JavaScript and the User Experience
5 sites I commonly vist at home:
Google.com
Gmail.com
Linkedin.com
Capella.edu
Codeplex.com
All of the top 5 sites I visit at home use JavaScript and is applied in various ways for various reasons. Gmail and Google make use of Ajax to retrieve information without the user having to call another page. In addition, all 5 of the websites use JavaScript to enhance a user's experience. Examples of this can be found in content rotation on Capella's main site and the displaying and hiding of specific content sections from within our course room. Codeplex uses Ajax and JavaScript to show dynamic content on its homepage and allow users to page through the data.
I think there use of JavaScript is well placed and enhances the viewing experience of the user because it reduces the amount of interaction a user has to perform for them to obtain information they are looking to see.
I have used JavaScript in various ways. One of the most memorable ways was to enable an HTML table to be able to have its rows paged and sorted based on the values in each table row.