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Jakob Nielsen says AJAX sucks?

Published on: December 14, 2005 by Paul Boag

I know I was supposed to stop posting until after Christmas but I couldn't resist telling you about this brilliant analysis of AJAX by Jakob Nielsen.

You can view the original article about frames here

Although obviously a bit of fun, Chris has made a very valid point. AJAX can potentially suffer from many of the same problems as frames, including:

Undermining the concept of the page which has become so familiar to users
Breaking the back button
Preventing bookmarking

As website owners, we need to think long and hard before jumping on the AJAX bandwagon. Sure, AJAX does give us with some great new features but we need to weigh that against the potential usability costs that come from breaking some of the fundamental browser behaviours. In principle AJAX doesn't need to create these problems but too often web site owners rush to add new features without considering the ramifications.

Comments

Comments are for the discussion of this post. If you have other questions / comments then post them to the forum or send me an email

Post by Jon on December 15, 2005 2:10 PM

It'd be nice if the chap who coined the phrase "AJAX" managed to remember to stuff "Graceful Degredation" into the acronym.
Post by Paul Boag on December 15, 2005 2:15 PM

Yes it would Jon. But actually my concerns arent with graceful degredation. Its relatively easy to make AJAX degrade nicely and ensure it is ACCESSIBLE to all. However, what I am worried about is how USABLE it is. I might have the latest browser that supports AJAX fully but that doesnt mean it wont break my back button or prevent me bookmarking a page.
Post by beth on December 15, 2005 3:31 PM

Also, I totally agree with you here: "As website owners, we need to think long and hard before jumping on the AJAX bandwagon"
Post by Nemanja on December 15, 2005 9:31 PM

AJAX is something great, like for all big stuff it takes time, but off course you have ti think hard before ..."jumping on the AJAX bandwagon"... maybe its not for you, yet.
Post by Rich Osborne on December 16, 2005 9:38 AM

I used an extremely similar technique to AJAX before I'd even heard of it, because that was what a particular project I was working on required. But that's my point. I feel it's a tool that can be applied depending upon circumstances, not a replacement for what has come before.
Post by Derek Organ on December 16, 2005 9:36 PM

I've used ajax in applications and find it really usefull. I've been using it for quite a while now even before it was call ajax and I've yet to use it on a 'website'. What i mean is ajax is great for adding usability to applications but i think its over kill to start using it on say blog sites etc.

I think like anything discretion is key.
Post by Mads on December 19, 2005 7:42 PM

How can anyone take Jakob Nielsen seriously?
Post by Prashant on December 20, 2005 11:01 AM

I do agree with him to a certain extent, people just use AJAX because they think it's a good approach.

I also made a post about this on my blog, and I think people should really learn not to 'wow' at people who don't use AJAX. AJAX is great if you use it in the right way, but now developers just use it because they think their work is better if they use AJAX.

We learned to live without AJAX for quite a few years, and we still can. If a website has AJAX that's great, it is a good technology, but I think it's just being over-hyped.
Post by Mario on December 21, 2005 10:29 PM

The thing about the back button is maybe not an ajax problem. It could be a browser deficiency.

One expects the back button to act as an "undo" on the web. That only works when you are doing plain pages browsing.
Post by Ed on May 8, 2006 11:17 AM

AJAX and Screenreaders is an interesting read re this subject.
Post by Ajax Sucks on September 15, 2008 11:31 PM

OMG Ajax sucks. Use Adobe Flex instead.

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