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10 Simple Steps to the Web Design Process

Like any other technical aspect, the web design process has its own ins and outs, specifics, and nuances. There are certain fundamentals that you need to get around in order to achieve the smoothest, most efficient product design lifecycle.

To better understand the web design process, let’s break it down into a few easy-to-follow steps.

Define the Destination

Every website has something to offer, be it information, services, or products. The design itself is but a narrative tool. It prompts the guests of the site to some decision - to click more, to buy something, to leave a comment, to come back, etc. You need to know the purpose of your project. You can start with something simple and concise: “my goal is to advertise my video making skills.” Then, you can add extra points or elaborate with all your needs. If your objective is clear enough, you will minimize the unnecessary work. 

The overall product design is based heavily on the type of one’s target audience of users. Different age groups and people working in different industries, holding certain positions have unique product perspectives and demands. For the most obvious instance, a children’s products website and a corporate site should be designed accordingly.

Measure the Resources

You should know the scope of your budget and capabilities to establish some limits. Do you have a content writer, designer, programmer, or web developer? Will you be using the help of a UI design company? How much does their cooperation cost? Correctly estimating your resources will protect you from unpleasant surprises in the long run.

Learn More

You might want to research the factors of other websites’ success. What makes the UI/UX design services provided by that company so great? How to make the information stand out? What colors should you use? What do the customers usually hate about the design or functionality? There is a whole science behind selling websites. Getting yourself acquainted with the current trends is a sure way to improve your game.

Chart the Course

The next phase is the setting of the course. In order to efficiently achieve the final objective(s), you need to define some midpoints and milestones. The development and design planning is the backbone of the whole project. To plan everything out most properly, it’s best to hire a specialized business analyst and make it their responsibility.

This stage is all about the approximate understanding of the upcoming website design and optimization. Planning the course of action simplifies your life as it narrows down the intangible purpose to something doable. 

You also have to establish the timeline for your project. Deadlines for your milestones and the launch date will help you to organize the process. Besides, it will set time boundaries, instigating you to work efficiently.

Outline the Framework

Next, you should compose a blueprint for your web design process: the sitemap and the wireframe. The sitemap depicts the interrelation of all pages. It gives your designer the pattern to follow, showcasing the architecture of the website. 

The blueprint is the first crude visual representation of the site’s content. It represents the future design and positioning of the elements (texts, pictures) on each page.  

There is no need to explain the importance of the website layout - it is the blueprint of your final visualization.

Fill in the Content

Words are the bricks of your construction. They are your tool for conveying the information. If you want to influence your customers’ decision-making, you need to take this stage seriously. It is not as easy as one might think: the content should reflect the essence of your website with the appropriate style, pacing, and vocabulary. 

Too long, too complicated, too dull - and your guests will leave. A proper combination of catchy words with the right pictures (which can, sometimes, be achieved only via professional UI/UX design services) will put you on the top of the content chain.

 And there is also the factor of SEO (search engine optimization). If you want more people to visit your website, you should consider the logic of internet searching. Despite all the differences between individuals, we all tend to look for answers in the same way. There are phrases and word combinations that are used more often than others. Using SEO-approved words is like building beacons for prospective customers. They will find your place with fewer detours.

Style It Up

Various colors, pictures, logos, stylized titles, and other additional elements on the page might be the aces up your sleeve, but only if you apply them correctly. Visually powerful images can be a versatile tool. It harbors attention, conveys emotions and information, influences mindsets, and alleviates or enhances the textual message. 

But you need to pay attention to all kinds of things. Does the visual part fit the page? Do colors complement the fonts? Is it consistent from one page to another, or too much to comprehend? These are the main questions that a truly professional UI design company should help you figure out.

Cumbersome visualization of the page and the lack of aesthetics can be detrimental to your website. It is safer to keep it simple than making it a panoply of colors. Besides, having a lot of visual data can prolong the loading time, and it’s better not to challenge your customers’ patience.

Run a Test

Once the website is all written and filled with the necessary information, you are almost at the finish line. But being visually and SEO-friendly might not be enough if there are bugs and issues with functionality. Check whether all links open properly. Read through texts to find any grammar or spelling mistakes. Does your website work nicely on all devices? What about browsers? It is vital to be meticulous with testing because nothing discredits your authority as much as silly bugs.

Launching

Has the testing been done enough times already? Everything works as it should, the website design and optimization are neat, and today is the launching day - congratulations! The world shall see your creation now. But...

Update

...you should be ready for surprises. Some issues might have slipped unnoticed into your project, the influx of visitors is not as good as you would like, or your expectations are not satisfied in some other way. You cannot make the perfect website that will never change. 

Even without any internal issues, it will require attention and upgrades. The world is not standing still, and the trends are changing. The website should evolve in tune with its environment like a living organism to be successful. Any dynamic web design company strives to keep up with the trends. You should, too. Learn, improve, and keep up.

Conclusion

The web design process is not something that you can master from reading one post. To be top-notch and provide the best UI design services, a UI design company should keep track of hundreds of little things. It can be overwhelming, but you do not master a craft in one day. Take your time, do your homework, and be better each day. 

And if you are looking for a faster way to get your website done… We provide excellent UI/UX design services, giving your ideas the attention they deserve. Send us a request, and we’ll get you the best.

The World Wide Web came to life in the ’90s, setting the era of the internet. Suddenly, the world was not as vast as it had been before. People could access the information left by others and share their knowledge or ideas through the web. 1994 was the year when the first online high school was founded. Twenty-six years later, e-learning has come a long way, and now it is changing the world, not only the domain of traditional education.

How can e-learning development help your business? Let’s dive into it.

Custom e-Learning Development - What Does That Mean?

Running a business in the fast-paced world of today is not an easy task. Globalization has blurred limits and borders, the internet circumvents long distances and makes everything more accessible, and the advancement of technologies does not plan to stop. All these factors mean high competition for entrepreneurs and companies. To keep ahead of your opponents in the constant flow of ever-changing trends, you should be ready to learn new things and adapt to the changes. This also goes for your employees. The more experienced your crew is, the easier it is to get further in the restless sea of opportunities and trials. Custom e-learning solutions should help you with that.

Custom e-learning development is a tool to create your own learning materials, personalized and tailored to your needs. While there are many online educational platforms with a prepared set of courses on various subjects, they might not be suitable for you because of their widespread coverage - your business probably requires something more specific. If there is anything your employees need to know, making a course on that specific topic through e-learning development is a sensible way of teaching.

What Are the eLearning Advantages?

What is so sensible about it? Well, e-learning methods are popular for a few reasons. Here are some of them:

It Is Pocket-Friendly

Yes, money is necessary if you want to develop a website for e-learning. Custom e-learning development services are not cheap, but they are cheaper than more traditional methods. You do not need to draw a check for your tutor, calculating all of the work and extra hours, sick leaves, transportation, lunch, and a little above that. Instead, you have a few lessons on a platform that any of your employees can use at any time from now on. It is reusable and easily accessible. You can teach every new member of your team through the same lessons in the future. Is it not convenient?

It Is User-Friendly

There are many advantages of e-learning for a user:

• Efficiency. Those online materials are always accessible. As long as one has an internet connection, neither place nor time is important for learning new things. Users have total control over scheduling: they decide when to spend their time on the education and how much time it will be. Any device - laptop, phone, or PC - can be your means for learning. If your company is of international scope, you can translate your materials to other languages.
  e-Learning is the most universal and flexible educational method. You can mold it in many ways possible, making it useful for the broadest audience.
• Person-oriented. Each of us is a unique individual with our own preferences, strengths, and weaknesses. We have a different perception of the world. Some struggle to learn new things or concentrate for a longer span; others need mere seconds to comprehend the most complicated topic. e-Learning can be readjusted for anyone.
  Do you need more time to understand this head-scratcher? Take your time. Do not rush. Choose your own pace. Do you feel uncomfortable learning in big groups of people? Make a cup of coffee/tea and study at home.
• Interactivity. Gamification is a great attention-grabbing tool. We live in a fast world with constant tides of information. One has to be quick to keep up, making it difficult for us to be patient and interested. The educational material might be useful, but it will not do much good if it is not captivating. e-Learning lets you fill it with all kinds of content to enhance its appeal: videos, funny pictures, quizzes, interesting tests, and whatever you come up with. It makes education less tedious and more effective.

It Is Nature-Friendly

Another benefit of e-learning is the eco-friendly approach. No trees are cut down to make books and paper; no plastic for pens; nothing is needed except electricity - online education is far less detrimental to nature.

Conclusion

If your business requires personal development, then e-learning is the best way to improve oneself. There are many custom e-learning development services that assist companies with creating the ultimate e-learning experience. You do not have to worry about finding the good ones - you have done it already. 

We know how to develop a website for e-learning and make it company-friendly. Tell us your vision, and it will become the reality.

Each of us has had an experience of interacting with a site or application that was outdated and completely inconvenient. This happens when creators completely forget about user experience and user interface design.

In this post, we'll take a look at such concepts as skeuomorphism and neumorphism, and analyze the most notable UI design trends in 2021 that will help keep your project fresh and modern.

From Skeuomorphism Back to Neumorphism

On the day when smartphones were updated and volumetric icons became flat, skeuomorphism left our lives.

Skeuomorphism is a design trend based on the realistic depiction of objects. Its graphics show the volume of objects: light, shadows, highlights, and textures. By now, this design direction has not completely disappeared, but it is rare. 

However, skeuomorphism hasn't gone away forever - it has influenced subsequent graphics solutions that users interact with today. At first, skeuomorphic images became “bad taste” and were replaced by the cardinal opposite - flat design. This revolution took place in 2012-2014. Flat pictures without shadows, glare, and texture became popular. 

Flat design is actively used to this day, but there have been other alternatives. The most viable one is material design. This trend was invented by Google and combines features of flat design and skeuomorphism. Material design is based on imitation of printing. Blocks on the website become layers of paper that can be placed at different levels and cast shadows.

There is another current trend that refers to skeuomorphism - neumorphism. The concept appeared at the end of 2019 and has not yet found widespread use. This trend is based on three-dimensional figures without clear outlines.

Neumorphism is developing very actively. In its original form, it didn't last long, but now it is gradually changing towards a more sophisticated and accessible vision. It is similar to skeuomorphism but has a fresher, modern, and aesthetic vibe.

Top 5 Trends for 2021

In 2020, the events worldwide affected all industries and spheres of life. These developments have increased the role of digital products in business and the daily lives of people. As a result, companies' commercial success has come to depend on UI design services. It is important for them how well the interface is designed in their products and how pleasant it is to use it. So, what's the next UI design trends?

Immersive 3D elements

3D design elements have been fascinating users for many years. This trend will continue to grow in 2021 as VR and AR technologies gain momentum. Thus, it is a perfect idea to combine these techniques to create hyper-realistic 3D images that span the user's entire screen.

This trend allows designers and UI design companies to embellish their websites. In this way, they encourage potential customers to stay longer and increase the average session duration. Such visuals are engaging users as they transcend the boundaries between virtual space and real life.

AR

In 2021, the major trends in UI design will be even more UX-related. So, developers need to take care of the high-quality rendering of elements in augmented reality.

First of all, it is necessary to process the quality of each element, taking into account the colors and sizes. Also, it is important to check how good the augmented reality elements will look in different places.

Today AR is still quite primitive, but it is increasingly being used to present new products and ads. Full-fledged online exhibitions of paintings are already being held with its help.

Therefore, working on the interface of applications that implement AR is one of the key tasks most developers will have in 2021.

Vivid colors and simplicity

The use of vibrant colors and gradients continues to gain popularity across all types of web designs, especially in front-end, branding, and illustration UI/UX design services.

Also in the trend is ultra-minimalistic design, involving the use of an extremely limited palette, simple shapes, and more negative space, which makes it possible to divide parts of the page and prioritize visuals.

Glassmorphism

Glassmorphism is among UI design new trends in interface that is increasingly talked about in the design communities. But as you know, everything new is well-forgotten old. The technique was first introduced widely in Windows Vista and iOS7. Now this style can be seen in Mac OS Big Sur and Microsoft Fluent Design.

The trend includes such characteristics as frosted glass effect with blur, multi-layered objects, bright colors, and more. It's great for minimalistic designs. Proper use of the glass effect will help to avoid heavy elements in the interface and its clutter.

Microinteractions to drive user engagement

User experience consists of small moments that remain in our memory and create a general impression of things, events, and digital products. Microinteractions are a chance to add a grain of inspiration to a product's UX and transform it into a memorable digital experience. Almost invisible, they add dynamism, interactivity, and intuitiveness to the design of a website or application. Don't let your users get bored while waiting for the web page to load - interact with them by displaying a funny loading animation.

Make every moment of user experience enjoyable and delightful by creating interactive micro-interactions, tab animations, button-click responses, micro-navigation interactions, and more. And don’t neglect professional UI/UX design services.

Conclusion

2021 is the year of 3d graphics, vivid colors, and font variety. UI is aimed towards minimalism, lightness, and simplicity. Particular attention is paid to details. The interface is becoming less visible. Graphic design is becoming more daring, bold, absurd, with hints of brutalism and anti-design.

If you want to update your project taking into account new trends, you can contact a UI design company that provides UI design services. They know how to make web and mobile applications convenient, as well as how to involve the user in effective interaction with the product. Skillfully working with the information architecture of the project, companies with UI/UX design services will organize logical paths of user transitions and you will get a truly unique interface.

It is impossible to survive in a modern highly competitive market without quality software. A perfectly matched product increases employees' efficiency, improves customer service quality, and expands the company's capabilities in the market. In the age of modern technology, you need to take care of the efficiency of your software.

Most existing businesses have neither reason nor funds to upkeep the entire department to create and maintain a couple of applications. Fortunately, nowadays, a plethora of vendors provide outsourcing software development services. However, the question stands: who should you choose from among the available contractors? What software do you need? How to teach staff to work with a new product? The answers to these questions will help you in choosing the top software development company.

Why Custom Software Development?

When introducing an app, any business owner would think of one of the ready-made solutions first and foremost. These usually are cheaper, have a history on the market, and supportive user communities. However, universal solutions have a notable disadvantage of being incapable of catering to specific situations and business processes.

Custom software development is the best option in most cases. It can take into account the company's individuality, goals, specific features, needs, and so on. Any expert would agree that neither time nor finances spent when developing a custom application are for naught. So what are the advantages of tailored software?

1. Individuality

Universal software may not match all of the company processes, needs, and requirements in full. In turn, custom software development has the added benefit of making it possible to integrate all the daily and rarely executed tasks in a single solution. Such integration eliminates the problems of disorganization and helps to streamline the daily operations.

2. Scalability

As your enterprise pursues its goals, it will inevitably grow and develop. With time, the state of any market changes. You may decide to add new spheres of activity or even eliminate some of the current ones. The software needs to be flexible and easily adaptable. While changes to marketed solutions are made according to the plans of the company that maintains it, you retain complete control over a custom-developed app.

3. Support

When ordering branded software, you get high-quality support and constant attention from a team that developed it. You can address your outsourcing vendor with any difficulties that arise and be sure to get qualified aid.

How to Choose the Right Software Development Partner

Next, we are going to discuss how to choose the right outsource web development company. After all, the successful result of the whole endeavor depends on this choice.

1. Establish your resources, goals, and timeframes

Make a plan, answering the following questions. How long are you ready to wait? How big a budget can you assign for the project? Most importantly, what are your goals? What would you like to improve in the company, what should special attention be paid to? What kind of app and why do you need?

2. Investigate the potential contractors

It will be great if you can review the feedback about the company. Consult with their previous customers if possible - how satisfied were they with the work done? Study the criticism, if any. Finally, the vendor should have prior experience of development within your market niche.

3. Request a quote and check the technological offer

Study the offers of potential contractors. Compare them carefully. How relevant and purposeful is each proposal? How can it be useful for your business?

4. Establish the effective communication

Continual communication is essential. What channels will you use, whom exactly will you contact? This is especially true when your developers are located in a different country. On the one hand, it is excellent not to be limited to local specialists. On the other hand, you need to have a clear understanding of time difference, possible common languages for communication, etc.

All these points are crucial for answering the question of how to successfully outsource software development. Think everything over, be aware of possible difficulties.

Possible Approaches to Selection

There are different ways to choose a custom software supplier. Let us review the most used ones.

Budget-centric approach

Project cost is the key deciding factor here. The customer compares the prices quoted by competing potential vendors and chooses the most cost-efficient one. Keep in mind that the lowest price may assume the worst quality, expertise, and service.

Experience-oriented approach

Probably the most efficient approach as a central selection factor here is the expertise of the contractor. After all, a company with considerable experience in your market niche most likely already had encountered customers with similar requirements, as well as industry-specific difficulties.

Managerial approach

This approach places the main emphasis on managerial capabilities, structured interaction, and organized work. Major focus points are the detailed documentation and clear interaction structure.

Communication-oriented approach

The important thing is the sustained connection you make with the development company. With this approach, attention is paid to communication methods, choosing the right attitude between the contract parties, and the productivity of interactions.

In our opinion, the most correct result can be attained by applying an integral approach. Taking all of the mentioned factors into account, the customer can make a balanced and deliberate decision.

Conclusion

As you may already understand, for the successful development of your own company, it is important to hire a custom software development company that can meet all your needs. 

The choice should be approached carefully, taking into account all possible nuances. It is essential to review the company's website, blog if available, and study their reputation. You need to understand whether the prospective contractor has the required expertise and knowledge of relevant technology. Do not buy into the cheapest services! Perhaps a company offering a more expensive product may save you money on additional service fees.

List your needs and requirements. You should write down everything point by point - permissible development budget, time limits, goals, and pain points. In negotiations, you can explain what you want and then adjust the work process upon the need.

It is also imperative to choose the people responsible for the project's course on both sides. Is the service vendor ready to provide ongoing maintenance and technical support after the launch?

If you write all this information down clearly and concisely, considering the slightest nuances, choosing the suitable partner would be a breeze.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected pretty much every existing industry and niche. This prompts more and more companies to use remote access technology - in particular, cloud-powered solutions. Let's take a look at the general characteristics and benefits of moving to the cloud today.

Cloud & Cloud Services: What’s it all About?

Cloud is online storage where data is stored on servers distributed over a third-party hosted network. These servers can often be geographically distributed over distant parts of the world. Cloud data is only accessed online unless it is timely cached for offline use. Modern cloud technologies bring ultimately flexibility and functionality to companies.

Cloud services are platforms and programs that use cloud resources to store data. By creating an account on such a platform, a user gets to access data from any device, anywhere in the world.

Types of cloud services

There are three major cloud software formats:

• PaaS - Platform as a Service. It is a cloud-based development environment with resources to deliver both simple and advanced cloud applications. According to the statistics below, 6% of the world's cloud workloads were on PaaS in 2020.
• SaaS - Software as a Service. This is a software subscription licensing model. According to statistics, in 2020, SaaS accounted for 78% of all cloud workloads in the world.
• IaaS - Infrastructure as a Service. These are servers, data warehouses, operating systems that are provided to clients to run their own software solutions. Accordingly, in 2020, IaaS accounted for 16% of the world's cloud workloads.

Companies pick one or another type of cloud service based on their financial capabilities, the required level of functionality customization, as well as the presence or absence of their own IT specialists on the staff.

Top 11 Benefits of Moving to the Cloud

Let’s find out why move to the cloud at all and whether it’s the right decision for the further development of your business.

Scalability

The first among the major benefits of moving to the cloud is operational flexibility. Truly, cloud solutions are ideal for growing or changing bandwidth needs. If required, you can easily increase or decrease the size of the cloud storage using remote servers. This level of flexibility can give businesses a competitive edge. That’s why so many companies are focused on remote software capabilities, looking to keep everything under control.

Highly-available tech support

Cloud solutions are very convenient due to availability on demand. Users don’t need to wait for the IT department’s response to clarify questions and solve issues. Cloud providers guarantee 24/7 support because their services work without any downtime and constant monitoring is required.

Availability from any web-connected device

Cloud computing solutions are available through a wide range of devices, which makes it possible to use not only a laptop or PC for handling corporate tasks but also mobile devices - be it a smartphone or tablet.

No hosting downtimes

The convenience of the cloud is that the servers are out of the room and out of sight. Vendors take care of the servers for you, regularly release software and security updates, so you don't have to spend time maintaining the system yourself.

Cost-efficiency

When it comes to the cost benefits of moving to the cloud - you pay as you use server resources, following a subscription-based model. There is a counter in the cloud that reports resource usage.

This ensures that the user only pays for what they used. On top of that, you don’t have to pay large amounts for the transition to the cloud as compared to the expansion of the physical server capacity (which requires the help of a full-time IT specialist or a whole department to support a local server).

Data backups

Companies usually invest in emergency data recovery. But small businesses often lack experience or funds for this. The cloud helps you avoid overspending by making recovery solutions available out-of-the-box (for example, via the default automatic backup feature).

Data security

The loss or breakdown of portable corporate equipment costs companies a fortune - for instance when important data is stored locally and there are no backup copies. In such cases, cloud storage ensures maximum safety and security of data, and you can access it no matter what happens to your computer.

Big data compatibility

Because of the sheer size and sensitivity to the latency of big data, it is important to store it in a secure and efficient environment. And the cloud is your best bet here. Thanks to cloud services, big data can be processed on your computers with maximum performance, without interfering with the execution of other running processes.

Thus, big data and cloud computing technology is an ideal combination that simultaneously scales and meets the highest demands for processing speed of computing operations.

Eco-friendliness

Since you don’t need a lot of equipment, your business will help reduce thermal emissions into the environment (as you know, full-fledged server rooms under high loads overheat, which forces companies to install additional powerful cooling systems). Thus, you reduce company costs and free up physical space at the same time.

Data synchronization

The more employees work on the document, the greater the need for control over the changes made. Before the cloud, you had to send files as email attachments that could be accessed by one user at a time, after which you often found a ton of conflicting content, formats, or titles.

These workflow complications are completely unnecessary. When you use a cloud platform, everything is stored centrally and everyone sees the same version of the file.

Competitive edge

Moving to the cloud brings enterprise-class technology to everyone. This allows small businesses to act faster than large competitors. Pay-as-you-go helps further optimize costs for an organization on a modest budget.

Bottom Line

Considering all of the above advantages, we can conclude that turning to cloud services will increase the security of data, simplify access, and help reduce the cost of equipment maintenance and personnel management.

If you are interested in moving to the cloud or implementing a project of your own, contact us to get high-quality cloud computing consulting and cloud migration services.

What is a good web application? There is no universal answer to this question since various people dealing with it have their own requirements to cater to. A customer would like it to be a problem-solving product that is simple to use and attractive-looking. An entrepreneur wants it to find a proper market niche. A developer aims to create the one that will be functional, capable to operate under high traffic loads, and having scalability potential. To have all these aspects implemented in one product, software engineers can choose between several types of web application architecture.

What is Web Application Architecture?

In the digital world of the 21st century, many existing words have acquired new meanings. Clouds aren't weather phenomena anymore, cookies have nothing to do with pastry, and the platform isn't a thing to be looked for at a railway station. The same is true about architecture that has ceased to be related to the construction industry only. When we talk of web app architecture we mean an arrangement of various elements and their connection within this software product that guarantee its web experience. How does it happen?

When a user enters an URL into an address bar of a browser, the latter treats it like a request and asks for access from the site after locating it. The server where it is hosted asks the browser for some data. The browser in its turn translates it and displays it for the user to see as a website. Being quite simple to explain, this process is rather complicated in operating, as can be seen from the following web application architecture diagram.

What are the principal components of web applications?

• Database. As the name suggests, it is the storage of data for the application. Typically, it is kept on a database server. The most widely-used of them employ SQL and enable storage of high volumes of data in the form of tables and rows (as MySQL and PostgreSQL do) or making use of collections and documents (as is the case with MongoDB).   
• Server infrastructure. This is an entirety of resources (both physical and virtual) that  receive and process browsers’ requests providing data analysis along the way. Other responsibilities of the server infrastructure include running and processing business logic and storing data - both files and databases. The most popular infrastructure examples comprising hardware, software and networks are AWS, Azure, DigitalOcean, and some others.  
• Back-end. It is the code in the form of the procedures stored on the server whose responsibility lies in handling business logic. It is meant to react properly to HTTP requests and send the required data back to the client’s browser. 
• Front-end. This aspect encompasses UI/UX elements that the end user sees and interacts with while operating the app. Such visual features include layouts, notifications, activity tracking, third-part services, etc.
• API. This is a bridge used for data transference between architecture components (back end, front end, and the server). Today, IT experts recommend two APIs as most efficient. RestAPI forwards a set of rules that developers follow to create their API. GraphQL is even better since it furnishes a comprehensive data description in the API you use, streamlines API evolvement over time, and empowers leveraging robust developer tools. 
• Third-party services. These are services that aren’t provided by the app owners. Conventionally, such services are various marketing tools and social networks. Essential services for business apps comprise card payment gateways or video conferencing functionality. 

These components can be related in three basic ways.

Three Types of Web App Architecture

Despite the seeming plethora of existing models, all of them can be classified into three broad categories.

1. Legacy HTML Web App

This is the most widespread type that is grounded on a user receiving the entire HTML on request. Known also as server-side or Web 1.0, this scheme requires the web page to reload to which page logic and general business logic react. Being extremely SEO-friendly, secure, and fast to develop, this model of web app organization has serious shortcomings as well, including low responsiveness, problematic offline functioning, and non-existent potential for conversion into mobile or desktop apps. Besides, this static pattern model can’t be used for building dynamic projects. 

2. Widget Web App

Being more suitable for mobile apps, this type presents the next step in web app evolution since it doesn’t need a request to load a page. Instead, widgets employ AJAX queries to receive portions of data in JSON and HTML. It is more responsive and quicker in performance than the legacy type, yet its downsides are penetration vulnerability and a long time of development.

3. Single Page App

In this scheme often referred to as Web 2.0, some functionality is shifted to the customers, who employ it in creating such products as blogs and social networks, to name a few. In essence, it is a complex JavaScript-reliant application that reproduces the page’s HTML content. This type of organization logic generates excellent performance and responsiveness as well as offline work. Such web apps are easy to scale up and transform into other app types. 

The successful functioning of a web app depends not only on its own architecture but on the architecture of the server as well.

A Few Examples of Web Server Architecture

The choice of the server architecture to be employed in app building is determined by the expected performance parameters (speed, storage, processing power, etc.). Having accumulated considerable experience in web app creation the specialists of Axisbits recommend the following server architecture types.

• PHP web application architecture. PHP is considered a web development language with universal acclaim. This popularity is conditioned by its simplicity and high functionality. Consequently, web apps built with it are secure, swift to develop, and simple to maintain. Besides, friendly support from a sizeable community guarantees timely assistance in case issues arise.
• Laravel web application architecture. The syntax of this PHP-based framework is graceful and expressive. Having the Model-View-Controller architecture at its core, it abounds in features making seamless and prompt development a breeze. The architecture of complex web applications with examples in Laravel PHP sports modular packaging scheme, improved authentication, sessions, and caching. Routing in Laravel deserves a special mentioning, since it enables building multiple routes whose names can be accessed via individual URLs. All of these allow developers to make the most of the web app performance and enhance traffic. 
• Azure reference architecture web application. Introduced and supported by Microsoft, this architecture is devised to act as a bridge between good old tools and cloud solutions. Moreover, the specialized cloud platform by Azure makes use of the best web app practices as well.

Conclusion

As you see, the variety of web app architecture types (as well as the app server organization patterns) is so great that it is easy for a layman to get lost among them. If you want to receive a top-notch product, it is wise to address experts in the field. Our company can tackle any software development project, impressing you with the first-rate quality of the output and reasonable pricing policy.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, remote virtual health services have become a necessity for a huge number of people. Personal visits to doctors were restricted due to the global quarantine measures introduced in order to slow down the spread of the virus.

That’s why many consumers were fast to adapt to the modern virtual medical services. Thus, according to statistics, 62% of consumers would use virtual medical recommendations, and 57% are fully prepared for remote monitoring of health problems using home devices.

In this regard, many software developers have focused their interests on the creation of health tech solutions. If you also want to build a similar project, you will definitely be interested in the main healthcare technology trends for 2021.

Major Healthcare Technology Trends This Year

For the past few years, the digital industry has been driven by several major trends. These include artificial intelligence, robotics, augmented and virtual reality, big data and the Internet of Things. All of these concepts together allow for the creation of advanced solutions not only in the healthcare sector but also in many other industries - for both business and non-profit organizations.

As for healthcare, robotics in this area helps to solve the problems of operating on previously inoperable tumors. Artificial intelligence and machine learning can help diagnose complex diseases in the early stages - for instance, minor retinal detachment in diabetes mellitus, or some types of cancer that cannot be detected by alternative methods at the stages when drug treatment is available.

Based on the Internet of Things and Big Data tech concepts, developers can create large-scale life support systems, life monitoring systems, as well as create remote solutions to support critically ill patients.

Lastly, virtual and augmented reality are helping to replicate educational solutions for medical students, offering safer and more reliable alternatives to traditional medical models and experimental animals like rats, frogs, etc.

Let’s highlight all these trends in more detail, discuss specific cases of their application, and help you determine the leading trend for your own project.

7 Key Digital Trends in Healthcare for 2021

Let’s take a look at the now-relevant and future healthcare trends technologies and innovations.

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be safely deemed the future of healthcare technology. It is thanks to this digital technology that innovative methods of diagnosing diseases appear in the world, advanced treatment plans are being developed, outbreaks of epidemics are predicted, new drugs are being discovered, and more in-depth medical research is being carried out.

There are also systems of assisted artificial intelligence that classify images, thereby helping doctors carry out high-quality diagnostics that doesn’t take much time.

Using artificial intelligence, doctors can also more quickly identify and treat patients with an increased risk of morbidity.

Virtual reality

Another major healthcare technology trend 2020-2021 is virtual reality, which is well suited for training future surgeons as well as continuing education for medical practitioners. A study by Harvard Business Review found that surgeons trained in virtual reality increased their productivity by 230% compared to peers who received standard training.

On top of that, virtual reality technology has proven effective in relieving pain. Patients were provided with virtual reality headsets and shown calming landscapes to distract them from painful irritants.

Augmented reality

When using solutions based on the concept of augmented reality, the user doesn’t lose touch with reality and sees all the necessary information in front of them using special devices. Augmented reality can also help doctors better prepare for real surgeries.

Moreover, thanks to AR, medical students have the opportunity to study human anatomy in detail without using real bodies.

The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT)

We can confidently say that future health trends will be closely associated with IoMT. Every day more and more wearable and mobile devices appear, such as heart rate trackers, bracelets that record data for ECG, automated inhalers, etc.

All of these devices allow doctors to focus on efficient disease prevention. Patients can receive information about their health directly on their mobile device instead of undergoing a full examination by a doctor.

Medical services on demand

Nowadays, consumers want to receive services at a convenient time, anywhere. On-demand medical services are becoming increasingly popular due to the tight schedule of potential patients. People are increasingly using mobile devices, so they are eager to be diagnosed and treated online without leaving their homes.

Big Data

Big data-based software efficiently helps to identify inconsistencies between a patient's health status and prescriptions by analyzing medical history.

End-to-end big data analytics support prophylactic treatment for people who often end up in emergency rooms. The big data algorithm will help identify these patients and prevent them from being readmitted to the hospital. Big data forecasting also helps medical institutions to correctly assess hospitalization rates and correctly assign staff to work with patients.

Robotics

Another leading trend in digital transformation of health and safety is the production of next-generation robotics. In particular, advanced robots are no longer just industrial devices that perform a number of primitive tasks. These are full-fledged intelligent machines capable of fully repeating the activities of the most complex professions, including surgeons.

The world-famous machine called da Vinci, created in 2000, is capable of performing surgical manipulations with a patient under the guidance of a real surgeon. This device works well with difficult to operate patients who have been diagnosed with malignant formations in critical locations of the body, which are practically impossible to reach manually.

Conclusion

These are the key digital trends in the field of transformation of health and care in the digital single market that help create not just competitive but revolutionary solutions for the mass consumer.

If you are interested in creating a project based on one of the above trends or any other technological solutions, feel free to contact us.

Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a well-determined sequence of stages on the way of creation of one or another piece of software that moves through the whole process of the development of a new software product. In other words, software development life cycle phases are kicked off with the decision of developers to make a new software product and end with the collective decision of users to abandon it.

The main difference between any software and any physical product lies in the fact that software can never be serial. It is always unique. That’s why dividing SDLC into phases makes sense in terms of both security and feasibility. The present post gives a brief but coherent answer to the question of what is the software development process| or SDLC. The general description of the main phases of SDLC is available below as well.

How to Arrange a Safe Software Development Life Cycle

Since any software belongs to custom non-serial products the development process should be set up as secure as feasible. Every customer (an owner of software) seeks to minimize financial and operational risks during the entire course of software development. For this purpose, several generally accepted phases of SDLC have been developed over decades of the software sector’s history. The phases may vary from project to project but the collective experience of thousands of software developers makes the process more or less unified.

However, the evolution of software has created a great diversity of products that made a one-fits-all SDLC barely possible in each and every case. That’s why different models of SDLC have emerged over time. All the models include the main phases of the software development life cycle, nonetheless. So, it is crucial to follow the best practices (aka the phases of SDLC) to arrange the software development process safe and efficient.

Main Phases of Software Development Life Cycle

Whatever model of SDLC we consider, the following phases are available in each of them with varying degrees:

• Requirement Analysis. This is the initial phase of any SDLC when developers start collecting as much information about the upcoming project as possible. They usually begin with studying the existing analogs of the software they are going to develop. Why do the analogs seem obsolete? What the users might expect from the new software? Which model of SDLC could be applied to the project to achieve the best business results?
  The phase can be also called the software development process consulting since it includes a wide range of issues addressed. All collected requirements for the new software can be grouped into three main categories: user requirements, system requirements, and functional requirements. A number of methods can be used to collect such information: undertaking user surveys, consulting with some third-party developers, revision of the existing databases and libraries, etc.

• Planning. After all the requirements have been collected, the project team should create an approximate plan of the software development process. At that phase, the developers start figuring out whether it is possible to create a product capable of meeting all actual requirements. They are trying to forecast when and why the product might become no longer useful and competitive on the market.
  Besides, all their further work will make sense only if the project is affordable in terms of a proper balance between the total development cost and the estimated project earnings. In some cases, the involvement of a professional business analyst in the software development life cycle wouldn’t hurt. The planning phase makes the team realize whether the project is feasible in the context of the financial and technical capabilities of the organization.

• Architectural Design (systemic analysis). This phase is about the scale of the project. Many developers call it “the plan of the plan”. It means the team should understand all objective limitations of the future software product. The developers have to choose the most appropriate model of SDLC. Both the scale and schedule of the project’s execution should be determined.
  The very architecture of the product should be designed to a first approximation. Besides, a safe software development life cycle implies a systemic approach to such issues as determining how the new project may impact both the staff and the organization, which new skills the end-users will have to possess to use the product properly, what educational constraints can arise in front of the user audience in general, and so on.     

• Build (programming). When the full analysis of the project and the clear systemic requirements all are available “on the table” the developers start doing what they say they do - coding. The input data for such a phase consists of both the requirements from a selected target audience and the information collected during all previous phases. The following two types of the product’s design: a logical structure and a physical architecture constitute the result of the present phase.
  Programming is the most important one among all software development life cycle phases since the product as such appears at this stage. Software engineers create metadata, logical frameworks, data flow diagrams, and (in some cases) pseudocode. The developers start writing code in an appropriate programming language to build error-free executable programs. 

• Testing. Many specs claim that thoroughly conducted testing brings half the success to the software development. Detecting errors before the product enters the market is important to realize whether the project can reach its business goals. Undetected critical mistakes can result in the sorrowful deletion of the product from the market at the end of the day.
  The safe software development life cycle requires the product to be tested at all intermediate stages: module testing, program testing, product testing, user-side testing, that says, every piece of code that can be tested in principle must be tested.

• Software Deployment. This phase can start with the integration of the product with some third-party libraries, databases, and programs. The smooth interaction of the software product with objects in the external world is important.
  The deployment as such implies the installation of the product on the users’ hardware. In some cases, the product needs preset adjustments on the user side. The integration issues are addressed by the in-field testing of the product in terms of mobility and adoption. It is always better to check everything in advance than to fix after-effects on the go.  

• Software Maintenance. This phase is the final one among the software development life cycle phases. It helps detect hidden errors that could not be identified at previous stages. In other words, maintenance proves the workability of the new product. In many cases, users have to be educated on how to use the software. They are provided with both documentation and consultancy. The software code is updated in accordance with the latest achievements in technology.

Conclusion

Any software development process should follow a well-arranged and safe software development life cycle to make a finished product successful in terms of both usability and profitability. The best development practices beginning from requirement analysis and up to software maintenance have been carefully worked out by several generations of developers.

If you are looking for professional software development process consulting, contact us today to get assisted on how to select the most appropriate SDLC model for your project.