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Based on Becker’s (2007) article, define Asynchronous JavaScript and recommend how your company can use it.According to the article, JavaScript allows users to have a richer graphical user interface. This is possible because JavaScript can interact with the elements in the web page through actions, dynamically loading elements and modifying the CSS attributes among other things1. JavaScript can enable a web site to expand web sites effectiveness in several key areas, artful merchandising, pragmatic technology, customer-centric creative, online acquisition, and the emerging science of Web analytics. Since some of these “buzzwords” seem to originate solely from this document, I will attempt to describe what they mean to me and how my company can use these technologies to make the web site more profitable and productive. Someone correct me if I’m wrong. •Artful merchandising Packaging is important in marketing. A clean looking web page that is uncluttered develops trust. Web page designers are faced with the enigma of increasing the complexity and features of a web site without making the page look cluttered. Asynchronous JavaScript has the ability to hide information and menus that are not necessary. This is an important feature that I think I will see more of on my company’s web site as designers continue to monitor web analytics (see below.) •Pragmatic technology Looks aren’t everything. A user can and will look for another web site if they do not find what they need right away. As the article states, the competition is only a click away. A web site must be useful to the user and not just have technology up for technology sake. A good example of this is the new Yahoo search bar with search suggestions that update with real time relevant keywords as they are typed. Technology like this would be very useful since we have so much information and it is not always easy to find unless I know where it was in the first place. •Customer-centric creative Through Asynchronous JavaScript a web site can appear to be sensitive to the customers needs and display the correct data. Designers need to pre-format that information so that it is correct and uncluttered, but in the end automatically generated for the customer. A good example of this is Amazon’s automatically generated discounts and recommendations when a purchase is about to be made, giving the customer a choice to buy more for less. Some of the client pages that we maintain could use this feature better, only static HTML is used at this point. •Online acquisition In order for a purchase to be made the product needs to be available. Some web sites do not even use online ordering but refer to a phone number. Through these new technologies like ActionScript companies like mine have a greater ability leverage the internet and give the customer the ability to use online tracking and check the availability of an item, and not with Asynchronous JavaScript this can be made available in real time. Customers on EBay can now see what they want and order it at a competitive price without “buying it now” through 1 minute auctions that have real time bidding. Our clients can benefit from special promotions possibly hosted by a service like this that will add some excitement to the buying process. •The emerging science of Web analytics JavaScript has added a new complexity to tracking a customer’s history on the web site, sometimes missing important point of conversion moments that are crucial to the web analyst. New emerging technologies like Omniture allow companies to track these changes. These technologies would be helpful for my company, allowing us to track a customer and see what customers like by way of presentation and what they don’t like and adjust. 1. See Perspectives in HTML and XHTML Comprehensive Appendix G for an exhaustive enumeration of the JavaScript actions that can be used. Useful Links: Useful Resources: |
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