A presentation at UXcamp Europe 2026 in in Berlin, Germany by Gunnar Bittersmann
Rock Around the Clock
Progressive enhancement is an escalator that becomes stairs. Graceful degradation is building a lift,then having to add stairs. — Andrew Wight
Fotos: Gunnar Bittersmann
I like an escalator because an escalator can never break, it can only become stairs. You would never see an ‘Escalator temporarily out of order’ sign, just an ‘Escalator temporarily stairs. Sorry for the convenience. We apologize for the fact that graceful#degradation you can still get up there.’ — Mitch Hedberg
Fotos: Gunnar Bittersmann
There’s a common misconception that progressive enhancement means that you’ll spend your time dealing with older browsers, but in fact the opposite is true. Putting the basic functionality into place doesn’t take very long at all. And once you’ve done that, you’re free to spend all your time experimenting with the latest and greatest browser technologies, secure in the knowledge that even if they aren’t universally supported yet, that’s okay: you’ve already got your fallback in place. — Jeremy Keith
Poster: Jessica Lazarus
The key to thinking about web development this way is realising that there isn’t one final interface —there could be many, slightly different interfaces depending on the properties and capabilities of any particular user agent at any particular moment. And that’s okay. Websites do not need to look the same in every browser. — Jeremy Keith
Poster: Jessica Lazarus
Once you truly accept that, it’s an immensely liberating idea. Instead of spending your time trying to make websites look the same in wildly varying browsers, you can spend your time making sure that the core functionality of what you’re building works everywhere, while providing the best possible experience for more capable browsers. — Jeremy Keith
Poster: Jessica Lazarus
Photo by Black Chitsulo on Unsplash Photo by Jiyeon Park on Unsplash
Photo by Stefan K on Unsplash
Photo by Thomas Bormans on Unsplash
Photo by Peter Mitchell on Unsplash
Photos by Gunnar Bittersmann
Photo by Alvesgaspar, CC BY-SA 3.0
Fotos: Gunnar Bittersmann
Foto: Gunnar Bittersmann
Foto: Gunnar Bittersmann
If I told you I’d rush through some new CSS features, how would that sound? Boring!
Instead: We’re gonna build a clock in the browser – that sounds like fun! And on the way, we might meet some new CSS features.
And we might revisit a basic principle on the web: progressive enhancement.
The following resources were mentioned during the presentation or are useful additional information.
opening title
by Jeremy Keith
