Nowadays, a web application is increasingly becoming a basic requirement for every firm and business. The is because a web application has the calibre to serve manifold purposes for the company. It can help to build and maintain relationships with the consumers, communicate with employees, store data securely and offer information and data to the management team. Moreover, companies these days are looking for custom web application development that can be tailored to meet their specific needs. They are relying on skilled and experienced brands, who can help meet their definite needs in terms of web application development.
What is web app development?
Well, given all the incredible benefits of a web application, you must be wondering what exactly web application development means. A web application development refers to the web design and development of application programs that are located on distant servers and use the internet to deliver those on the device of the user. A web app is accessed through an internet connection and does not involve downloading it. Meaning, any end-user can gain access to open a web application via Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari or any other similar web browser. Most of these web applications are written in CSS, HTML or Java.
Steps involved in website application development
Developing a web application involves several steps; each one of these needs to be perused carefully for designing your website application with finesse. Hence, below we have laid down a comprehensive step by step guide that can help you with any kind of website development, including WordPress website development.
Ideation stage
The foremost step for developing a web application involves two main questions viz, the ‘what ‘and ‘why’. Introspect your needs and requirements for developing a web application. Think about why exactly you need a web application and what kind of web application can help you in your work. It should either resolve some of your issues or your consumers’ and clients’ problems or all. Besides, you must be interested enough in custom web application development as you need to invest a lot of time in designing the web app. You can begin by asking these specific questions.
- What amount of time do I have to develop a web app?
- What kind of web app do I want?
- The amount of money that will be needed to develop a web app?
- How much help will it be for me and/ or my team?
Once you know the kind of web application you need to develop, you can move on to the next stage.
Market research
The next step in web design and development involves thorough market research. Find out if there are similar web apps in the market and most importantly research if a market of the same exists. If your research determines that a similar application already exists, it clearly means a market for the same exits too. You should use this opportunity, study a similar application, how it is developed and what it lacks. While building your own application, incorporate these and build an app that will give you a unique space in the existing market.
However, if a similar app does not exist at all, your app can gain significant importance in the market and create a market of its own. But there are also chances of it going all topsy turvy. To avoid that, you can share your distinct idea on different forums including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter where there is a presence of your possible target market and check their reaction. You can also use a keyword tool to search for keywords related to your web application. If the tool indicates that a good number of web users are searching for a similar application, you can simply go ahead with your web application development.
Related: WEB APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT – THE ULTIMATE GUIDE YOU NEED TO KNOW
Explain the features of your web app
The mantra of building a web application successfully and within your stipulated time is by adding only those features that are required. If you keep adding too many functionalities, it will take up too much of your time and effort. Developing a web application should be fun and not stressful. Keep the features as simple as you can to create a delightful user experience and only define those absolutely necessary functionalities.
Draw a sketch of the web app
Take a pen and notebook and start drawing a rough sketch of your web application. Collate all the features, target market and the idea that you have in mind about your web app and reflect them in your notebook. Draw a rough wireframe of the application. Add the brand, navigation, buttons and other related components. Try to sketch multiple editions of the web application and add notes regarding the features and how it must appear. While sketching down your app, try to keep it simple.
Plan the workflow of the web application
Now you need to draw an outline of the workflow of your web application. You can have a look at your competitor’s web apps and take notes of the good and bad points in their application. Based on that, develop your workflow. Chalk out a list of pages that you want to include in your web application. For instance, there can be two different pages for signing up and signing out and so on.
Create the prototype
Once you have outlined your sketch and its pages, you have to create the prototype or the blueprint of your web application. Creating the prototype simplifies the validation process. There are many prototype tools available in the market these days. You can use any of those to make the prototype.
Validate your prototype
Once you have developed the prototype, it is time for you to get feedback on it. Unveiling it to your friends is never enough, go around and present it to your target market. Try to build a few representative users. Interact with them, know the problems they face and then give them the solution, i.e., your web application. Take their feedback as well as suggestions and keep a record of it. This will help you improve your product better and come up with the MEP or minimal excellent product.
Create the database of the web application
Now that you have a basic understanding of your web application, you need to think about the kind of information that you want to keep in the database. The nature of the database is evaluated based on the nature of data you want to store and the steps you want your customers to follow to help store that data. You can use the document or SQL database which is popular for web applications. Make sure to secure your database and use safe practices to protect the data of your consumers. Protecting the database is also of utmost importance for you and your firm as information leak can be detrimental for both you and your consumers.
Create the Frontend and Backend
Frontend refers to the visual components of web application development. It is developed by using Javascript, CSS and HTML. You should make use of SPA for building the Frontend. In the beginning, you will require a few components to create a development environment. This involves the code editor, framework for packaging, compilation and Frontend. You also need to configure the packaging tool to interact with the backend, which will be active on some other localhost or port. Node’s HTTP Proxy is used to make this configuration.
The backend refers to all those things that govern the data. This can include servers, databases and all the other things that are not visible to the users.
Host the web application
Once the Frontend and Backend are created successfully, it is time for you to host the application on a server. For this, you need to purchase a domain, SSL Certificate and select a cloud provider such as Google Cloud Platform, Amazon and so on.
Deploy the web application
The last stage involves the deployment of the web application from the source control to cloud hosting. There are few applications that help in this deployment process or you can directly do it from your computer.
Once you have successfully created the web application, it is time to launch the app and do take proper marketing strategies to make the app a success. It is a lot of hard work, but the end result will be something of great excellence.
Brainstorm ideas and start working on your web app today. You can get in touch with Brandvisage, which can help you in the journey of a successful web application development, WordPress website development and many more.