1 I agree...

...although graceful degradation is a goal; progressive enhancement is a method. You can achieve the former through bad means, or through good means. PE is an example of the latter.

posted at 12:32 pm on October 07, 2008 by Robert Grant

2 A Good Challenge

It’s often difficult to keep it all in mind as you’re designing. Thanks for remind us to slow it down enough to contemplate every layer of every project.

posted at 01:16 pm on October 07, 2008 by Brandon Cox

3 Lovely analogy

Thank you for the well-written article! I’ve never seen an explanation of such a subtle difference that was as gentle and clear as this.

posted at 01:25 pm on October 07, 2008 by Peter Bex

4 Falling a bit short

I agree with the points laid out in the article. But where progressive enhancement falls short is in rich internet applications. I’m personally OK with requiring a certain level of browser requirement in order to experience in a certain way.

I also think fostering progressive enhancement leads to things like IE6 being around even after 10 years. I find it stifling.

There comes a point where you have to just drop support for older browsers because the experience on those devices is so verbose and hurts the message you are giving.

Of course this doesn’t apply to blogs or simple content websites.

posted at 01:53 pm on October 07, 2008 by Cameron Westland

5 Browser Testing

Love the article. It seems to me that one of the quickest ways to get into this mindset is simply to start browser testing a little earlier. If I’m looking at my site in straight XHTML first, it tells me a lot about how well my content is structured. If I try to come up with workable CSS solutions for my navigation (for instance), and test at that level before I even think about javascript, I ensure that I’ve given each level of enhancement its proper attention.

posted at 02:49 pm on October 07, 2008 by Nathan Walton

6 Great article, one quip:

The info-graphic assumes that anyone actually eats M&M’s for the peanut.

posted at 03:31 pm on October 07, 2008 by Bree Radloff

7 Real World Examples?

Perhaps this comes in the next installment… But, can anyone point to some current examples of a “progressively enhanced” website?

posted at 04:04 pm on October 07, 2008 by jess heitland

8 Needed a concrete definition and examples

Similar to Jess Heitland, I thought the article was significantly lacking in the concrete definition and real-world examples departments. I ended up writing a short article to hopefully complement it (particularly for people who weren’t previously familiar with the idea of progressive enhancement), but I’d also love to see example websites that uses progressive enhancement. My own examples are still incomplete or under NDA.

http://beckism.com/2008/10/progressive_enhancement/

posted at 04:11 pm on October 07, 2008 by Ian Beck

9 Re: Real world Examples?

http://www.panic.com/coda/ – A great example of progressive enhancement.

View and navigate the site, then disable javascript. It’s all still there, presented beautifully, but without some of the “experience”.

Then disable CSS. The content is all there, with a clear structure, and everything is readable, usable, and informative.

posted at 04:41 pm on October 07, 2008 by Aaron Burrows

10 RE: Real world examples?

I guess I always considered that behavior graceful degradation.

RE: Coda site…

When Java and CSS Styles are disabled the arrows for navigating the carousel (am I being ‘nitpicky?’) are still visible and hyperlinked. Under Progressive Enhancement, shouldn’t those elements be presented in a different manner? They are useless to anyone/device lacking Java/CSS Styles.

Would PE possibly be more about the site reacting to the device? (e.g.: no java = display version A. jave enabled = display version B. no java/mobile device = display version C.)

Thanks all, just trying to understand.

posted at 05:34 pm on October 07, 2008 by jess heitland