Web Application Development Best Practices & Resources

There was a time when websites were sufficient for improving a company’s internet presence. However, many consumers increasingly access websites and web applications via their smartphones and tablets. According to research, people spend the majority of their digital media time in mobile apps.

Businesses today require custom web applications that provide an optimal user experience across devices, platforms, and browsers to increase their online presence. Simultaneously, businesses must boost user engagement and prevent user abandonment by making their websites stand out from the crowd.

Businesses must focus on several areas of web application development, including accessibility, functionality, performance, usability, security, and searchability. Simultaneously, they must use several web development best practices to create websites that suit specific business goals while also providing the best user experience.

Best Practices for Creating Standout Web Applications

• Keep Websites Responsive

By mixing HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, responsive web design allows developers to create online applications with a single codebase. The use of a single codebase allows programmers to speed up the custom web application development. Simultaneously, responsive web design will ensure that the same website looks well on PCs and mobile devices. Adopting responsive web design can easily increase a company’s web application’s accessibility, user experience, and search engine exposure.

• Build Progressive Web App

Enterprises can use progressive web apps to bridge the gap between web applications and native mobile apps. The next generation of apps is built with widely used web technologies such as HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. However, utilizing the inherent features of the underlying mobile platform and device provides a native ape-like individualized user experience. Google even advises businesses to enhance conversion rates by developing a progressive web app.

• Make the Website Load Faster

Many users increasingly quit websites that take longer than three seconds to load. In addition, Google uses loading speed as a major criterion to rank web pages. As a result, businesses must improve the speed of their online apps to increase organic traffic and reduce user abandonment. 

First, they must evaluate the loading time of each web page. Similarly, they can speed up the website by compressing pictures, installing caching, compressing front-end resources, and implementing content delivery networks (CDNs).

• Integrate a Robust CMS

No business can enhance conversion rates unless the digital material on its website is updated and managed effectively. Information management systems (CMS) allow administrators to oversee and manage digital content quickly and efficiently. The CMS’s capabilities and tools even allow an administrator to modify the appearance, feel, content, and functionality of a website on the fly. By integrating a CMS with the website during a development, businesses will quickly manage website content in the future.

• Use Impactful Typography

Typography is becoming synonymous with web design. A decent typographic design adds significantly to making the website stand out and create a lasting impression on visitors. Research even implies that typography affects users’ emotions and perceptions. Therefore, designers must experiment with numerous web typography and choose what will make the website stand out from the crowd.

• Leverage Web Animations

The biggest trends in web-based application development right now are animated data visualization and 3D data representations. Today, many high-traffic websites use web animations to communicate detailed information and engagingly through narrative. By creating tales with animations, businesses may quickly improve the user experience of their web applications. In addition, the animations will also assist organizations in leveraging virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies.

• Use chatbots as customer service representatives.

Chatbots are one of the trendiest topics in web application development right now. Chatbots, unlike traditional software programs, may engage with website users via both textual and audio means. While developing websites, businesses must use chatbots as virtual customer executives to address consumer problems and facilitate lead generation. Custom chatbots can even be used by businesses to complete specific tasks.

• Don’t Ignore the Most Up-To-Date Search Engine Guidelines.

Top search engines like Bing and Google frequently change their search algorithms to give updated search results. No business may divert regular traffic to its website unless it follows the most current search engine rules. Google, for example, advises website owners to improve their website’s search engine presence by enhancing loading speed, mobile-friendliness, and content uniqueness. To avoid costly SEO endeavors, companies must adopt the latest search engine standards throughout website creation.

• Concentrate on the built-in security features of the web application.

No company can improve its website’s user experience unless it addresses security and privacy concerns. To keep both user and company data secure, it must employ the most up-to-date encryption mechanisms. It must also eradicate all security flaws on the website to prevent a variety of targeted security attacks. Simultaneously, before deploying the website, firms must conduct extensive security and penetration testing.

• Switch to AI-Driven Web Development Tools

Research has proven that web apps’ conception and manufacture is possible with artificial intelligence and machine learning technology. By integrating AI frameworks and APIs, businesses can create futuristic websites and web applications. It can also leverage AI-powered web development tools to create next-generation online applications by researching competitors and recognizing new trends.

• Use Cloud-based Web Development IDEs

Cloud technologies enable businesses to rapidly design, test and deploy web applications without the need for an on-premise IT infrastructure. Businesses can also use cloud-based web development tools to create custom online applications quickly. As a result, enterprises should consider moving away from traditional desktop-based development tools and cloud-based IDEs such as Cloud 9, Cloud IDE, Codeanywhere, Kodingen, and Sourcekit.

Some Web application Development Resources:

More free materials are provided to you than even the most devoted freebie hunter can maintain a constant Internet connection and a computer. So we asked our developers community about their favorite tools to improve productivity and make working life simpler and cost-free to give you a sense of what is available.

The term “free resources” may conjure up images of amusing add-ons or additional support tools, Yet some of the most important web development building elements are free. The following cornerstone resources are vital tools you’ll utilize as a web developer daily.

• WORDPRESS

WordPress is the best content management system platform (software that lets you write, edit, and publish content on the web). Blogs for leading brands such as CNN, Reuters, and The Wall Street Journal have gained popularity in this regard. However, it is now a workhorse for web developers to build comprehensive Websites, eCommerce sites, and online portals with WordPress plugins and customization.

• MAMP OR WAMP SERVER

When you use WordPress to create a website, the WordPress application (together with your site’s pages and content) is often stored on a web server through a web hosting firm. However, you may prefer to install WordPress on your own local (home or office) computer for development and testing purposes. MAMP is a Mac software that provides you with the tools you need to run WordPress on your PC. But what if you’re using a Windows machine? Not an issue. Look no farther than WampServer, an application that does the same function but is compatible with Windows.

• GIT

Git is a version monitoring system or a website code tracking tool over time. You may use Git to return to an earlier version of the site and resolve the issue if something goes wrong with your code. Git is an industry-standard for version control systems, which are vital in web development.

• VISUAL STUDIO CODE

It is a source code editor available for Windows, Mac, and Linux computers. Its on-screen editor helps you to debug code (find and remove problems). It also has built-in Git commands (useful for tracking changes to your code without leaving the editor) and smart completion (an efficiency aid for writing code), and it is completely customizable.

• JQUERY

It is a language used in the programming of interactive website features. As you learn JavaScript, you’ll notice that many routine tasks, such as animating image sliders or changing the color of an element with an action such as a mouse click, can necessitate lines of code that you probably won’t remember. jQuery is a free collection of JavaScript plugins and extensions that can assist you in condensing typical activities into reusable, single-line functions.

Applications

Applications are computer programs intended to accomplish certain activities. (Consider word processors, web browsers, and picture editing software.) The applications listed below are all useful for developers, and they only scratch the surface of what is available to make your job easier without sacrificing your bottom line.

• ATOM

Atom is a highly customizable text editor, but it already has enough features to keep you busy. It is cross-platform, offers clever autocomplete (which is important while writing code), lets you work in several regions of your screen, and supports various programming languages, including JavaScript, Ruby, and Ruby on Rails.

• ITERM2

If you work on a Mac, you will occasionally need to use command line features, which are a direct way of dealing with your computer’s operating system via text commands. Normally, this is done via Mac’s terminal program, although the built-in Mac terminal can be a little bare-bones. ITerm2 comes in. iTerm2 is a terminal emulator that works similarly to the Mac terminal but has a slew of extra features. 

There is a split panes feature to mention a few functions (each pane shows an alternative session with darkened, inactive sessions). A powerful search tool, autocomplete that tracks every phrase ever in the window, and a history file allows you to review the text recently copied and pasted.

• EVERNOTE

When you’re working on a computer, it’s simple to lose track of information and ideas. With many browsers open and multiple trains of thought running, it’s easy to lose track of information and ideas. Evernote captures all of your notes, including screenshots and photos of handwritten notes, and organizes them in a central location synced across your devices. It also features a powerful search feature that allows you to search for anything, including handwritten words.

• INVISION

There will be moments when you wish to share your work with your client during the design and development stages. Having the ability to create prototypes using the same tools as big-name firms like Adobe, AT&T, Sony, and Viacom sounds like a nice (but pricey) alternative. In actuality, you can do it for free if you utilize InVision, the same prototyping platform used by those companies and many others.

Browser Extensions

Browser extensions—downloadable add-ons that provide unique capabilities to your browser—can turn the web browser you use to surf the web (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc.) into a developer tool. Here are several free browser extensions that are specifically relevant to web design.

• WAPPALYZER

Assume you stumble across a hugely fantastic site with features you’d like to incorporate into a project you’re working on, but you’re not sure how the site did it. Wappalyzer is a web plugin that shows the technologies on websites that make it easier to see what specific features operate and how they work. Wappalyzer detects content management systems (such as WordPress), eCommerce platforms (such as Shopify, Drupal Commerce, Etsy, and others), web frameworks (such as Ruby on Rails), and other technologies.

• WHAT FONT OR FOUNT

What happens when you come upon a typeface you like but can’t place it? You don’t want to waste time looking for it? The WhatFont browser extension allows you to analyze web fonts simply by hovering over them. It also recognizes the services from which the fonts are obtained, allowing you to obtain them for yourself. Unfortunately, WhatFont is only compatible with Chrome and Safari, so try Fount if you use a different browser.

• PERFECTPIXEL

It is easy to lose some of the accuracy of your original design when working with images in HTML and CSS. Perfect pixel allows you to overlay your source JPG or PNG photos over your web content, allowing you to compare the images pixel for pixel and generate an HTML page that looks exactly like what you envision.

• STYLEBOT

Have you ever visited a website and want a little change, both because of certain reading needs or because another font looks better? That is what the Stylebot browser extension allows you to do. For developers, it also allows you to observe how changes to CSS alter the appearance of a website for future reference in your projects. In addition, you can change the appearance of websites you visit and even sync your saved settings between machines using a sidebar full of simple and advanced CSS options.

Conclusion

To develop outstanding websites, businesses must follow a variety of best practices. For example, to improve their online visibility, they must prioritize user experience throughout the software development lifecycle. However, they must keep in mind that web application development trends change regularly. As a result, businesses must fine-tune best practices following the most recent web application development trends.