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How To Make AJAX Work for Your Site and Your Users

How do we use AJAX to give users a richer, more powerful interface without sacrificing ease of use?
By RIA News Desk
Article Rating:
September 29, 2006 11:30 AM EDT
Reads:
 8,759
Make AJAX Work for Your Site and Your Users: A Case Study on Improving Product Selection

AJAX changes the way the Web works, bringing exciting new possibilities to Web interfaces. But how do we use AJAX to give users a richer, more powerful interface without sacrificing ease of use? A common way to answer this challenge is to improve product selection for web users. Web sites can better help users select products, services, or content by implementing a variety of tools. These tools help users to find exactly the right item for their needs – quickly and easily. Faceted navigation has long been an effective tool to accomplish this challenge, helping users winnow down options. Come see how we applied AJAX to this popular tool in order to create a rich interface on top of faceted navigation – making product selection easier (and more fun). You’ll learn that building applications like this requires more than just leveraging JavaScript effects, and how to tackle that issue. We will describe the technical architecture and review all the different libraries we used in building our rich navigation. Also, we’ll share what we learned from usability testing that can make any AJAX interface work better. Throughout this case study you will learn the ins and outs of creating a richer navigation application.

Riccardo La Rosa joined Molecular in October 1998. As a Principal Consultant, technical architect Riccardo applies his 10+ years of technology experience in business analysis, requirements gathering, and solutions architecture for companies including Fleet/Bank of America, Fidelity, Staples, McGraw-Hill, and Analog Devices. In his current role, Riccardo is responsible for designing solutions on Microsoft .NET technologies that meet his clients’ business goals. Over the years, Riccardo has developed a deep knowledge in the financial, retail and manufacturing industries. As a Microsoft Certified Software Developer, Riccardo also leads the Microsoft practice group at Molecular where he fosters continuous learning and a passion for new technologies. Currently he is working to grow Molecular expertise in Services Oriented Architectures (SOA) and Ajax applications. Riccardo leads presentations and seminars on all aspects of SOA, from planning to implementation often speaking at conferences, most recently at the 2005 Microsoft Code Camp. Before joining Molecular, Riccardo worked as a consultant for companies including, Massachusetts General Hospital and Malden Mills. He holds a Master of Science Degree in Electronic Engineering from Università di Padova, Italy. During that time he wrote his thesis on "High Power Factor Electronic Ballasts" at Brown University.

Published September 29, 2006 – Reads 8,759
Copyright © 2006 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
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More Stories By RIA News Desk

Ever since Google popularized a smarter, more responsive and interactive Web experience by using AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript + XML) for its Google Maps & Gmail applications, SYS-CON's RIA News Desk has been covering every aspect of Rich Internet Applications and those creating and deploying them. If you have breaking RIA news, please send it to RIA@sys-con.com to share your product and company news coverage with AJAXWorld readers.

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Most Recent Comments
JDJ News Desk 09/29/06 11:56:59 AM EDT

AJAX changes the way the Web works, bringing exciting new possibilities to Web interfaces. But how do we use AJAX to give users a richer, more powerful interface without sacrificing ease of use? A common way to answer this challenge is to improve product selection for web users. Web sites can better help users select products, services, or content by implementing a variety of tools. These tools help users to find exactly the right item for their needs ? quickly and easily. Faceted navigation has long been an effective tool to accomplish this challenge, helping users winnow down options.
j j 09/29/06 10:27:44 AM EDT

AJAX changes the way the Web works, bringing exciting new possibilities to Web interfaces. But how do we use AJAX to give users a richer, more powerful interface without sacrificing ease of use? A common way to answer this challenge is to improve product selection for web users. Web sites can better help users select products, services, or content by implementing a variety of tools. These tools help users to find exactly the right item for their needs ? quickly and easily. Faceted navigation has long been an effective tool to accomplish this challenge, helping users winnow down options.
n d 08/27/06 09:22:24 PM EDT

AJAX changes the way the Web works, bringing exciting new possibilities to Web interfaces. But how do we use AJAX to give users a richer, more powerful interface without sacrificing ease of use? A common way to answer this challenge is to improve product selection for web users. Web sites can better help users select products, services, or content by implementing a variety of tools. These tools help users to find exactly the right item for their needs ? quickly and easily. Faceted navigation has long been an effective tool to accomplish this challenge, helping users winnow down options.
n d 08/27/06 09:14:22 PM EDT

AJAX changes the way the Web works, bringing exciting new possibilities to Web interfaces. But how do we use AJAX to give users a richer, more powerful interface without sacrificing ease of use? A common way to answer this challenge is to improve product selection for web users. Web sites can better help users select products, services, or content by implementing a variety of tools. These tools help users to find exactly the right item for their needs ? quickly and easily. Faceted navigation has long been an effective tool to accomplish this challenge, helping users winnow down options.
n d 08/27/06 09:00:43 PM EDT

AJAX changes the way the Web works, bringing exciting new possibilities to Web interfaces. But how do we use AJAX to give users a richer, more powerful interface without sacrificing ease of use? A common way to answer this challenge is to improve product selection for web users. Web sites can better help users select products, services, or content by implementing a variety of tools. These tools help users to find exactly the right item for their needs ? quickly and easily. Faceted navigation has long been an effective tool to accomplish this challenge, helping users winnow down options.