Enhance!
summary
Argues that building on HTML then CSS then JavaScript yields far more robust sites than putting everything in JS and shows concrete flipside examples: the original 20‑year‑old CERN page still renders, Instagram’s JS‑only load fails, Zen Garden proves same HTML with different CSS, and a navigation built as a fragment link upgraded via feature detection (querySelector + addEventListener) works everywhere. Recommends progressive enhancement, detects features not browsers, uses cutting the mustard checks so enhancements run only when safe.
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chapters (18)
- 0:00Introduction
- 2:15Brain rewiring examples
- 6:46Web design evolution
- 9:12Web layers and honesty
- 12:18HTML fault tolerance
- 14:44CSS fault tolerance
- 16:11JavaScript fragility
- 21:05Robustness principle
- 22:48Opinionated software
- 24:36JS frameworks trade-offs
- 27:22Web not a platform
- 30:56User needs focus
- 31:58Responsive design
- 33:46Do websites need to look the same in every browser?
- 36:56Aggressive enhancement
- 39:05Support vs optimization
- 41:12Convincing stakeholders to embrace progressive enhancement
- 42:17Future-proofing
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