Design for all » Inclusive usability » JavaScript and Progressive Enhancement

Progressive Enhancement is a core pillar of building robust, inclusive websites. In a nutshell, the idea is that a site is usable with the most minimal requirements and UX-enhancing techniques like JavaScript are used as optional enhancements, where supported.

Progressive Enhancement, explained

Progressive Enhancement, the New Hotness™

gomakethings.com

It’s 2022, and 36.8% of respondents (not a representative survey, but assuming the demographic of Sara Soueidan’s Twitter followers to be dominantly web developers: even more shocking) don’t know what Progressive Enhancement is. This short […]
2022

On the unavailability of JavaScript

Contrary to common belief, this is not just about a few tech-savvy users who disable JavaScript with intent. The much larger share, and probably about 1 in 100 visitors do not get the full experience due to other reasons.

Everyone has JavaScript, right?

kryogenix.org

Stuart Langridge presents this simple, yet convincing flow chart to illustrates all the various things that may go wrong as users request a web site requiring JavaScript code.
2022

How many people are missing out on JavaScript enhancement?

gds.blog.gov.uk

This is a 9 years old article. Yet, while the quantitative numbers may have shifted in one direction or the other, the qualitative statements stand unchanged: it cannot – and must not – be assumed that all JavaScript code is executed for every visitor of a website.
2022

Example stories for illustration

The unreasonable effectiveness of simple HTML" by Terence Eden

shkspr.mobi

Terence Eden tells the story of a young woman who, forced by circumstances, has to use a public website using a tiny gaming device’s browser. And it works. Because designers did their job:
The PSP’s web browser is – charitably – […]
2021

Last edited: Sep 2022