Pathfinder Announces Part 4 of Brian Dillard’s “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 4: Retrofit existing sites with jQuery and Ajax forms’.

Written by Pathfinder’s Brian Dillard and published by IBM developerWorks, this final installment in the series and addresses how to streamline multi-step processes using tabs and Ajax forms.

“Without Ajax, multipage forms can seem long, painful, and off-putting to prospective customers”, said Dillard. “After an Ajax overhaul, even a complex checkout process can seem humane and approachable — as long as you’re careful about how you structure the user interface.”

Each edition of “Ajax overhaul” shows how to improve the user experience of legacy web applications by using Ajax programming techniques. 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.

“E-commerce sites aren’t the only places that can benefit from these techniques. The same principles apply anywhere users must fill out a series of interrelated forms to complete a multistep process,” he added.

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.

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.

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.

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 Pathfinder at 312-372-1058 or info@pathf.com, or visit http://www.pathf.com.