to start looking more at how we can improve the consistency between web applications and desktop applications to create a truly seamless evironment. From a programming standpoint, we are starting to move towards having applications that can be developed like desktop applications. Events that tie to objects that are reflected in a database will soon be able to be tied together seamlessly. Users will expect to find web "applications" and web "pages". Pages can be browsed where applications can be experienced.

Considering that it has taken this long for designers and web developers to understand the real power of the web and semantic documents, I doubt that this change will confuse users any more than other innovations may. HCI and Interaction Design has been placed in the spotlight and no one will try to hide it again. People will still make mistakes, but this time an interactive web is going to really happen and I am all for it.

Classes are officially over! I have some projects and things to take care of, but past that I am done with coursework. By next week I will have another degree and hopefully I will have gotten my dream job...

Speaking of jobs, I am pretty frustrated. What is frustrating me the most is my apparent inability to show my skills. I have never walked away from a project with anyone believing my programming skills are less than adequate (in fact most times I am considered the strongest programmer), yet I feel anytime someone sits me down in front a computer to write a function or print some output I fall on my face. This may simply be a personal feeling more than an actual failing. Nevertheless, I do see it as an area to improve.

In a way, I wonder if this is my conscience creeping in. I haven't interviewed at sketchy companies or lied about anything, but sometimes, I just don't get a good "vibe" from an interviewer. I find it very uncomfortable when a technical interviewer makes you feel as though they want you to fail. I am sure they would say that they want to see how you work under pressure, but I also believe that those people using the interviewing techniques are not truly the most helpful when it comes to making the organization more productive. I can't imagine going to someone I work with and the person not doing all they can to help a fellow employee grow. Along these same lines, I don't want to work at a place where the interviewer put a bad taste in my mouth. What if that person is my immediate supervisor and they did not want to hire me but a higher up was the person that extended offer? This is not the kind of environment I would like to work in.

Maybe I am just whining or justifying some recent failures. I suppose it really doesn't matter much in the long run. My goals with my career are to enable me to enjoy my love of technology and allow me to spend time with my family. Simple desires for a simple guy. It just isn't enough to do well in school, peform well at jobs, go out of your way to learn new technologies, understand the context of technical problems and generally be considerate and kind to people. No, you have know about krsort() in PHP. Maybe next time.