Developer convenience vs. user goals
In response to my article about my biggest challenge as a web developer, reader Orde Saunders shared this with me:
The difference I see between React and RWD is that RWD was a user focused change rather than a developer or technology focused change. I suspect there will be parts of React that will become subsumed into the way the web develops—much as happened with jQuery—but RWD worked with what was already there and solved a very real user problem.
I could not agree more.
There are more things about this environment that are out of your control than are within it - the range of browsers, operating systems, hardware, networks, AdBlockers, &c. is vast… Ultimately you can’t control when and how things go wrong but you do have some control over what happens. This is why progressive enhancement exists.
And related, this short article from Jim Newbery. My favorite excerpt:
My colleague argued that anything that makes developers happier and more productive will eventually propagate to better outcomes for the end user and business.
But I couldn’t see how this would always be the case. This argument assumes that the interests of developers will always be aligned with the interests of other constituents.
If this were true we wouldn’t see products with beautiful code fail because there was no value in them for users. And we wouldn’t sacrifice performance in the name of over-engineered frameworks and bloated off-the-shelf solutions.
What do you think?