Detect-and-route with JavaScript

By Molly E. Holzschlag
2005-03-31

Route for technology, not content

There's a danger in assuming too much about your audience: you might assume incorrectly and cause user frustration. I have seen Web sites that put barriers around content with overambitious routing scripts. Consider the visitor who, using a Windows machine at work, is looking for information about the family's Macintosh computer at home. If, as the site developer, you assume that someone using a Windows machine wants only information about Windows, you're overstepping the line. Aim for serving your visitors, not tightly controlling their experience. Guide your visitors based on what they can support technically, rather than making guesses about what content they want.

Tutorial Pages:
» Keep users happy by using savvy scripts
» Serving user needs
» Planning ahead
» The rock-bottom lowest-common-denominator
» Route for technology, not content
» Finding scripts or rolling your own
» Detecting the details
» Routing by browser type
» Matching pages to display resolution
» Testing your scripts
» Summing up
» Resources

First published by IBM DeveloperWorks

Related Tutorials:
» JavaScript Debugging Techniques with Firebug
» Striped Tables Using JavaScript
» Opening PDFs in a New Window with JavaScript
» Essential Javascript -- A Javascript Tutorial
» Submit Forms Conditionally using JavaScript
» How to Setup a Randomising Function