Digital Transformation February 26, 2021

Website Development: Three Characteristics of Modern Web Apps

Written by Analytix Editorial Team Jagruti Patel

In a world where modes of communication have changed radically and online transactions are often completed on-the-go via mobile devices, it is vital for businesses, including startups and small to mid-sized ones, to ensure their websites are secure and adaptable to meet dynamic user needs. Web applications must be robust to meet expectations of stability, easy navigation, and secure transactions from business websites.

Modern web apps present content in an interesting and personalized way, which helps to build the brand. They also include other benefits like easy accessibility for larger consumer reach, enhanced security features, easy customization and scalability, easy installation and maintenance, and much more. The characteristics that make modern web apps essential for a business are:

Cloud-hosting

Applications adapted and optimized to seamlessly operate in cloud environments are vital to ensure reliable and resilient operations. The ability to scale as demand requires can help small businesses and startups keep pace with an ever-changing business environment.

App resilience refers to the quality within an app to continue operations at a particular level despite component or operating cycle failure. App resilience can contribute to the user experience. A resilient app can return to the same visual window with all of its data intact, unchanged from the time of system failure or outage. The kind of resilience needed in an app depends on business requirements and expectations and user profiles, among other factors.

Cross-platform usability

Cross-platform apps, when developed in tandem with cross-platform mobile functionality, make it easier for developers to create software compatible on both handheld mobile devices and desktop and laptop computer devices.

Cross-platform usability enhances the overall user experience and user interaction with the business website. There are instances when a user may browse and choose something when interacting on a laptop. The user may complete the transaction at a later date, on a handheld or mobile device. The experience needs to be seamless and smooth so the user is motivated to return for more.

Modern apps benefit from cross-platform development. There are multiple approaches as well, depending on business requirements, for example, hybrid mobile app development, or rapid mobile app development.

Ability to combine and support traditional application behavior and single page applications

In traditional apps, any user operation is executed as a new request. This means a new page is reloaded in full in the browser every time a new operation is made by the user. Apart from involving multiple developer frameworks and controller actions and functionalities at the back-end, traditional apps may slow down the speed of navigation, creating a negative user experience.

On the other hand, single page apps (SPA) do not execute entirely new page reloads for every user operation. This results in easier and faster navigation, creating a positive browsing experience, especially in the case of handheld devices such as mobiles. Users not only experience faster navigation, but the visual impact is also cleaner, leading to a richer experience.

An app that combines the two behaviors is often chosen, with traditional app behavior favored for more stable website content and SPA behavior for interaction-based website functions.

Agile, effective: Empowering your business through a rich website user experience

Modern web app development can create a rich navigation experience for users, helping businesses convert leads and retain customers. However, to create an efficient and well-designed web app, the developer needs a strong understanding of web app development coupled with insightful understanding of how a website ties-in with business operations and growth. From creation to deployment, business apps must be backed by research and planning; this includes the role of a website in business operations, the target audience or the customer base of the business, the industry the business operates in, etc.

A thorough review of these parameters can help decision makers decide whether they need resilience and scaling or the freedom of easier storage and data management. Professional assistance, including proactively choosing agile web development, can help businesses define and meet specific targets in a dynamic and continuous manner. The agile development model brings together diverse teams.  Functionality, such as navigation, is addressed in the beginning of the project, when issues are identified and resolutions worked out simultaneously. Beta-testing or beta launches ensure that an initial idea is integral to how the end-product will function. Consistent troubleshooting and repair activities are part of the process. Weaknesses are addressed before an outage or failure occurs.

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