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by sanderjd 4700 days ago
Developing the UI without using JS wouldn't be harder, it would make the UI less usable. As a user of online banking software, I don't think it worked at all as well "before the modern trend of trying to make everything act like a desktop app", I think it totally sucked. Maybe that's a worthwhile security trade-off, but let's at least talk about the real trade-off.
1 comments

Every online banking site I've used had a UI that could be entirely recreated without using JS, with literally no perceivable difference to the user. I have never once said "Man, I sure wish I could get to my balance without a new page loading when I clicked the link."
It sounds like it is our expectations rather than our experiences that differ wildly. I have many times said that I would like to be able to get to my balance without a new page loading. That and much more. Clearly, "new page loading" isn't really the metric I care about. I care about how quickly and un-frustratedly I can accomplish whatever I'm trying to accomplish. Anecdotally, and limiting the discussion to banking websites, I find the "new page loading" metric correlates with the "slow and frustrating" metric. I get the sense that you feel differently, and I don't think it's worthwhile for me to try to talk you into frustration or you to try to talk me out of it. You may be able to convince me that the frustration of going JS-free is worth the enhanced security, but as of now, there appear to be better solutions.