As a developer, you may have gotten used to hearing this: technology is changing! The web is no exception. Looking back 10 years ago it was amazing to be able to provide a web user experience that offered any degree of similarity to what was commonly available in thick clients or desktop applications. You might have been able to pull it off with ASP.NET Web Forms, but were probably plagued by complicated code, sluggish performance, ViewState bloat and a strong distaste for a language seemingly devised by the devil himself: JavaScript.
Fast forward to 2013: most of your customers are now used to rich web applications like Gmail or Facebook. Furthermore it is likely they aren’t using the web as much in a browser but but are instead using thick client applications on their smartphone or tablet. Regardless of the the platform, one thing is certainly true: your customers aren’t asking for a rich experience in their applications, they are demanding it.