AJAX performance stats, ROI, and business value
Posted on January 15th, 2006 in Usability | 3 Comments »
Is Ajax a smart move? (Source: JustAddWater.dk, Author: Jesper Rønn-Jensen) — “The benefits listed here are very similar to benefits when we’re arguing for web-standards: Reduced bandwith, training costs, cost of ownership, and increased return on investment. But for the time being I still believe that AJAX has increased learning costs for developers.”
Sort of related: A Business Case for Usability
3 Responses
Just to clarify my opinion: I still AJAX is a smart move. There are significant productivity benefits (as documented) when using an AJAX application.
My point is that the development costs may be increased because of learning costs and that this extra cost should not be ignored.
Exactly. The benefits of Ajax aren’t free. Completely understood.
Two points:
1. Productivity could actually increase if we move to a component based GUI model as exemplified by the Echo2 framework (open source). Reminds me of the shift from hand coding graphical interfaces to component GUI’s when the Mac came out.
Use of such a framework would promote good practices like keeping the business logic on the server side.
2. While Ajax *can* make web apps more efficient, the temptation to lard in lots of new features will have us investing in more server hardware (see http://blogs.pathf.com/agileajax/2006/04/yahoo_mail_ajax.html).
Are the old troubles of Client/Server just over the horizon?