Fellowship One getting AJAXed

According to their newsletter, Fellowship One is getting a user interface upgrade using AJAX. For the majority that may not have heard of this new technology, it really isn’t new - just the name. In a nutshell, it is a conglomeration of web-based technologies that help make web applications behave more like a desktop application. Think Google Maps. This is done by refreshing only specific areas of a web page rather than the entire page, in general providing better responsiveness and sometimes increasing user performance.

I’m not sure what to think about adding AJAX to Fellowship One yet - mostly because I’m not sure if their goal is to improve user performance or to “feel more current”. The trick is that most AJAX-based applications I’ve seen assume that the user has a broadband connection and the latest browser, which isn’t always the case for the intended audience. They can also get out of hand quickly, causing programmers to “geek out” and not remember that the user is king.

Maybe someone from Fellowship One can give us some more information on their plans for the upgrade? In the meantime, I’d suggest that they check out a recent blog from Creating Passionate Users, warning about the use of buzzwords for buzzword sake. Of course, this article has an eye toward startups that want to flip the company fast, but there are some points worth considering when making the leap.