Jimmy Bogard: "Ajax is used very, very sparingly." Why? [closed]

Question

I have seen a lot of references to how Jimmy Bogard and his team do web sites. One of the things in his article about how they do view models, is that they use Ajax "very, very sparingly." But I don't really see him go into details as to why -- or what they do instead.

To me, Ajax -- when done well -- is what makes the user experience on a web site super fluid and seamless. I understand that the user shouldn't have to wait much, if at all, for Ajax to respond to methods. But he makes it sound as if it should be avoided, if possible, at all costs.

Can someone help me understand the smells of using Ajax, and the alternatives that should be used instead?

Answer 1

The complete quote from the article is:

AJAX is used very, very sparingly. Section 508 compliance is required

That is the only mention of AJAX in that entire article, and it is in conjunction with Section 508 reference.

Section 508 is about accessibility to people with disabilities. So, for example, if you use a screen reader, it will read what's visible on the screen, and nuances such as on-hovers and stuff may not be "accessible".

I do not take "AJAX sparingly" in that article as anything more general than its (implied) interference with accessibility.