Is Design The Future of Front End Web Development?

When it comes to engaging with a brand, technology offers a myriad of choices to customers. A single interaction with the brand is likely to change the customer’s perception, making it imperative to provide them with an exceptional end to end web experience.

Today, several enterprises are launching multiple digital initiatives to grow their outreach and gain an edge over the competition. Enterprises that are still in the nascent state of adopting the digital technologies require professional assistance from a front-end web development company, especially in terms of user experience design.

In addition, the enterprise needs to analyze the top task flows, user requirements, and map front-end interactions so as to ensure a personalized, contextual user experience. The complete front end interface journey begins with a design. No matter how hard an enterprise tries to take advantage of technologies, without specifying the interactions and visual design that meets the user requirements, it is impossible to keep customers engaged. Therefore, in this article, we have outlined various important stages that an enterprise must consider to design and develop a successful product prototype.

Discovery:
Identifying the product goals, objectives, as well as the detailed customer requirements for front-end development, is quintessential. You must further determine what you want to build, who the target audience is and how your product will help them. Apart from that, you must also consider stakeholder interviews, heuristic reviews, benchmarking, and requirement gathering to ensure well-detailed discovery for your project.

Synthesis & Modelling:
Prior to pursuing the user journey mapping, it is important to understand the obstacles your clients and customers encounter, their pain points and motivation. Thereafter, define all the top task flows, create persona maps, and analyze user stories in order to ensure that the wireframing and prototyping are designed in an appropriate manner.

Wireframes & Prototypes:
Wireframes and prototypes are imperative as they help you to envision your product even before it is built. You can have your prototype validated by the clients and end users so that if the product requires any iterations, they can be considered and tested during the design phase. Also, you must clearly incorporate all the findings from the top task flows in all the prototypes.

Testing:
After wireframing and prototyping, a thorough usability audit and testing should be carried out to analyze the functioning and efficiency of the user interface with real user feedback and surveys as well as heat maps. This is an important step to test the effectiveness of your product’s UI in the real world scenario.

Without implementing appropriate design aesthetics, it is difficult to build your product using the most advanced technologies. Although technology is also a backbone of some of the most successful product interfaces, many enterprises are also leveraging the modern-age digital technologies for front-end development such as React, AngularJS, Bootstrap, Polymer, and many other alongside CSS and HTML to develop robust and scalable front end.

Front-end development is increasingly becoming dependent on innovative design to provide end users with an interactive user interface. This means the line between front-end design and development is thinning. Both front-end designers and developers are now actively involved in the project from conceptualization to execution while making the entire process more streamlined and agile. We’d like to hear your feedback and thoughts about the importance of design in front-end development. Leave your valuable feedback using the comment section below.

How Startups can use Xamarin to Gain an Edge Over Competition

The software development industry is always in a state of rapid flux. Especially if you are a startup working in the highly competitive and rewarding sector of enterprise mobility. There are challenges galore but so are opportunities. It is important to have your finger on the pulse of the market and be quick to latch on to trends that define the next wave of technology. In the context of mobile applications and web app development, there are several new technologies and trends that have recently captured the imagination of the tech community – Xamarin for app development is one of the most promising trends.

Why Xamarin?
If you search Google trends then Xamarin cross-platform mobile app development services is a prominent search term. There is suddenly a great deal of interest in Xamarin’s potential as a cross-platform framework that lets developers use C# and .NET – that is a near-native experience because it creates a wrapper over the platform-specific SDKs. Let’s take a look at Xamarin’s capabilities in detail.

Native UI in all three platforms:
The difference between Xamarin and other HTML-based cross-platform frameworks like Ionic is that Xamarin creates native UI using native APIs for each platform providing a wrapper over its own SDK.

So, whatever you can do with your native OS, you can achieve with Xamarin and the end-result will be identical. For instance, the creation of TextView in Xamarin is the same as Android or for that matter, even UILabel creation is the same as iOS. This ability to transcend platforms is a great strength for startups who don’t need to spend additional time, resource and money on creating apps for each platform.

What’s more, Xamarin includes Windows Phone and Blackberry users that make a tiny but important percentage of mobile OS users.

Lower cost of development and shorter cycles
As startups are constantly looking for ways to be more cost and time efficient, Xamarin’s low cost of development is a great advantage. Since Xamarin requires only one language expertise – that is C# and utilizes a high percentage of code sharing. Most of the functional bugs and non-UI enhancements have to be done only once and need not to be replicated for each platform – saving a great deal of time and cost. This allows companies to ship quality apps faster.

Improved Time-to-Market and Maintenance Downtime
The extent of code sharing with Xamarin range anywhere from 50% to 100%. The ability to ‘Write Once, Run Anywhere’ by sharing the application logic across systems reduces the team’s time spent on software building. Post sales maintenance is also a breeze with Xamarin because the team need only spend time on fixing issues once.

Mobile is only the tip of the iceberg
While Xamarin has received wide recognition for its mobile app development capabilities, there is more to Xamarin that points to the future of app development. With Xamarin you can build wearable apps, Mac apps, tvOs apps, OpenGL games, SceneKit/SpriteKit/Metal Games and much more. This allows startups to leverage the unbridled potential of application development and gives them an edge over competitors. 

Summary
Xamarin has indubitably carved its name as the go-to framework for startups. As a modern and sophisticated tool, it provides significant gains in cost, quality and time to market the apps. But its selling point is certainly it's near-native app experiences that have made the open-source technology the most coveted one. Have you built mobile apps using Xamarin for your startup? Do share your views in the comments section below.

Enabling Website Management with CMS like Sitefinity

When rebuilding or redesigning your website, it is easy to get caught up with the visual aspect of the site and forget the governance aspect. The design is not just how it looks like and feels like but how it works. This is where the Content Management System (CMS) comes in. The CMS functions at the core of your website and helps you govern and manage your web content – everything from basic edits, media uploads to creating new web pages or menu. The importance of selecting the right CMS can’t be stressed enough, therefore. Sitefinity is among the more popular CMSs around with clients like BBC, Gatorade, Mercedes Benz etc. Let’s take a look at some of its core features that have made it a favorite among website managers, marketing teams and IT:

Ease of Content Management:
Sitefinity allows ASP.NET specialists to manage content easily with some stellar features for layout configuration:

• Within the code in the grid system templates and layouts
• At page template level
• At actual page level

Create Placeholders Within The Grid System:
Content sections like the header and footer that are global elements must ideally be placed within the grid template. Using the grid system templates, web developers easily manage the layout and HTML required to provide users with the end pages and are also able to create the “divs” for each section of the web page. Whenever the webmaster or content manager needs these global elements, he/she can drag the template and drop the required widget.

Planned Page Templates:
With Sitefinity CMS, you can create layout templates either by using Sitefinity CMS Layout editor or by using master pages.
You manage templates on Templates page. Before content population, create the layout that sets the display for content. Using predefined or custom templates you can set the space allocation and display for navigation, title, and content blocks. You can modify and personalize these templates as required.
Sitefinity CMS enables you to set page template through the Pages API. You set the template in the PageData object. You must get the temp draft before setting the template.

Page Level Content Blocks:
Create content blocks to display generic information – which is all the information that doesn’t fall into a predefined content type like news or announcements. A content block is useful for creating text that can be used for several pages of your website – for instance, company address.

There are many other features that make Sitefinity a robust and SEO friendly CMS:

1. Supports your mobile strategy: Sitefinity helps in creating mobile optimized websites quite easily. The flexibility allows you build apps, or design a responsive website, depending on your requirement.
2. Inbuilt email campaigns: Sitefinity has excellent drag and drop email designer that is a boon for digital marketers. Create custom email campaigns as per your marketing calendar and send the emails directly via the CMS. The built-in tracking tools allow you to measure the success of your campaign.
3. Social-media friendly: The CMS has social media integration and makes it easy for the users to communicate on their preferred channels. The timely updates and communication allow users to stay close to their target audience.
4. CMS Migration: It is very easy to import data from other content management systems like WordPress or Joomla to Sitefinity. 

Finally

The CMS is SEO friendly and has integrated Google Analytics into the platform. It is also flexible and scalable so it will support your enterprise website no matter how large your business grows in the future. What other features should a modern CMS support? Please share your comments in the section below. 

Application Modernization - Why Is It Crucial For Your Enterprise?

Application modernization is a new key area, enterprises are now focusing on to simplify complex app development infrastructures and accommodate marketing and business need to stay competitive in the tech-driven economy. Many organizations consider application modernization to be a savvy method for modernizing legacy systems in a cost-effective, efficient and integrated way. And with the latest Microsoft software development technologies, it becomes easier to modernize your enterprise app. But what does application modernization exactly mean and how can organizations achieve it?

As defined by Tech Target, “Application modernization is the refactoring, re-purposing or consolidation of legacy software programming to align it more closely with current business needs.” It creates new business value for your existing applications. Smoothly running legacy applications is a resource-intensive process and time-consuming especially when the software you have deployed becomes outdated and new versions of system hardware or underlying operating systems become incompatible. 

Recent studies reveal that those organizations which do not streamline their business operations and modernize their current systems and processes through effective audits and adoption of latest trends, fall prey to competition and quickly go out of business. In order to modernize your enterprise applications, here are five keys to application modernization you need to consider.

1. Evaluate your application modernization systems:

Before setting out with any app modernization initiative, it is important for your organization to critically analyze your legacy systems you want to refactor. Since your application needs to be repurposed into a highly robust SaaS app, you need to thoroughly analyze the operating systems and network servers to make sure they can manage SaaS applications. If your organization has implemented BYOD policies then consider evaluating your mobile devices to ensure its capabilities for running SaaS apps.

2. Execute risk analysis of your legacy data:

Besides analyzing servers and OSes, you must determine the contingency measures for the proposed data migration initiative and be prepared for it in advance. For instance, if the legacy data is too critical to run the business operations, the lack of availability due to an unforeseen event can cause great damage to your organization in terms of loss of sales and revenue, and damaged reputation. As a result, you must consider data backup and disaster recovery solutions.

3. Consider your business needs:

The primary objective of modernizing your applications is to align app functions to your business strategy and workflows. Therefore, it is important to first consider the business requirements, identify the challenges in addition to process and operational requirements. You must also consider the intended positive outcomes you want to achieve through your app modernization initiative.

4. Detect app flaws early on in the project:

Once you start developing and checking your modernized applications, it is important to identify the flaws and defects in it as early as possible. Ensure several testing approaches and system-wide checks to achieve a thorough assessment of the app’s performance and its impact on your business process and workflows. If you identify the flaws in your app early on in the process, the costs of fixing the flaws are considerably low.

5. Establish an IT governance mechanism:

After identifying the flaws in your application, it is crucial to establish an appropriate IT governance mechanism. It will help you emphasize the core IT and organizational activities while keeping up the status of your application and project. Also, implement data management and enterprise content management (ECM) systems to ascertain the alignment and fulfillment of application growth objectives over a long-term.

Once your organization modernizes outdated applications, your network becomes more responsive and productive. What other possibilities do you think can exist for modernizing your enterprise applications? Share your thoughts with us through the comments.

Are Custom Enterprise Apps a Better Choice?

 With the surge in iPhone and Android app development over the recent years, enterprises have been rapidly increasing their IT budgets, with the aim to invest more in acquiring an effective mobility solution that suits their business needs.

So when a company decides to take its first step on the road to mobility, the first hurdle that it stumbles upon is deciding between custom mobile apps and off-the-shelf enterprise apps.

While the gap between the two mobile solutions may seem non-existent, the difference between them is undeniable and should not be neglected by enterprises.

 Off-the-shelf mobile apps are widely available in the market and are capable of performing the work of any customized enterprise app. But, designing and developing their own mobile apps may work out better for companies in the long run.

According to CDW’s Enterprise Mobile App Report, the enterprise mobile app market is expected to double its current size by 2018. 48% of the survey respondents reported increasing their mobile app budget from 2013 to 2014.

Let’s take a look at why companies should go for a custom mobile app and what are the key tradeoffs of choosing an off-the-shelf app.

Long Term Value of Initial Investment

The tradeoff, of developing and designing a custom mobile solution is that it costs more than an off-the-shelf app. However, if we look beyond the initial price tag of a custom enterprise app, it turns out to be far less expensive in the long term.

Higher Business Value

Tailored to a company’s business needs with the focus on transforming processes, custom mobile apps deliver higher business value than off-the-shelf ones that are designed for general enterprise needs.

According to a survey report by CDW, many businesses have seen tangible benefits of investing in custom mobile app development and observed substantial increases in efficiency and productivity.

Better Control and Competitive Edge

When you design a custom app, you have sole control over application updates and enhancements that are deployed. With an off-the-shelf enterprise app, businesses usually stick to a general set of features, adding extra functionality every now and then.

Keeping all your long-term objectives in mind, a custom enterprise app is built to accommodate future demands as well. It helps your organization work faster and better, giving you a competitive advantage over others.

Time and Cost Saving

With a custom mobile app for business, employees can work remotely without having to deal with the major risks associated with using third-party apps. Similarly, customers can also engage with your business, giving companies the unique ability to pioneer innovative, business delivery models.

Nearly all the respondents of CDW’s survey reported saving 7.5 hours per employee, per week, with a custom enterprise app solution for their day to day operations. 82% of respondents believed that their businesses generated additional revenue that measured up to 16% with 29% cost saving and 27% customer satisfaction.

Recent years have seen a significant surge in the world of iPhone and Android enterprise app development. A plethora of off-the-shelf applications are already available in the market to cater to general and specific needs of businesses.

What makes a custom mobile solution score over other apps is the value it brings to your business in the long term. While adopting it may appear a bit costly at first, the long-term benefits it yields are undeniable. Choose wisely!

Are you currently using an off-the-shelf enterprise app for your organization? Does it have any limitations? How have they affected your business operations?

Top 3 Mobile App Trends to look out for in 2016

Substantial growth took place in terms of the number of mobile devices that were launched last year and also the innovations that took place in the IT industry as a whole. In 2015, mobile applications took center stage and enabled organizations to engage more effectively with their consumers, across devices and in a very personalized manner. It may not be wrong to state that apps turned into individual experiences.

Let us shed light on some of the biggest application trends that we can expect to see this year:

• More Personal and Contextual: We will continue to see mobile apps getting more customized as per user needs and preferences. Users will only engage with a business when the messages delivered to them via apps are tailored around their choices, location and desired content.

• Remarketing is on the Rise: While push alerts may have helped businesses attract consumers in the past, that's no longer the case. According to a study by Localytics, almost 50% of people choose to disable their push alerts. Once they do that, there's no way to reach them outside an app. Enterprises need to use remarketing techniques to entice customers and app users depending on their engagement history with your brand, social media preferences and so on. 

• Increase in User Engagement: A personalized and seamless omnichannel user experience is what leads users to engage more with your brand. For example, WestJet does an excellent job to connect with its customers beyond the flying time through its app. Fliers can not only check-in and access their boarding pass but also receive all important flight updates on their smartphone.

What other app trends do you expect to foresee in the near future? 

A Rundown Of Magento 2 Technology Stack

Magento is widely used as an eCommerce platform by online stores across the globe. Magento’s much talked about version 2 has been in the works for quite long. It was finally launched to the general public a few months back with significant updates to its technology stack.

There are major improvements for every firm offering Magento solutions. It’s more developer friendly and the backend has been completely revamped to focus on ease of use for store owners and merchants.

Let’s briefly take a look at the changes and feature additions in Magento 2 Technology Stack:

1.  Apache: By far the most widely used web server, Magento 2.0 requires you to run Apache 2.2x or 2.4x. This is a solid upgrade from Magento 1 which ran on Apache 2.x.
2.  Nginx: Nginx is a popular reverse proxy server which can be used in place of Apache. Magento 2 has built-in support for Nginx which is a welcome news for Nginx lovers who are looking for low memory usage and faster performance than Apache.
3. PHP: The programming language at the core of Magento is getting an upgrade and a significant one at that. Magento 2 now requires PHP version 5.5 or 5.6x by default and it even supports the latest PHP 7. This should translate to faster performance for Magento stores. A number of PHP extensions like PDO/MySQL, mbstring and crypt are also required in Magento 2.
4. MySQL: The most loved database for open source projects gets an upgrade to version 5.6x in Magento 2.
5. Varnish: This is an efficient caching mechanism for loading sites faster. In Magento 1, Varnish had to set up using third-party extensions. With Magento 2, Varnish is deeply integrated into the core and can be setup with a few commands or clicks in the backend.
6. Composer: The popular dependency manager for PHP, is now integrated into Magento 2. With this, developers can easily manage their libraries for a project and browse/install packages from https://packagist.org/.
7. jQuery: The write less do more Javascript library is a welcome change in Magento 2. It replaces the aging prototype JS library from Magento 1.
8.  Zend Framework: Magento 1 borrowed components from Zend Framework 1. It continues this pattern and now utilizes important components from the updated Zend Framework 2.
9.  Symfony: This is a new entrant in Magento 2. Besides pulling from ZF1 and ZF2 frameworks, Magento 2 now re-uses Symfony components at various places in Magneto 2. 

The upgraded technology stack will bring in more opportunities for everyone. This will certainly mean more engaging online stores for users, easier administration for merchants and a better checkout flow with more conversions.

Magento 1 was getting dated fast and now is the right time to retire Magento 1 for your stores and upgrade to Magento 2. It’s truly a new era of commerce innovation and the possibilities are endless.

What are your opinions about the changes in Magento 2 Technology Stack? Please leave your comments below.