Custom Web applications are awesome!
But you can’t build a stellar web application without a rock-solid custom web app dev strategy.
So in this blog post, we’ll discuss a tried and tested strategy you can use to develop custom web applications.
We’ll be focusing on things that are important, things that matter to a user, and help you offer a user-friendly experience.
So let’s dive in.
Web App Strategy Part 1: Market Research
There are two parts to the custom web app dev strategy
The first part is where we do the market research. It involves observing web applications in the market that are similar to yours and operate within the same niche.
That’s called competitive analysis.
Research 101: How To Conduct Market Research For Your App | Shopify
Related: How Much Does It Cost to Build a Shopify Website? | DesignRush
So let’s say that you’ve picked the top 5 web applications – based on the user feedback on App Stores, Quora, and wherever you can find the users of your competitor apps.
Now you’ll have to see what you can add to it, in terms of features, design, and user experience.
Remember, the goal is to make your application better than the ones that already exist in the market – and that’s exactly why the ideation stage is so important in custom web application development.
By now, you’ve formulated some features that will add value to your custom web application and therefore make it better than its competitors.
It’s time to validate our ideas by digging deeper into the rabbit hole. What we mean by that is doing a little research on the features that you think will be beneficial for the users. Check to see whether some form of research, study, or user survey supports your idea.
Look, custom web app dev is not easy – but it’s simple.
So it might seem like a lengthy process, but it’s not complicated.
With a bit of dedication, extra effort, and eagle-eyed focus on the prize, you’ll be able to do it – so don’t worry.
If you want to read more details about part one, then read our blog post on How To Build A Web App in 2024 here.
Now let’s jump right to the second part, which includes the development side of the custom web app dev strategy.
Custom Web App Dev Strategy Part 2: Developing The Application
Designing User Interface (UI) & User Experience (UX):
All the successful applications (whether mobile or web-based) have one thing in common, and that’s their easy-to-use and easy-to-understand user interface.
The Power Of Good UI & How It Enhances Engagement | Tiffany Eaton – Designer, Google
Remember when Steve Jobs said “Customers don’t form their opinions on quality from marketing, they don’t form their opinions on quality from who won the Deming award or who won the Baldrige award. They form their opinions on quality from their own experience with the products or the services.” He couldn’t be more right…
Staying in line with that analysis, you can spend a ton of money on marketing your web-based application, but if that application is not easy to use and easy to understand, it’s not going to do any good.
Think about ground-breaking custom web apps like Canva.
It’s a web-based application that people use to design social media posts, resumes, cover images, presentations, videos, and whatnot.
Just when you log in to your Canva account, here’s what you see:
- The navigation menu is as clear as it can be, right on the top.
- Then you have the navigation menu bar on the left side to help you jump right where you need.
- A search bar to help you search for different templates, from social media profile pictures to blog banners, and resumes.
- Icons of categories right below the search bar. Click any of those icons and you see a ton of templates (paid and free) in that category.
Now imagine if it looked like this
There’s no reason to believe that it’s a useful UI. It makes it hard for a user to navigate and jump right where they want.
With icons, it’s so much easy.
So now, we know that it’s pretty important to build an amazing UI for a user-friendly customized web app.
But the question is, how do you do that?
Here, take a look at the wireframing and clickable prototyping
One of the amazing benefits that you’ll be able to reap by designing a user-friendly web app is better discoverability.
In other words, search engines will love your web app. Add fantastic user experience (UX) on top of that and BOOM – your web app ranks on top in the SERP.
The Ultimate Guide To Designing For The User Experience | HubSpot
Choosing The Tech Stack & Writing The Code
After doing the market research, drawing a wireframe, and producing a clickable prototype, it’s now time to choose a tech stack.
What is A Tech Stack & How Do They Work? | MongoDB
When working on custom web app development projects, it’s important to choose the appropriate tech stack.
MEAN Stack
M = MongoDB (Database)
E = Express.js (back-end web app framework)
A = Angular.js (front-end web framework)
N = Node.js (JavaScript Runtime Environment, developed on Chrome’s V8 Javascript Engine)
MERN Stack
M = MongoDB (Database)
E = Express.js (back-end web app framework)
R = React.js (front-end JavaScript Library)
N = Node.js (JavaScript Runtime Environment, developed on Chrome’s V8 Javascript Engine)
LAMP Stack
L = Linux / Windows / macOS (operating system)
A = Apache (HTTP Server)
M = MySQL (Relational Database Management)
P = PHP / Perl / Python (programming language)
Python-Django Stack
Python (programming language)
Django (web app framework)
Apache (webserver)
MySQL (database)
Now per your tech stack, you’ll write the code in that language, and use the database, web server, and web app framework.
Also, check out Software Development Agencies in the US