A system attribute wherein when a piece of equipment fails, the system falls back to a degraded mode of operation rather than failing catastrophically and giving no response to its users.
Graceful degradation is a web design strategy. When you put in features designed to take advantage of the latest features of newer browsers, you should do it in a way that older browsers and other user agents can disable those particular features and still access the basic content and functionality of the web site. It is the opposite of progressive enhancement. For more information visit fault-tolerance/graceful degradation.
Characterizes an application whose utility decreases smoothly, rather than sharply, when it receives insufficient CPU time. The opposite is non-graceful degradation, which characterizes applications that produce little or no value when their full requirements are not met.
While standards based design is supposed to render the same in any browser, the fact of the matter is that browsers are imperfect. When a browser encounters tags it doesn't understand or can't display, degradation takes place. Whether this degradation loses accessibility determines if it is "graceful".
Coding pages in such as way that they look good and function at an acceptable level in older browsers. Certain features employed through javascript and stylesheets may not work, but the page looks acceptable.
The art of constructing advanced HTML structures in such a way that they will be at least legible in older browsers which do not understand all of the markup in use.
Coding to a certain standard that will ensure a web page is accessible and able to be used through any type of browser, such as on a PC, Mac, handheld device or mobile phone.
Systems should be designed so that when features that take advantage of new technologies are disabled, the content maintains effectiveness for the users. For example, older Web browsers and browsers which allow users to disable features will display page content in a simplified format.
