How building an HTML-first site doubled our users overnight
SMRTR summary
A developer rebuilt a utility company's broken React application using an HTML-first approach with Astro, and form completions literally doubled overnight. The key insight: javascript-heavy apps silently exclude users on old devices, poor connections, or assistive technologies. By using progressive enhancement, backend session storage, and a tiny custom web component for validation, the form worked everywhere — even without javascript.
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