Experienced developers will know that building web applications is a more challenging task than designing websites. Designers need to understand in what ways their web application is going to make users life easier while understanding their behavior. Their task lies in making the user experience as visually appealing as possible. However, many designers end up designing what they deem is more acceptable and easier for them than think what is more easier for the users. The best way forward for web application development is to understand what users really want and deliver in accordance with their expectations.
1. Get the right inspiration and create the right design
Once you have decided on the type of application you need, and you have received the green signal for the concerned web application development, you need to create the right design for the foremost elements of the web app. These could be the interface and the homepage to begin with. A good homepage/user interface design has the ability to attract and retain users, while a bad one can even repulse users forever.
Look up the various CSS galleries online to provide you with the necessary inspiration. At the same time, you can also visit web app development sites for additional stimulation. Here, you will be able to see how intuitive, elegant, and powerful, web applications can be.
2. Don’t design something that makes you rely on the user’s memory
While developing a web app, be sure that you don’t design something that forces users to remember their details. For example, if you need your user to enter a piece of information as part of using the web app, then make the process simple for them, So, if they have to enter the information at the beginning of a process, they do not need to enter the same information for the second time.
In case you need to ask for one piece of information that they need to have reference elsewhere, such as customer number, bank statement, order reference, or any other information, you should allow your users to enter all the required information in just one page, so that cognitive overload is avoided.
3. Offer multiple methods by which the web app can be executed
This is a crucial part of your web application development project. You will need to create a web app that makes it possible to adapt to your user’s behavior and offer multiple routes to the end goal. For example, if you are building a web-app that relates to task management, then a typical task may contain a number of information properties. You could create a default method to add a task with its associated information properties.
However, users can also be provided a quick method to add a task without filling in the extra information properties. Therefore, try and provide different routes to reach the same end-goal. This will make your application more dynamic for users. This will help them get things done at their own pace.
4. Aim for app production right from day one
It may be quite tempting to produce a quick solution as a remedy for an immediate business problem and clean up the application to make it production-ready later. Although this may seem like an Agile web application development method, it is vital in reality not to neglect things like monitoring, scalability, logging, user management and so on. An ideal solution is to build on top of a platform wherein it is compulsory to meet these requirements.
5. Conduct impact analysis
In order to change quickly, you need to be certain as a team that the changes will not break or damage what is already working. This problem can be greatly minimized through three change stages: Begin with using impact analysis tools during the development process. In case you made a change to the database, and it breaks the business logic, it needs to be immediately obvious. As part of step two, you will need to use regression testing. Finally, you need to make sure that the impact of the changes can be measured. This is especially in the case when the changes are placed in the production server with production data.
6. Automate Deployment and Reduce Complexity
Web application development needs to be simple and moved to production as fast as possible. A Web app needs to be truly agile, so that it can keep up with the business. Hence, deployment to production must occur frequently. If this is not done, the delays will stack up across the business development cycle. If it takes longer than normal to place the new version in production, your productivity will suffer.
At the same time, the more complicated your application grows, the harder it is to change and adapt. You can solve this problem by splitting the system into smaller parts, as it gets too big. However, you required a technology that helps make sense of the complex system. At the same time, it helps the development team split the system into more manageable components.
7. Go in for Beta Launch Initially
Once you have finished your much anticipated and valuable web application development project, perhaps you would like to launch it without delay. However, you need not rush to move your application to an official launch. It is strongly recommended to go in for a Beta Launch, even if you have full confidence that your web application will work successfully.
In the practical web application development world, a perfect app is not made in one go, but is perfected in stages, for which you need to gather feedback. If you let users know that the web app is in Beta Stage, then they are usually more tolerant and expect less with a Beta version of any software. Since you get more time to develop the official version, this adds to the excitement of project development. Also, as you get two separate posts from websites, you get double backlinks.
Bonus Tip
Finally, make sure that your server was not down due to bandwidth overload on the day you launch your app. Hence, ensure that your server can handle large amount of traffic in one go. Go in for social media to ensure that your web application receives the right social attention it deserves for you to make ample returns on your investment.
Why not get in touch with us for your web application development needs. We have put in place an advanced process that includes a highly professional and qualified team to match your expectations.
