Progressive Enhancement
Development strategy building core functionality first, then adding advanced features that gracefully degrade if unsupported.
Definition
Progressive enhancement starts with a functional baseline experience that works across all browsers and devices, then layers additional features for capable environments. This approach ensures universal accessibility while maximizing advanced capabilities where supported.
By building from a solid foundation upward, rather than removing features from advanced implementations, progressive enhancement creates resilient applications that maintain functionality regardless of user technology limitations or network conditions.
Why It Matters
Progressive enhancement ensures products reach the broadest possible audience while delivering optimal experiences for users with modern technology. This approach prevents revenue loss from users with older devices or slower connections.
Applications built with progressive enhancement demonstrate superior reliability and performance across diverse user contexts, improving customer satisfaction and reducing support costs while maintaining competitive feature sets.
Examples in Practice
GitHub's interface works perfectly with JavaScript disabled while offering enhanced features like real-time collaboration and advanced editing when supported, ensuring accessibility for all developers.
The Guardian newspaper delivers readable articles and navigation on any device while progressively enhancing with interactive graphics, video players, and personalization features based on capabilities.
Google Search provides basic search functionality through simple HTML forms while adding autocomplete, instant results, and voice search for browsers that support these advanced features.