Pathfinder Announces Brian Dillard’s Part 3 of the “Ajax Overhaul” Tutorial Series is Now Available from IBM’s developerWorks Site

(Chicago, IL) Pathfinder, a leading software development and user experience design firm, today announced the publication of ‘Ajax overhaul, Part 3: Retrofit existing sites with jQuery, Ajax tabs, and photo carousels’.

Written by Pathfinder’s Brian Dillard and published by IBM developerWorks, this piece is the third installment and part of an ongoing series. Each edition of “Ajax overhaul” shows how to improve the user experience of legacy web applications by using Ajax programming techniques. The latest in the series focuses on how to modernize your interface using open-source frameworks and plug-ins.

“Ajax techniques have changed the face of large, commercial Web applications, but many smaller Web sites don’t have the resources to rebuild their entire user interface overnight. New features should justify their costs by solving real-world interface problems and improving user experience,” said Brian Dillard, Pathfinder’s Vice President of Ajax Development and author of the Ajax Overhaul series.

The tutorials feature “before” and “after” source code of a fictitious shopping application, allowing readers to see both versions in action and learn by example. The upcoming fourth and final installment in this series will address streamlining multi-step processes with tabs and Ajax forms.

“In my examples, I show how open-source Ajax libraries can solve old usability problems in addition to providing new features. I chose to focus on jQuery, a powerful Ajax toolkit that makes it easy to design Ajax feature using progressive enhancement,” said Dillard. “This approach guarantees that web applications stay accessible to all sorts of users, from those with physical disabilities to those using older browsers or cell phones.”

Ajax is a technology that transforms slow, static websites into dynamic, responsive applications that feel more like traditional desktop software. Ajax is a technology for implementing Rich Internet Applications (RIA). RIAs can dramatically enhance user experience while boosting performance and productivity.

At the same time, Ajax can enable the migration of traditional client server applications that were previously too complex to effectively deploy on the web, providing an easier and more cost effective option for support and maintenance.

IBM developerWorks is a premier technical resource for software developers, providing a wide range of tools, code, and education on a wide array of web-based technologies.

Brian Dillard is an Ajax expert who builds rich Internet applications for a variety of Pathfinder clients. He participates in open-source projects and is a regular contributor to the Agile Ajax blog . He is also the project lead on Really Simple History, a popular open-source Ajax history and bookmarking library.

Headquartered in Chicago, Pathfinder specializes in software development and user experience design. For over a decade, Pathfinder has delivered software applications that are easy to use, providing clients with the technology to enable business breakthroughs and competitive advantage. Pathfinder’s clients range from early-stage start-ups to Fortune 500 companies across a wide array of industries, including energy, health care, insurance, financial services, media and publishing. For more information, contact Eleanor Taylor at 312-372-1058 or etaylor@pathf.com, or visit http://www.pathf.com.