Has someone suggested a web application for your business or conclude your needs can only be fulfilled with technology? Your answer can be anything, but one thing is for sure. You need to know everything you can about web applications and their development for the best results. In this blog, we are answering as many as we can. So, let’s begin with the basics.

Basics of Web application development

The web application is a step-by-step process. To make a data-driven web application, you need to know the correct way to build it. Here is what will help you understand what you need:

  1. Backend Language: Backend is the server-side of the application. Some of the most popularly used languages for backend development are Python and Ruby. The backed is responsible for controlling web applications and their capacities.
  2. Frontend Language: Front end is the client-side of the application. Some of the most popularly used languages for front-end development are HTML, CSS, JavaScript. The Frontend of the web application is all about the look and feel of your web application. It has a deciding role in the UI/UX of the application.
  3. DevOps: DevOps is the set of practices that combines software development and IT operations. “Dev” for Development and “Ops” for operations aims to shorten the web application life cycle and provide CD or continuous delivery with high software quality. In short, it is the link between the backend and Front-end. Some of the technologies used are GitHub and Jenkins.

Web application development process

The web development process is divided into large chunks, later put together. This helps in the faster development of the application. For a web application development company, time is precious. With escalating time, the development budget increases. Which certainly no one wants. So, for your web development process to go smoothly, use the following information:

  1. Web application idea

Before you jump-start your search for the right web application development company, make sure you are well sorted about your needs. You must know the web application and what features would help your web application become more compliant with your traditional operations. Web applications help reduce the manual work, identify the areas where you can use the software, reduce the cost of operation, and gain scalability.

  2. Market Research

In case your web application is not for your in-house use but customers, do a market search. Check if there is any company that offers a similar set of services. What are the fundamentals of that web application, what is amiss in their product, how their user experience, and more? Down the line, some other important things to note are:

  1. Patent and trademark search
  2. Their Google Ranking
  3. Beta List
  4. Product Hunt

If you don’t find a product identical to users, there is no problem. The investigation is necessary to get a competitive edge in the market.

  2. Decide Web Application Features

Now that you have an idea about your product and what your competitors are doing, it is time to decide what features are necessary for your application and help you gain a competitive edge in the market. Make a list of essential elements in the application. All you have to do is deal with your target market issues.

  4. Sketch your web application

A web application development is more than just deciding about the idea and the features. It would help if you took care of other things that make up your brand, especially the user interface. It should not be precise; sketch out the following things:

  • Navigation
  • Branding
  • Forms

Consider your target audience and what they would feel about these things. Make these things as user-friendly as possible; don’t complicate the user experience by adding too many steps, reduce things to small general arrangements.

Make notes on your sketch, share it with people, see their reaction, consider their opinion, and use them to clarify your thoughts about the application and bring more flare into the entire software operation.

  5. Web application work process

Your competitors can be an excellent teacher for you. Sign up for their product’s free starter packs, see what they have to offer, and evaluate their services.

Create notes on what was unique in their product and what was very terrible. Furthermore, what is the entire work process of the web application, like what information are they using?

Once you are done with this process, make a list of essential things in their application, such as:

  • Confirmation/ verification email.
  • How does the customer login?
  • What is the onboarding experience on their app?
  • How does the customer pay for the application?
  • What is their pricing model?

6. Wireframe of the web application

Now that you have reached this stage, you would have an evolved understanding of your product and a reasonable perception customer base. This newfound information can be used for wireframing or modeling of the web application.

What is wireframing?

Wireframing is an organized diagram of your web application. It helps in app prototyping. It is more than the sketch you made; it would be more detailed and help you understand the application’s intuitiveness.

There are specific tools used for prototyping of the product. Some of the best once are:

  • Sketch
  • InVision Studio
  • Adobe XD
  • Figma
  • Balsamiq

These run on different OSes and also have different functionalities and toolsets to help you make the wireframe.

7. Advanced Validation

One of the right ways to avoid failure is by gaining some insight from the target audience. Once the wireframe is ready, you can run it through different people and gain useful insight into what makes them use the app and where you are lacking.

  8. Architecting your database

Most of the web applications built today are data-driven applications, and they have many pages. For the web application to work fast and swift and improve your user experience, you must decide the critical information stored in your database. Here is all that you need to know about it:

What is a database?

A database is a place where the data would be stored and organized. Data can be saved in a memory on a server or hover, or both.  A well-defined database management system is required to help you make your web application experience more secure and swift. Using it, you can do the following things over sever:

  • Create data to the database and evaluate the data
  • Make the application access secure by adding levels of security to different zones and limits.
  • Get an assurance of your database being confirmed.

9. Developing frontend of your web application

The Frontend of your web application is described as the visual part of your web application. It is what you see on your screen. It is made with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

The backend is the skeleton of the entire web application; we make the Front-end of the web application. It uses sever pages, and the backend structure has to be very organized to start building any web application’s front-end. With a single-page web application, the task becomes much trickier. Furthermore, other high-end technologies used to develop front-end framework includes React, Ember, Vue, Svelte. However, you need exceptionally expert front-end developers for that job.

The Front-end must speak with your backend, and this is not something easily achieved. Many technicalities are involved, and usually, for tasks such as running a substitute port on the localhost technology such as Node is used.
  10. The backend of your web application

A lot of web app development companies build the Front-end and backend of the application together. It is a reasonably good approach as it leaves no scope for confusion. Your application’s backend manages your data and is responsible for insinuating databases, servers, and everything your users can’t see inside the web application.

Building a backend is one of the most challenging tasks for the whole web application development process. You have to make some critical decisions, such as:

  • Server pages (Multi-page Application)
  • Single Page Application  

Important Steps in the making of backend include:

  • Give HTTP endpoints to your front-end; it helps establish the communication between the backend and the front-end. It allows users to create, read, update, and delete records.
  • Login for the customers
  • After login allowing users to make a request in the backend and perform different tasks.
  • Add functionality to the front-end

Some of the important technologies you should know that are popularly used to make server pages are:

  • Django
  • Express
  • Flask

Also, the backend development process would change as per the circumstances. For example:

  • Testing helps you understand the app behavior in different environments and improve the features and user experience.
  • Beta is the early release to the clients; it helps in the tech validation.
  • Production refers to your live structure.

11. Buy hosting and host your web application

While buying hosting from 3rd party sources, you have to do the following things:

  • Purchase a domain
  • Purchase an SSL certification
  • Pick a cloud provider, of which popular ones are:
  • Amazon
  • Microsoft Azure
  • Google Cloud Platform

Each of the cloud providers has its unique quality, and thus, the choice depends on the needs of what kind of support you are seeking from them. Basic services of them are almost similar; they have huge documentation and system support. They are also the most reliable ones.

Wrapping Up

Once you have done this, all that is left is the deployment. Post-deployment, the application is required to be regularly maintained to keep it bug-free.

Also, most of these things require you to find experts. A single full-stack developer might not suffice as they cannot handle some of the complex tasks. Hiring from a reputed web development company expert developers can be a good option for you. In case you are looking for web application development, take a free consultation from i2TECHS, where we help you understand the technology and suggest the right solution to your problems.