Stepping away from server side computing for a moment, let’s talk frontend.
Please see this post for further insight on what a SPA (Single Page Application) is.
A Good User Interface matters
When you visit a website or some web app and find the controls intuitive, fast and easy to predict, you feel comfortable with the app. We all like the immediate thumbnail that Facebook pops up when you mention some URL in your post. This is user experience made possible by Javascript and Asynchronous HTTP; and it makes a positive impression on the end-user’s mind.
More important than the web app looking good today; people expect websites to interact well with them. Let’s look at a case study to explain what I mean.
How User Experience Changes when SPAs are Involved:
When we were planning our blog section we deliberated making it a tradition layout; the search bar, blog categories and chronologically ordered posts listed on the right; and the ten latest posts highlighted on the splash page. However, since we’re using ReactJS for the rest of the site; I asked myself; why should the old way of delivering blog content remain unchanged in a SPA site?
Most people like to search content; and WordPress has a decent search formula (from what I have experienced); so I decided to make it a search centred blog; dynamic and instantaneous listing of posts relevant to what you type into the search bar. This design would have looked cumbersome in a traditional, HTTP synchronous blog!
SPAs allow us to rethink all sorts of traditional philosophies of how a website should work.
By: Mustafa Ghayyur
July 12th, 2018
