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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

Caching
Storing copies of frequently accessed data in faster storage to reduce load times and server processing.
CORS Headers
HTTP headers that control cross-origin resource sharing between different domains, specifying allowed origins, methods, and headers.
GraphQL
A query language for APIs that lets clients request exactly the data they need, reducing over-fetching and under-fetching.
Structured Data (Schema.org)
A standardized vocabulary for marking up web content so search engines can understand and display it as rich results.
REST (Representational State Transfer)
An architectural style for designing networked applications using standard HTTP methods and stateless communication.
Server-Sent Events (SSE)
A web technology enabling servers to push real-time updates to browsers over a single HTTP connection, simpler than WebSockets.
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