Javascript - To support or not to support
Contemporary web-development is founded increasingly on the "Web 2.0" vision of rich, interactive media. JavaScript provides an invaluable tool to enhance modern web pages and increase the sophistication of website interaction to rival and even surpass that of desktop applications.
The introduction of AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript And XML) and its ability to provide new content and functionality to a website without the need to refresh the entire page has become the backbone of the "Web 2.0" revolution. So much so that the majority of rich and interactive websites rely on JavaScript and in particular AJAX.
There are very few motives to disable JavaScript in light of modern browser capacities, and the number of people browsing with JavaScript disabled is dwindling (Fig 1). Modern browsers permit the regulation of JavaScript to address security issues and can be tuned to suit the needs and concerns of any user without disabling JavaScript completely.
Figure 1. Some recent statistics related to JavaScript enablement are:
Jan 2008 | Enabled: 95% | Disabled: 5%
Source: http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp
Feb 2008 | Enabled: 93% | Disabled: 6%
Source: http://www.thecounter.com/stats/
Other media, such as Radio, Television and even Print, do not provide 100% coverage of all potential customers, and the same is true of the Internet. The use of JavaScript is not an accessibility issue that discriminates against users with disabilities, nor does it affect visitors based on any preconceived geographic, social, cultural, or ethnic criteria. There are a small percentage of web users who make a conscious decision to disable JavaScript and as a result do not benefit from this significant advancement in web technology.
It is possible to develop websites which maintain parallel content that does not rely on JavaScript; however, there are real costs to maintaining such a system. Server-side management can substitute dynamic behaviour to some extent, but there will be significant degradation of user experience and website performance. Such an approach cannot provide the same benefits or positive user experience as offered with JavaScript available.
Any entity considering the publication of web pages should determine the degree of its reliance on JavaScript in terms of expected Return On Investment (ROI). Some questions by which to assess potential ROI are:
- Who constitutes the expected, potential customer base?
- How likely are potential customers, who surf the web for candidate services in the categories we provide, to be among those who disable JavaScript?
- What is the probability of a significant opportunity loss for a refusal to provide any/all content to a small fraction of visitors?
- What is likelihood of a significant, negative impact on our brand for refusing to offer more than minimal support or possibly none to visitors without JavaScript?
- How much will the parallel development of content cost?
- What will be the additional costs and risks during development and ongoing support of alternative approaches to presentation?
With the answers to these questions in hand, a rational decision can be reached.