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What is Progressive Enhancement?

A web design strategy that starts with basic functionality for all browsers and progressively adds advanced features for capable ones.

Progressive enhancement builds from a baseline of semantic HTML that works everywhere, adds CSS for visual presentation, then layers JavaScript for interactivity. This ensures content is accessible even if CSS or JavaScript fails to load. The approach contrasts with graceful degradation (building for modern browsers first, then patching for older ones). Examples include forms that work without JavaScript (standard submit), images with proper alt text, and server-side rendering with client-side enhancement. Progressive enhancement aligns with web accessibility, SEO (search engines primarily read HTML), and resilience. Feature detection (not browser detection) guides which enhancements to apply.

Related Terms

HTTP/3
The latest HTTP version that uses QUIC instead of TCP, providing faster connections and better performance on unreliable networks.
CORS Preflight
An automatic OPTIONS request sent by browsers before certain cross-origin requests to check if the actual request is permitted.
CSS Flexbox
A CSS layout model that provides efficient arrangement of items within a container, handling alignment, distribution, and spacing.
AJAX
A technique for making asynchronous HTTP requests from a web page without reloading the entire page.
Cookie
A small piece of data stored in the browser by a website to remember user preferences, login state, or tracking information.
CDN (Content Delivery Network)
A distributed network of servers that delivers web content to users from the geographically closest location.
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