Comments on: A quick recommendation http://www.ajaxperformance.com/2006/10/28/a-quick-recommendation/ A blog by Ryan Breen of Gomez Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:25:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Ryan Breen http://www.ajaxperformance.com/2006/10/28/a-quick-recommendation/#comment-73 Ryan Breen Wed, 22 Nov 2006 06:06:21 +0000 http://www.ajaxperformance.com/?p=21#comment-73 Sounds like a plan, and I have no objections to beer ;-) Sounds like a plan, and I have no objections to beer ;-)

]]> By: Brad Neuberg http://www.ajaxperformance.com/2006/10/28/a-quick-recommendation/#comment-72 Brad Neuberg Wed, 22 Nov 2006 04:39:13 +0000 http://www.ajaxperformance.com/?p=21#comment-72 Ryan, when you're in town shoot me an email if you want and we can grab a beer (or tea if you don't like beer) and chat and brainstorm. You can tell me more about the stuff you hack on. Best, Brad Ryan, when you’re in town shoot me an email if you want and we can grab a beer (or tea if you don’t like beer) and chat and brainstorm. You can tell me more about the stuff you hack on.

Best,
Brad

]]> By: Ryan Breen http://www.ajaxperformance.com/2006/10/28/a-quick-recommendation/#comment-66 Ryan Breen Tue, 21 Nov 2006 07:51:05 +0000 http://www.ajaxperformance.com/?p=21#comment-66 Hi Brad. You're certainly welcome. I'm in Boston, though I expect work to take me to the Bay a few times in the coming months. Hi Brad. You’re certainly welcome. I’m in Boston, though I expect work to take me to the Bay a few times in the coming months.

]]> By: Brad Neuberg http://www.ajaxperformance.com/2006/10/28/a-quick-recommendation/#comment-65 Brad Neuberg Tue, 21 Nov 2006 07:34:47 +0000 http://www.ajaxperformance.com/?p=21#comment-65 Hi there, thanks for the nice comment on my tutorial! I appreciate it. Are you in the Bay Area? Best, Brad Neuberg bkn3@columbia.edu Weblog: http://codinginparadise.org Hi there, thanks for the nice comment on my tutorial! I appreciate it. Are you in the Bay Area?

Best,
Brad Neuberg
bkn3@columbia.edu
Weblog: http://codinginparadise.org

]]> By: Ryan Breen http://www.ajaxperformance.com/2006/10/28/a-quick-recommendation/#comment-6 Ryan Breen Tue, 31 Oct 2006 00:48:44 +0000 http://www.ajaxperformance.com/?p=21#comment-6 I can't speak much for usability, but interactivity is a big focus of mine. Ajax gives us the ability to hide more of the network interactivity to give the user a better perceived performance. Timing perceived performance is a little bit more work as a third party, but you can do it quite easily from JavaScript space. Add some javascript to time the point that the user initiates an action and add some script to time the point where the action is complete. This is slightly more complicated in a non-Ajax setup, but it's not too hard to persist a little bit of state across page boundaries. <br> This should give you a nice user-perceived time from within the user's browser. I will be talking a lot more about this technique in the very near future. I can’t speak much for usability, but interactivity is a big focus of mine. Ajax gives us the ability to hide more of the network interactivity to give the user a better perceived performance. Timing perceived performance is a little bit more work as a third party, but you can do it quite easily from JavaScript space. Add some javascript to time the point that the user initiates an action and add some script to time the point where the action is complete. This is slightly more complicated in a non-Ajax setup, but it’s not too hard to persist a little bit of state across page boundaries.

This should give you a nice user-perceived time from within the user’s browser. I will be talking a lot more about this technique in the very near future.

]]> By: Michael Andreas http://www.ajaxperformance.com/2006/10/28/a-quick-recommendation/#comment-5 Michael Andreas Mon, 30 Oct 2006 17:34:13 +0000 http://www.ajaxperformance.com/?p=21#comment-5 Ryan, thanks for the lightning-fast reply. Yes, you're spot on. Ajax application tends to break the conventional interaction logic due to its asynchronous nature. Which is a good thing of course, because it leads to richer user experience. I'm actually winding this up for my college essay. I want to prove that good, simple Ajax techniques can improve application performance. For the moment I'm defining performance as 3 variables: 1) speed, 2) interactivity, 3) usability. I think I got speed covered, but the other variables are a bit tricky to be measured. Anyway, creating a specific example seems to be the way to go. Maybe a forum or photo gallery or any other web application with 3--5 functional pages. A common website would also be an alternative. I can pack it up with some Ajax patterns (form processing, autosuggest, image overlay, etc). What do you think, Ryan? Ryan, thanks for the lightning-fast reply.

Yes, you’re spot on. Ajax application tends to break the conventional interaction logic due to its asynchronous nature. Which is a good thing of course, because it leads to richer user experience.

I’m actually winding this up for my college essay. I want to prove that good, simple Ajax techniques can improve application performance. For the moment I’m defining performance as 3 variables: 1) speed, 2) interactivity, 3) usability. I think I got speed covered, but the other variables are a bit tricky to be measured.

Anyway, creating a specific example seems to be the way to go. Maybe a forum or photo gallery or any other web application with 3–5 functional pages. A common website would also be an alternative. I can pack it up with some Ajax patterns (form processing, autosuggest, image overlay, etc). What do you think, Ryan?

]]> By: Ryan Breen http://www.ajaxperformance.com/2006/10/28/a-quick-recommendation/#comment-4 Ryan Breen Mon, 30 Oct 2006 14:05:29 +0000 http://www.ajaxperformance.com/?p=21#comment-4 Michael, That's an interesting question. It's a bit tricky to answer. Ajax typically leads to a different interaction model between the end user and the application, so a true apple-to-apple comparison between multi-step transactions against the site would be unlikely unless we are using an example created for these purposes. It might help me answer the question if I had a better idea of what you were trying to accomplish with this analysis. How many pages do you want to test, what type of data are you looking for, etc? Thanks! Ryan Michael,

That’s an interesting question. It’s a bit tricky to answer. Ajax typically leads to a different interaction model between the end user and the application, so a true apple-to-apple comparison between multi-step transactions against the site would be unlikely unless we are using an example created for these purposes.

It might help me answer the question if I had a better idea of what you were trying to accomplish with this analysis. How many pages do you want to test, what type of data are you looking for, etc?

Thanks!
Ryan

]]> By: Michael Andreas http://www.ajaxperformance.com/2006/10/28/a-quick-recommendation/#comment-3 Michael Andreas Mon, 30 Oct 2006 10:52:11 +0000 http://www.ajaxperformance.com/?p=21#comment-3 Hi Ryan, this might be a bit out of topic but.. I'm interested in comparing and measuring performance of Ajax vs non-Ajax web application, and I was wondering if anyone could kindly point me to a good example of Ajax vs non-Ajax, apple-to-apple comparison (same backend/database/server-side technologies)? The best I can come up so far is comparing: 1) Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Mail Beta. 2) <a href="http://www.jackslocum.com/forum/" title="YUI Extensions Forum" rel="nofollow">A phpBB Forum</a> and <a href="http://www.jackslocum.com/forum2/" title="YUI Extensions Forum" rel="nofollow">its Ajax counterpart</a>. Maybe anyone know a certain web application which can switch its Ajax functionality on/off like a snap? That would be much useful. Thanks.. :D Hi Ryan, this might be a bit out of topic but..

I’m interested in comparing and measuring performance of Ajax vs non-Ajax web application, and I was wondering if anyone could kindly point me to a good example of Ajax vs non-Ajax, apple-to-apple comparison (same backend/database/server-side technologies)? The best I can come up so far is comparing: 1) Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Mail Beta. 2) A phpBB Forum and its Ajax counterpart.

Maybe anyone know a certain web application which can switch its Ajax functionality on/off like a snap? That would be much useful.

Thanks.. :D

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