What is progressive enhancement?

The most important thing in progressive enhancement is missing from the phrase itself. Something that is implied here is where are we progressively enhancing from.

The main idea of progressive enhancement is to provide a great baseline of essential content and core functionality to everyone, regardless of the browser software, device hardware, or the quality of the internet connection. Older browser software may not support newer JavaScript syntaxes and CSS features; older device hardware may take up more time to process and render your web page; a slower internet connection may take longer to load the resources needed to display your web page.

How do we ensure our web page stays usable for as many users as possible? Think about this for a while—I will come back to it later.

For users who can afford better browsers, more powerful hardware, and higher internet bandwidth, we progressively provide an enhanced experience to them. We leverage...