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Top React SEO Libraries for Building Search-Friendly Pages

Shivam Butani — Wed, 07 Aug 2024 12:30:23 +0000

Ever felt the frustration of building a fantastic React app, but it gets buried in the depths of search results?

We’ve all been there. In today’s digital jungle, good SEO is no longer optional for React developers. But fret no more! Here’s the good news: there are amazing libraries waiting to be your SEO secret weapon.

This blog post will unveil the top 6 React SEO libraries, like hidden treasures in a digital map. We’ll crack open their functionalities, benefits, and ideal use cases, so you can choose the perfect tool for your project. Whether you’re a seasoned React pro or a curious beginner, this guide will equip you with the knowledge to skyrocket your app’s SEO and watch your user traffic soar. So, here are the top 6 contenders which are used by top reactjs development company, ready to be explored!

React Helmet

Struggling with SEO in your React app? You’re not alone. Single-page apps (SPAs) are awesome, but keeping search engines happy with the content in the section can be a pain. That’s where React Helmet comes in!

Think of React Helmet as a translator between your React components and the document’s . It lets you tell your components what titles, descriptions, and other SEO goodies you want, and then it handles the nitty-gritty of updating the actual section. This means better SEO for your app and less head-scratching for you. With 1.4 M downloads and growing, the helmet is making a significant impact on the field.

Key Features

Dynamic Title and Meta Tags: Set and update page titles and various meta tags (description, keywords, etc.) based on your component state or props. This allows for SEO-optimized content for each page of your React application.
Social Media Integration: Manage Open Graph tags and other social media sharing elements directly within your React components. This ensures social media platforms can accurately preview and share your content.
Canonical URLs: Specify the canonical URL for each page to avoid duplicate content issues and improve SEO.
Helmet Providers: Manage SEO elements across multiple components or your entire application using Helmet providers. These providers allow for centralized configuration and inheritance of SEO settings.
Server-Side Rendering (SSR) Support: React Helmet integrates seamlessly with SSR frameworks, allowing you to define SEO elements on the server for optimal search engine crawling and indexing.

Benefits

Improved SEO: React Helmet empowers you to create SEO-friendly React applications by dynamically managing crucial SEO elements like titles, meta tags, and social media sharing information. This can lead to better search engine ranking and organic traffic.
Enhanced Developer Experience: The declarative API of React Helmet simplifies managing SEO elements within your React components, making your code cleaner and more maintainable.
Centralized Control: Helmet providers allow you to define default SEO settings and manage them centrally, reducing redundancy and ensuring consistency across your application.
Flexibility: React Helmet caters to various SEO needs, from basic title and meta tag management to advanced social media integration and canonical URL control.

By leveraging React Helmet, you can focus on building your React application while ensuring optimal SEO practices for improved search engine visibility and user experience.

Next-SEO

While React Helmet is a great general solution, Next.js developers have a specific SEO companion: Next-SEO. This library simplifies SEO management within Next.js applications, building upon the foundation of React Helmet. Next-SEO integrates seamlessly with Next.js, leveraging its strengths for enhanced SEO control. It offers a familiar API for managing SEO elements, making it easy for Next.js developers to optimize their applications. Clocking in at over 420k downloads, Next-SEO is a rapidly growing favorite for managing SEO in Next.js applications.

Key Features

Next.js Integration: Tightly coupled with Next.js features like automatic code-splitting and server-side rendering, Next-SEO ensures optimal SEO practices for your Next.js application.
Default SEO Configuration: Define default SEO settings that apply across your entire application, reducing repetitive code and ensuring consistency.
Per-Page Overrides: Customize SEO elements for specific pages while still leveraging default configurations for a streamlined workflow.
Image Optimization Integration: Manage image optimization for SEO purposes directly within Next-SEO, streamlining your workflow. (Note: This functionality might rely on additional integrations)
Social Media Integration: Manage Open Graph tags and other social media sharing elements directly within your Next.js components.
Advanced Features: Next-SEO offers additional features like robots.txt and sitemap.xml management, catering to broader SEO needs.

Benefits

Simplified SEO Management: Next-SEO provides a familiar and streamlined approach to managing SEO within Next.js applications, saving you time and effort.
Leverages Next.js Strengths: By integrating with Next.js features, Next-SEO ensures your application benefits from server-side rendering and other optimization techniques for improved SEO.
Consistent SEO Configuration: Define default SEO settings and manage them centrally, reducing redundancy and maintaining consistency across your Next.js application.
Streamlined Workflow: Next-SEO allows for managing various SEO aspects like image optimization and social media integration within your Next.js development process.

If you’re building SEO-focused React applications with Next.js, Next-SEO is a powerful tool to streamline your workflow and ensure optimal search engine visibility.

React-lazyload

While React applications offer a dynamic and interactive user experience, their initial load times can be impacted by large amounts of code or assets. Here’s where React Lazyload comes in – a library designed to optimize performance by enabling on-demand loading of components and resources.

React Lazyload provides a way to defer the loading of specific components or resources within your React application until they are actually needed. This approach can significantly reduce the initial load time, leading to a faster and more responsive user experience. Amassing over 240K downloads, React-lazyload is a popular choice for optimizing React applications.

Key Features

Lazy Loading Components: Wrap components with the LazyLoad HOC (Higher-Order Component) to defer their loading until they are rendered on the screen.
Threshold-Based Loading: Optionally define a threshold (percentage of visibility) to trigger the loading of a lazy-loaded component only when it becomes visible in the viewport. This further optimizes performance for large components or long pages.
Multiple Loading States: Customize loading placeholders or spinners to display while lazy-loaded components are being fetched.

Benefits

Faster Initial Load Times: By deferring the loading of non-critical components, React Lazyload helps your React application load faster, especially on slower connections.
Improved User Experience: A snappier initial load time leads to a more responsive and engaging user experience.
Reduced Memory Usage: Deferring loading keeps unused components out of memory, which can be beneficial for mobile devices or low-memory environments.

In conclusion, React Lazyload tackles performance optimization from a different angle. It allows you to defer the loading of components and resources until they’re absolutely necessary. This can dramatically improve initial load times for your React application, especially on slower connections. By delivering a faster and more responsive user experience, React Lazyload complements other libraries we’ve discussed, creating a well-rounded approach to SEO, user experience, and performance in your React projects.

React-page-visibility

While the libraries we’ve discussed so far focus on SEO and user experience, React Page Visibility tackles a different aspect – optimizing your React application’s performance based on user attention.

React Page Visibility provides a way to track whether a web page is visible to the user or not. This can be crucial for optimizing performance and resource usage. For instance, you can pause animations, defer non-critical data fetching, or throttle background processes when the user is not actively viewing the page. Though not the most downloaded library, React-page-visibility, with 76k downloads, provides a focused solution for a specific need in React development.

Key Features

Visibility Detection: Determine if the webpage is visible (active tab) or hidden (inactive tab or minimized window).
Event-Based Updates: React to visibility changes through lifecycle events or callbacks, allowing you to trigger actions based on the page’s visibility state.
Cross-Browser Compatibility: Works across different browsers, ensuring consistent behavior regardless of the user’s platform.

Benefits

Improved Performance: By pausing resource-intensive tasks when the page is not visible, you can conserve battery life and improve overall application performance.
Enhanced User Experience: A smoother and more responsive application can lead to a better user experience.
Optimized Resource Usage: React Page Visibility helps prevent unnecessary resource consumption when the user is not actively using the application.

In contrast to libraries focused on SEO and user experience, React Page Visibility tackles performance optimization. It lets you track if the user is actively viewing your React application. This allows you to pause resource-intensive tasks when the page is hidden, saving battery life and improving overall performance. Consider using React Page Visibility alongside other libraries for a well-rounded approach that optimizes SEO, user experience, and performance in your React projects.

React-meta-tags

React Meta Tags is another popular library for managing SEO elements within your React applications. While it shares similar functionalities with React Helmet, it offers a slightly different approach. React Meta Tags provides a set of React components that allow you to define and manage various SEO-related tags directly within your components. These components are then rendered within the document’s section, ensuring your SEO information is present. Geared towards a specific need, React-meta-tags, with 16k downloads, offers a lightweight solution for managing meta tags in React projects.

Key Features

SEO Tag Management: Define and set various meta tags like title, description, keywords, robots, and more using dedicated React components.
Dynamic Updates: Update meta tags based on your component state or props, allowing for SEO optimization specific to each page or view.
Social Media Integration: Manage Open Graph tags and other social media sharing information directly within your React components.
Flexibility: React Meta Tags offers a component-based approach, providing flexibility in how you integrate SEO management within your application.

Benefits

Simplified Integration: The component-based approach of React Meta Tags can be straightforward for developers familiar with React components.
Declarative Control: Defining SEO elements directly within your components promotes clean and maintainable code.
Flexibility: The component structure allows you to tailor your SEO management approach to your specific needs.

In conclusion, both React Helmet and React Meta Tags are strong contenders for managing SEO in your React applications. React Helmet offers a declarative API and additional features like centralized control and server-side rendering support, while React Meta Tags provides a simpler component-based approach. Consider your project’s requirements and development preferences when choosing the library that best suits your needs.

Sitemap-generator

While React Helmet, React Meta Tags, and React-robots.txt address various SEO aspects within your React application, Sitemap Generator tackles a different but crucial task: creating and managing your sitemap.

A sitemap is an XML file that lists all the important URLs on your website. It helps search engines discover and index your content efficiently. This can improve your website’s search engine ranking and visibility.

Sitemap Generator is a popular library that simplifies the process of creating and managing sitemaps for your React application. Although a niche library, Sitemap-generator’s 10k downloads demonstrate its value for developers prioritizing SEO best practices.

Key Features

Automatic Sitemap Generation: Generates a sitemap.xml file containing a list of your website’s URLs based on your application structure or provided data.
Dynamic Updates: The sitemap can be automatically updated as your application and its URLs evolve, ensuring your sitemap remains accurate.
Customization: You can customize various aspects of the generated sitemap, including priority and frequency settings for individual URLs.
Large Site Support: Can handle large websites with numerous URLs by splitting the sitemap into multiple files if necessary.

Benefits

Improved Search Engine Visibility: A well-maintained sitemap helps search engines discover and index all your important content, potentially leading to better search ranking.
Simplified Sitemap Management: Automates sitemap generation and updates, saving you time and effort compared to manual creation.
Flexibility: Provides customization options to tailor the sitemap to your specific needs.

While React Helmet, React Meta Tags, and React-robots.txt focus on optimizing the section and robots.txt file, Sitemap Generator tackles a distinct but equally important SEO aspect: sitemap creation. This library automates generating and updating your sitemap, ensuring search engines can effectively discover and index your React application’s content. Consider using Sitemap Generator alongside other SEO libraries for a well-rounded approach to search engine optimization in your React projects.

The post Top React SEO Libraries for Building Search-Friendly Pages appeared first on Techuz Blog.

8 Push Notification Tips for Higher User Engagement and Sales

admin — Wed, 15 Mar 2023 07:16:45 +0000

Push notifications are everywhere! By the time you read this sentence, your smartphone may have buzzed and lit up. It’s a new notification (Tada!).

Once you receive a push notification, there are three possibilities.

1. You can either ignore it at a glance.

2. Uninstall the app as these notifications are sucking your blood like little nasty arachnids. (I bet you don’t want either of the two for your own app.)

OR, the third possibility, which is a utopian situation for every app owner or marketer.

3. You check the notification and respond to it.

I guess it’s the number 3 that we all want. And in this article, we’re at your disposal to help you craft perfect push notifications to boost user engagement and sales.

Here are the top 8 tips for your push notifications. Live by these 8 tips and you’ll notice higher user engagement and sales.

1. Be Creative

Push notifications are just like any other piece of marketing or advertising content. So, what is that one thing you need for a compelling piece of content? It’s creativity. A creatively crafted push notification can improve the user engagement rather than just a simple dull message. Check this genius push notification by Amazon.

2. Evoke Excitement

Triggering emotions helps you to connect with your users in a better way. And positive emotions like excitement have been proven to improve user engagement with the content. So, if you have an event or a sale coming up, start sending push notifications about the event or discounts to built up the excitement and curiosity among the users.

3. Personalize

One of the of the biggest mistake most people do is firing a generic notification to the user. These notifications would serve no better than spam emails or text. In fact, according to a survey, 78% of the users felt that the push notifications they received were irrelevant.

On the other hand, personalizing the content would make the users feel involved and engaged with the app. Use the valuable user data such as name, gender, age, location, preference, activity, wish list, in-cart items, etc to personalize the content. Localytics have curated some of the best-personalised push notification in the following infographics. Take a look.

4. Utilize Location and Time

Location data, when combined with other behavioural data, can be used to improve the user experience of your app. If your app has permission to access the location of the user, it can be helpful to deliver the relevant notification. For instance, you can promote your product based on the weather and the geographical location of the user.
Even time is a great tool for sending a relevant notification. For instance, a music streaming app can suggest motivational music playlist in the morning or a playlist of chill songs during evening drive time. Not only that you can even send the notifications according to the festive seasons.

5. Make Users Feel Special

Everyone would love to feel special. You, me, the person sitting next to you, your office boy, each and every one of us. You can make your users feel special by sending them exclusive offers, discounts, news and information in form of push notification. And it works because they feel they are valued by a special discount or feel like an insider reading exclusive news and information. And this will boost user engagement as well as the sales.

6. Ask a Question, Make the User Curious

Do you know what makes the users click on your notification? You already know the answer. Questions are a great way to start a conversation. Asking questions is a simple and effective way to improve user engagement. It evokes curiosity and triggers the answering reflexes in humans. So, the user stops for a while and thinks about it. Which may even result in opening the app to know more. A well-drafted question can indeed improve user engagement.

7. Use Emojis and Images

While you communicate in person, you can convey your message verbally along with your facial expressions. However, in notifications, you communicate with your users with text which lacks liveliness. And it is quite difficult to convey emotions with just plain text. Here emojis and images can bring that missing spark in your push notification. They are a great tool to convey the mood, facial expression, theme, and emotion. Emojis can even come handy to keep the text brief and exciting at the same time. So just remember, adding emojis and images can provoke emotions which is a major factor influencing the users’ decision.

8. Make the User’s Life Easy

Apps must provide a solution to the problem of the users. It must provide utility and functionality. So should be your push notification. It should be useful to the user and make their life easier. For example, calendar app notifies about the upcoming events or Google Maps updates about the traffic. Many fitness and calorie tracking apps notify the users when it’s the time to work out, fuel up with the food or time to consume water. All these make the user’s life easy as it provides utility. A push notification reminds your user the important tasks to take care of, which otherwise are overlooked in the busy schedule.

Wrap Up

Since Apple introduced push notification in 2009, push-notifications has come a long way. Now, they are an integral part of any application on every device. It is a great tool that can help you to boost user engagement and sales if used correctly. Keep the above tips in mind for your push notification to get the maximum results. Hope you enjoyed reading it and would utilize the tips in your own app. If you have any query or would like to know more about incorporating push notification in your app development feel free to contact us. We are Techuz, a top mobile app development company in India.

The post 8 Push Notification Tips for Higher User Engagement and Sales appeared first on Techuz Blog.

UI/UX Trends That You Must Consider For Your Next Design Project

Kate Russell — Thu, 29 Oct 2020 12:51:29 +0000

It’s common knowledge that innovation is essential to businesses. It helps keeps them relevant but also facilitates growth.

As the internet becomes more accessible, digital innovation grows in importance. As of July 2020, nearly 4.6 billion individuals actively used the internet.

Nearly 1.8 billion websites currently populate the internet. The total number of mobile apps reached 8.9 million this year.

This saturation means businesses face massive competition for consumers’ attention online. By remaining on the cusp of design trends, businesses may sharpen their competitive edges’.

To help capture consumers’ attention online, businesses should implement the following top UI and UX design trends into their digital products. But first, let’s understand what exactly is UI and UX.

UI Design Versus UX Design

When discussing product design, it’s common to hear people use UI and UX interchangeably. However, they’re distinct concepts. To optimize your product, it’s important to distinguish between the two.

UI, or User Interface, refers to space where humans and machines interact. Broadly, the goal of UI design is to provide users with an intuitive experience.

UI design attends to all the visual and interactive elements of a product’s interface. This includes buttons, icons, space, fonts, and colors. The design generally promotes a brand’s strengths and visual assets.

Similarly, user experience (UX) designers strive to create straightforward products. However, UX refers to an individual’s experience interacting with a product. UX design is less concerned with visuals and more focused on building a product that meets a target audience’s needs.

Following audience research, journey mapping, and interaction analysis, UX designers create wireframes and prototypes. This guides the development of a product.

There’s a deep connection between UI and UX design. They are, however, distinct practices that involve equally important aspects of a product.

By understanding the nuances between UI and UX design, you may be able to create a better product for consumers.

Top 4 UI/UX Design Trends

1. 3D Graphics and Immersive Features

Businesses should implement 3D and immersive elements into their digital products to provide consumers with a compelling experience.

3D graphics may not be new to UI design. In fact, the earliest forms of 3D graphics for websites date back to 1994 with Virtual Reality Markup Language (VRML).

However, the advancement of AR and VR technologies heightens the feature’s impacts. The combination of 3D animations and immersive technologies provides an opportunity to create mesmeric visuals for users.

The popularity of 3D graphics and animations has increased across product segments. Notable brands such as Apple, Sony, and Gucci leveraged 3D animations to launch products.

In 2019, Gucci created an immersive online catalog to present their new handbag collection in 3D.

(Source: Gucci)

Users scroll to access a 360-degree view of the product. The interactive experience encourages users to spend more time on the site and, hopefully, make a purchase.

3D animations such as a 360-degree video establish visual appeal and invite consumers to directly interact with your products directly. A better website earns credibility with consumers, which may generate greater financial returns.

2. Increased Customer Voice in Copy

Businesses should craft UX writing with the tone and voice of customers to better engage them.

Your website’s copy not only defines your brand voice and tone but also serves as a powerful channel for customer engagement.

You should identify your customer’s voice and then integrate it into your UX writing. To identify your audience’s voice, you could conduct a survey or read customer reviews.

This may reveal specific challenges to which you can directly speak in your copy. You can then tailor the copy to specific points in your customer journey, which may encourage them to travel further down the funnel. It also integrates them into your brand, its history, and its future to deepen a bond.

As this is based on your customers’ voices, this communication style’s less formal and unique. An informal tone presents a familiarity, especially if you create a dialogue.

(Source: Medium.com)

Medium speaks directly to a user’s pain point by acknowledging the distraction through an apology. The website then further speaks to its audience by encouraging readers to continue engaging with the content using casual terms for a relationship: “make it official.”

By speaking their language, you demonstrate that you understand your audience and deepen your relationship with it.

3. Creative Data Visualizations

Businesses should take advantage of technological advancements to produce innovative data displays that engage consumers.

The increased accessibility of interactive and immersive technologies enables designers to develop data visualization strategies to show rather than tell consumers the value of your solutions.

A combination of WebGL and 3D technology is one way to impactfully display data. Using the solution, you may assess data sources, filter one, and then create a data visualization that surpasses out-of-date graphics such as tables, databases, and lists.

Abstract data visualizations may be particularly useful for tech-driven websites. QR code payment platform, Mogney, demonstrates its product through interactive visuals.

(Source: Mogney.com)

Rather than blocks of text and stagnant images, the website illustrates its product through abstraction visual techniques. This creates depth and offers a unique experience to users to encourage engagement.

4. Voice Interactions

Businesses that integrate voice user interfaces into their products may sharpen their competitive edges by creating a better experience for users.

More and more devices feature voice UIs, which enables users to interact with them through voice or speech commands. This increased accessibility results in voice search’s ubiquity: about 30% of all searches will be done without a screen this year.

While most commonly associated with smart home speakers, you can also design voice user interfaces a variety of products. As more consumers integrate voice search into their daily lives, it may become an expected product feature.

Voice user interface design is especially important for mobile applications. A majority (85%) of people use voice technology on their smartphones.

Voice commands also make your product more accessible. The design interface increases your product’s convenience, allowing consumers to use it when touch isn’t practical.

It also expands your product to people with disabilities. More than a quarter (26%) of adults in the U.S. have a form of disability. By designing a voice user interface, you enable a larger audience to interact with your product.

Businesses should implement voice user interfaces into their products to remain ahead of the design curve.

Adapt Products to UI and UX Design Trends

UI and UX design trends demonstrate improvements in products’ visual appeal and performance. To maintain a competitive advantage, businesses should implement these trends.

Leverage the advancement of immersive and 3D technologies to create a powerful experience for users.

You should infuse your UX writing with your customers’ voice to not only remain on-trend but also connect with your audiences.

To encourage consumer engagement, you can integrate unique data visualizations into your products.

You may broaden your audience and satisfy users’ expectations by designing voice UIs for your products.

The post UI/UX Trends That You Must Consider For Your Next Design Project appeared first on Techuz Blog.

A Complete Guide to Custom Web Application Development

Goldy Benedict — Thu, 14 May 2020 14:08:16 +0000

Web apps are everywhere. We’ve been using dozens of them every single day.

Just name it — Gmail, Twitter, Slack, Google Docs, Netflix, Fandango — the list is endless. There’s a web app for everything.

This for consumers means convenience. Just type in the URL and they have a solution to their problem — make bank transactions, book a ticket, or stream shows.

While for business, this means a whole new world of possibilities.

You have the platform; you have the market; you have the audience — all you need is to execute your idea.

For more than half a decade, as a web development company, Techuz has been developing custom web apps for startups and enterprises helping them to improve productivity and solve their users’ problems. So we decided to shed some light on custom web application development.

In this article, we’ll give you an overview of what exactly web apps are, how they work, web app development process, what makes a good web application, and how to select the right tech stack for your web app. By the end of the article, you’ll have you’ll know pretty much everything you need to develop your own custom web application.

What is a custom web application

In the early 90s, the web and applications were two separate entities. The web was filled with static HTML text pages while applications were native software installed on operating systems. As new technologies were introduced, the web became more sophisticated, faster, and more productive, with better user experience, and eventually, dynamic web-based applications became the new normal.

Defining Web Application

To put it simply, web applications are interactive programs that perform tasks over the internet. The users don’t have to install them on the device like native software, instead, they utilize the browsers to interact with the client-side application. The client-side app also known as the frontend is powered by a server-side app and database which are part of the backend.

Understanding the “Custom” in Custom Web Apps

While all web apps can be made to provide a customized experience to users, custom web apps, are focused on serving a certain market, audience, or enterprise needs. Custom web application development focuses on learning the needs, utilizing the technology that best fits them, and developing a tailored solution to address the specific problems.

Consider this example.

Google Docs is a web application. Users can jot down notes, create drafts, share them, invite others to collaborate, and it can be used by anyone in general who wants to create documents — students, authors, or project managers.

Now let’s say you want to develop a document editor that serves a particular user base, and provides better options, features, and user experience than Google Docs. It may be for students where they can make notes and create flashcards, or for authors with better formatting options and features for style guides. Now, this web app made to address specific problems is a custom web application.

The same goes for custom web apps for enterprises where the app is developed by understanding the particular needs of the company — their process, activities, and business model. A custom app helps them achieve their business goals way better than any off-the-shelf web application.

Custom web application development process

Any custom app development can be divided into five stages: ideation, planning, design, development, and test & launch. As your web app passes through each stage you’ll see your idea getting more refined and tangible. Let’s understand each stage in detail.

1. Ideation stage

Ideation is the stage where you do the homework — refine your idea, research, and draft requirements. It is the first as well as the crucial stage on which the entire development process depends.

Refining idea

Your idea is great, but you need to refine it and have a clear vision of what you expect from the project. This includes clearly defining the problem it will solve, the features and functionalities, the end goals of the project, and expected outcomes.

Market research

It’s essential to perform research about your competitors and users. Check if any similar products exist in the market and get the data to improve your idea. You can perform competitive analysis by googling your idea and go through websites like Betalist and Product Hunt to find similar web applications. A usual competitive analysis should cover the following points:

Information about the product — features list, functionalities, pricing, market share, etc.
User information and demographics
Information about companies and brands

All these will help you collect important data that you can employ to develop a better product with a unique selling proposition.

But what if your idea is completely new and there is no data for competitive analysis?

Even in that case, you need to perform market research. You can conduct surveys, use marketing tools to understand trends, or even develop a minimum-viable product develop a minimum viable product.

Numerous startups have successfully validated their idea using MVP, and it can be as simple as a landing page. In fact, many huge names in the industry began their journey as MVPs. You can go through some popular minimum viable product examples and types if you are planning to develop one.

Draft requirements

Once you have collected the data, it’s time to document it — draft an app requirements document. An app requirements document or business requirements document is a plan for your web app. It contains the outline, goals, assumptions, functional and non-functional needs, and deliverables. This is used by the development team as a reference during the development process. It is a very important tool that ensures your idea and its requirements are translated exactly as you have envisioned.

2. Planning

You have the idea, you have the data, and know what needs to be developed —it’s now time to create a plan. The planning phase includes directions for design, development, and project management. This ensures the smooth execution of the project. General project planning includes selecting the right technology stack, creating milestones and project sprints, allocation of resources, defining the user flow, app architecture, and wireframing & prototyping.

Technology stack

A technology stack is a combination of tools, frameworks, programming language, and database. Selecting the right stack has a direct impact on the application’s performance and time to market. Things to consider while selecting a technology stack are performance, scalability, complexity of the project, level of security, budget, development cost, and time to market. The following are some of the popular technology stacks used for custom web app development.

MEAN stack – MongoDB (database), Express (Node.js framework), Angular (frontend framework) and Node.js (JavaScript runtime environment).
MERN stack – MongoDB (database), Express (Node.js framework), React (frontend framework) and Node.js (JavaScript runtime environment).
LAMP stack – Linux (operating system), Apache (server), MySQL (database), PHP or Perl (programming language).
Python-Django stack – Python language used with Django framework for server-side development along with Apache server and MySQL or PostgreSQL database.

Wireframing and prototyping

Wireframes are low-fidelity representations of the web app’s layout, while prototypes are mid to high-fidelity representations that one can interact with. At this stage, a low-fidelity wireframe or prototype that roughly represents the concept can make the entire design process easier and more effective. You can perform this either on paper known as sketching or use tools for more refined wireframes and prototypes. Here’re some of the tools we use:

Sketch
Balsamiq
Marvell App
InVision
Figma
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe XD

(An example of a web app wireframe)

Determining milestones and sprints

Establishing milestones and sprints is the best way to track progress and ensure everything is executed within the deadlines. This makes project management more efficient and ensures delivery on time. We plan and evaluate the milestones using Gantt charts that keep things organized and clear both for the team and clients.

3. Design

Now, this is the stage where your web app gets a visual identity.

Based on the data acquired in the previous stage, the research, wireframes and prototypes, designers give an appearance to the app. The pages of the interface, colours, typography, buttons, drop-down menu, layout and everything is designed adhering to the principles of design for stunning visuals and experience.

But it’s not just the visuals that make the design successful. In fact, appearance is just the one-fifth part of web design. Aweb app solves the problem and thus the design should embrace different user experience competencies that include:

Information Architecture
Interaction Design
Usability Engineering
Visual Design
Prototype Engineering

We ensure the designs tick all the boxes as per the project and the client’s requirements. The goal here is not just to look good but also to create an intuitive visual language, guide users through the different parts of the web app, make the experience delightful and communicate the brand story. An effective design will make ambiguous things crystal clear; each digital touchpoint supporting to make tasks easier and leave a lasting impression.

4. Development

Finally, this is the stage when you start writing the codes to implement the designs and build the business logic. Development is divided into two parts — front-end and back-end that may or may not be executed simultaneously.

Frontend Development

Frontend is the client-side application that the user interacts with via web browsers. This user-facing app is developed using markup language HTML, CSS, JavaScript and different frameworks. While the list of these frameworks is endless, Angular, React and Vue are the most popular ones.

One of the major things to consider when developing the frontend is its responsiveness and mobile-friendliness. Your web app must work flawlessly across all devices to ensure the same pleasing experience regardless of the screen size and device.

Backend Development

The backend is the part that powers your web application — the database, server, and business logic. These are the things the user can’t see but works under the hood. The common function of the backend is to:

Serve requests of the frontend
Authorization and authentication when the user tries to log in
Create, read, and update data

At this stage, you build the backend app, set up the database & the server and integrate the APIs. Considering its complexity, building the backend is the toughest and most time-consuming.

5. Test and Deploy

Your app has been designed and developed and now it’s functional. But before the launch, it needs to be tested.

Testing is an important part of custom web application development. It not only makes the app bug-free but the inputs of the quality team help to improve the overall product. Below are some of the most common tests for any web application.

Usability testing
Performance – load and stress testing
Application security
Quality assurance and bug testing
Multiple browsers and compatibility

Once the app passes through meticulous tests and the quality team shows the green flag, it’s time for the launch. At Techuz, we deploy web applications to the servers using tools like GitHub, BitBucket, Beanstalk App and FileZilla.

And once the web application is live it goes into a maintenance phase where updates, improvements and new functionalities are added as per the feedback of the user.

What makes a custom web application successful

To be successful, a custom web application needs to have certain attributes that ensure it performs well and fulfils the needs of its users. These qualities range from design to features to technology to market fit. Here’re some of these key qualities you should consider while developing your web application:

Great design and usability: Your web application must be visually appealing as well as provide users with ease of usability and a delightful experience. This includes logical colour and typography choices, the right visual hierarchy, consistent layouts, simple navigation, etc.

Unique features: Your web app should have unique features and functionalities that not only solve the users’ problems but also sets you apart from the competitors.

High performance: How well your web app functions in terms of speed and reliability is an important factor to be successful. Your web application should provide a smooth and seamless experience with quick load time and speed and without any interruption and downtimes.

Scalability: Your web app should be highly scalable handling an increasing number of users and data with ease and providing the same top-notch performance.

Security: Your web application must be secure and protected from any potential threats and vulnerabilities. This provides users with a sense of trust and confidence in using your app, increasing its adoption and loyalty.

Adaptability: A good web application makes it easy to adapt and update to meet the changing needs of users and the market. This means being able to quickly implement technology or feature updates without fundamentally changing the entire application.

How to choose the best tech stack for your custom web application

The tech stack for your web app largely depends on your app type, business goals, project requirements, and project constraints. For example, for a medical app, security is the highest priority, so you should select a tech stack that provides the highest level of security. While if you’re creating a video course streaming platform, speed, performance and scalability could be your priority, and you should select the stack that fulfils these needs. While it may seem intimidating to select the tech stack, you can keep in mind the following three criteria to guide you in making the right decision:

Functional requirements

Functional requirements, as the word suggests, are the specific functionality and features that your web application must have to fulfil the users’ needs. Authentication, data storage, and streaming functionality. are some examples of these requirements.

Non-Functional Requirements

Non-functional requirements are the features of your web application that are not directly related to the functionality, but to how the application behaves. These requirements can include things like performance, scalability, security, and time to market.

Constraints

Constraints are the limitations or restrictions that you must consider while selecting a tech stack. Some common constraints include things like budget, time frame, available resources, technical limitations, legal and regulatory restrictions, industry standards, and compliances.

Final Words

So that’s pretty much everything you need to know about custom web application development. Hope this guide has given you an overview of how the development process works and would be helpful in your next project.

Frequently asked questions

Q1: What is a custom web application?

A: A custom web application is a software application that is built specifically to meet the unique needs of a particular business, user base, or organization. It is tailored to the specific requirements of the client and is not an off-the-shelf solution.

Q2: Why would a business need a custom web application?

A: A business may need a custom web application if their needs cannot be met by an off-the-shelf solution, if they have specific requirements that need to be fulfilled, or if they want to stand out from their competition. A custom web application can also provide a more efficient and streamlined workflow for a business, resulting in cost savings and increased productivity.

Q3: How much does it cost to develop a custom web application?

A: The cost of developing a custom web application can differ depending on the complexity of the project and the skill level of the development team. Factors that can affect the cost also include the number of features and functionality, the technology used, and the length of the development cycle. To get an accurate estimate of how much developing a custom web app will cost, it’s advisable to consult experts in the industry. You can just drop us a line, and we’ll be more than happy to help you with an accurate quote for your custom web application development.

Q4: How long does it take to develop a custom web application?

A: A custom web application can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months to develop. This depends on the complexity of the project and the size of the development team. Some applications may take longer if they require more complex coding or integration with multiple back-end systems. It’s important to keep in mind that these timelines are just estimates, and actual development times may vary depending on the specific needs and requirements of your business.

Q5: How can I ensure the success of my custom web application?

A: To ensure the success of your custom web application, it’s important to clearly define your requirements, involve end-users in the development process, and thoroughly test the application before deployment. It’s also important to choose a reputable development team and keep open lines of communication throughout the development process.

The post A Complete Guide to Custom Web Application Development appeared first on Techuz Blog.

Techuz Earns Another Great Review on Clutch

Vaibhav S. — Fri, 28 Feb 2020 11:41:52 +0000

Techuz was started over 5 years ago with the focus to help create web and mobile solutions for companies in every industry imaginable. Our web development, web design, and mobile app development services help bring companies to the next level to compete in today’s market. We are so thankful for the team at Clutch for recognizing all of our hard work. Clutch is a B2B ratings and reviews firm which features companies and reviews their clients have for them. Our profile on Clutch boasts over 20 high rating reviews!

One of our current projects is development for a design agency. We work in PHP, Laravel, and JavaScript to get the job done. Despite shorter timeframes, we are able to get the work done on time and still exceed the client’s expectations. We make sure to keep them updated on the project to ensure it’s always fitting the client’s needs.

“They’re one of the only dev companies that actually deliver the designs exactly as I create them. Generally speaking, when there’s a handoff from design to dev, a lot of the design aspects get lost in translation. These guys are one of the few companies that give the exact representation of your design.”

-Shivram Mahendran, Founder at Lattice Design

Late last year we finished up developing a web portal for an interior design platform. The site helped the company become more of a one-stop-shop for interior design. It helped bring together material procurement for designers, new product launches for brands, and data about ongoing trends.

“I’m quite happy with the outcome. They have achieved every task we gave them with the best quality and on time. The team did a great job.”

-Hatim Sunelwala, Founder at Aqsit

As well as further developing their main site, Clutch has been in the process of creating a sister site, The Manifest. Techuz is ranked highly on The Manifest, being featured on the shortlist for the best Angularjs developers in India.

Everyone at Techuz is excited for our future and can’t wait to see what great projects we’re going to work on next, keep growing and expanding in the future. We would love to learn more about how we can help you and your company succeed. Let us know some of your requirements and we’ll get back to you!

The post Techuz Earns Another Great Review on Clutch appeared first on Techuz Blog.

How Slow Websites Can Severely Impact Your Business

Dmitrii Kustov — Fri, 18 Oct 2019 10:57:30 +0000

Setting up a website for your business is quite crucial these days. And this goes for a brick and mortar company too — regardless your business operates online or offline. The thing is: Without a solid website, you are missing a huge chunk of potential leads and customers that your business can have.

However, your website won’t do you much good if it’s too slow to load. If you’re going to invest the energy and effort into building one, make sure that it loads quickly across all devices. With that being said, you’ll want to pay particular attention to loading speed on mobile technology, as consumers now use their phones and tablets far more often than regular computers.

In this article, we will fill you in on some of the key reasons why it’s so important to make sure that your website is up to speed.

Slow Websites Have Drastically Lower Conversion Rates

In the age of instant gratification, the large majority of consumers will go back to the search results and choose another website to view rather than waiting for a slow one to finish loading. When we say slow, we mean anything that takes more than 3 seconds. After the 3 second mark, 40% of searchers will leave the website instead of waiting for it to finish.

It might sound crazy, but the statistics speak for themselves. Even a 1-second delay in load time can reduce conversion potential by as much as 7%.

It’ll Have a Negative Impact on Your Search Ratings

Google is constantly updating its algorithms as a means of keeping people from “hacking” their way on the top of the search engine results pages. Back in the year 2010, Google announced that it would be adding page load time to the algorithm used for determining page ranking. At first, this was applied to load time on desktops, but now that mobile devices are the primary way of searching, load time all across the board makes a difference.

Since the initial introduction of this update, it has become clear that loading time plays a big factor in website ranking. However, despite the fact that it has become common knowledge, most websites still take between 6-13 seconds to load.

It’s not likely that you’ll actually come across any of the websites loading slowly, because Google buries them deep down the results pages. If you don’t want your website to get lost in Google’s depths, and want a fighting chance at ranking well, you’ll need to make loading speed a priority.

How to Boost Conversion Rate with Web Design?

Fewer Returning Website Visitors

This may not seem like a big deal at first glance, but if you run an online store, the amount of repeat traffic that your website brings in can make or break your success.

Even if you do manage to keep customers on your slow loading website, they will be 79% less likely to return for another purchase than they would be if your website loaded quickly.

It’s also important to take into consideration that “one and done” customers are not very likely to recommend your products to other people. Repeat customers are more apt to leave positive reviews and share your business within their social circles. Social proof of this nature is an essential component of building up your business, and it also works to improve your ranking on google.

With that information in mind, it’s clear to see how a website that loads quickly can go a long way when it comes to establishing brand loyalty.

So, Now What?

If you’ve run tests on your website and have found that your loading time is exceeding the 3-second mark, it’s likely in your best interest to make some changes. At the very least, you should optimize your website for improved loading speed on mobile devices, although it would be best to improve your page speed all across the board.

If you have some know-how, you might want to look into the open-source PageSpeed Module built by Google for websites using Apache & Nginx Servers.

Here are a few other simple steps that you can take as well:

Upgrade your hosting
Limit HTTP requests
Combine files
Defer your larger files (like JavaScript)
Reduce your server response time

If you had someone else build your website for you, and aren’t really sure how to go about reworking things, your best bet is to reach out to a team of SEO professionals to help get you running at the speed you need.

The post How Slow Websites Can Severely Impact Your Business appeared first on Techuz Blog.

Angular 5 Features and Benefits – All You Need to Know About Angular 5.0

Goldy Benedict — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 12:31:21 +0000

It’s a bird…it’s a plane…it’s Angular 5! The superheroic JavaScript MVW framework Angular is back with its latest version. Though there were some delays in its release which was anticipated in September and October, Angular team recently announced its latest version Angular 5.0 on November 1, 2017.

(Angular 5.0 stable version was expected to release in October 2017)

Angular 5.0 is introduced with the motto to make it faster, lighter and easy to use. Apart from this Angular Team has made efforts to make progressive web apps easier on Angular 5.0 and added Material Design compatibilities.

What’s new in Angular 5.0?

The key features of Angular 5.0 are as follows:

Simpler Progressive Web Applications
Material Design
Build optimizer
Angular Universal API and DOM
Improved Compiler and Typescript
CLI v1.5
Router Hooks
Number, date and currency pipes update

Simpler Progressive Web Applications

Progressive web applications are generating much hype these days. Understanding this trend, Angular Team has put emphasis to simplify the PWA making process. Not only that, with Angular 5.0 it is possible to get the features of native mobile applications with the mobile web apps such as push notifications and offline experience. This is made possible as Angular can create code and configuration with Angular-CLI on its own.

Material Design Components

Another major update in Angular 5.0 is that Material Design components are now made compatible with server-side rendering. However, this feature has not been released for now.

Built Optimizer

Angular 5.0 comes with build optimizer tool. It makes the application lighter and faster by removing unnecessary runtime code as well as unnecessary additional parts. Ultimately the size of the JavaScript decreases, and application becomes much faster.

Angular Universal State Transfer API and DOM

Angular 5.0 comes with Angular Universal State Transfer API and DOM support for sharing code between server and client-side versions of an application. Angular Universal renders the application on the server side. This increases the perceived performance of the application.

Improved compiler and Typescript

Typescript was introduced in Angular 2.0 and along with the upgrades in Angular newer versions of typescript were also introduced. The Angular compiler for Angular 5.0 comes with typescript 2.3 that makes the rebuilt super-fast.

CLI v1.5

By default, all the projects on Angular 5 are now generated by CLI v1.5.

Router Hooks

Developers can now track the router cycles from the start of running guards till the activation is completed.

Number, date and currency pipes update

Earlier Angular was dependant on the browsers to get the number, date and currency format. This resulted in inconsistency for users. But now in Angular 5.0, international number, date and currency have been standardized.

How to update to Angular 5?

Angular team has set up an easy Angular Update Guide that will navigate you through the update process and get insights you need before you update.

Future Updates

With two major releases within a year, Angular team has plans to release Angular 6 and 7 in the upcoming year. They have already shared a tentative schedule for the future updates.

(Tentative schedule for Angular 6 and 7)

Wrap up

There is no doubt that Angular is the most popular JavaScript framework. Google is putting efforts to make it better and the progress can be observed by comparing the initial release of AngularJS to the latest version. Angular 5.0 is packed with some amazing features along with its core ones like dependency injections. All these updates make it faster, lighter and easy to use. Indeed, Angular is a superheroic framework that is beneficial to both developers and users.

Want to know how Angular 5.0 can benefit your business? We’ll be more than happy to assist you with it. Have a chat with our Angular Consultant and we’ll tell you how Angular 5.0 can do wonders for you!

The post Angular 5 Features and Benefits – All You Need to Know About Angular 5.0 appeared first on Techuz Blog.

iPhone X Face ID – The Future of Smartphone Biometrics

Goldy Benedict — Tue, 24 Oct 2017 11:02:06 +0000

A whole new species of phones has emerged in the last decade. The definition of phones has been changed since the inception of iPhone in 2007. It was a landmark event in the history when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone at the Macworld Conference & Expo held at Moscone West in San Francisco, California.

In his address, he stated, “today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone.”

And after a decade with the introduction of iPhone X, the legacy of reinventing the phone is still pursued.

The upcoming Apple’s iPhone X comes with Face ID that uniquely identifies the user’s face to unlock, authenticate and pay. This is a phenomenal change in smartphone biometrics system.

What is Face ID?

Face ID is Apple’s face recognition system of biometric security. Instead of a fingerprint, it uses the user’s face to unlock the phone.

Just a glance at the phone and voila! Your phone is unlocked. Not only unlocking, Face ID can also be used to authorize payments.

Apple claims that Face ID is even more secure than Touch ID. The probability that a random person able to use their face to unlock someone else’s phone is 1:1,000,000. While that of Touch ID’s is 1:50,000. This makes Face ID 20x secure than Touch ID.

How does Face ID work?

Face ID unlocks the phone by uniquely identifying the user’s face. Philip Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Apple says that Face ID on iPhone is possible because of the tiny little area at the top of the display that they call- TrueDepth camera system. It made up of a dot projector, infrared camera and flood illuminator and is powered by A11 Bionic to accurately map and recognize a face.

TrueDepth camera system consists:

Infrared camera
Proximity sensor
Flood illuminator
Ambient light sensor
Speaker
Microphone
7MP camera
Front camera dot projector

Step 1.

Every time the user glances at the phone the flood illuminator produces infrared (IR) light (which is not visible to naked eyes) to illuminate the user’s face.

Step 2.

The infrared camera captures IR images of the face.

Step 3.

The dot projector produces more than 30,000 dots of invisible IR light to create a 3D map of the face.

Step 4.

These IR images and dot patterns are sent from the camera to iPhone X’s ‘Neural Networks’ to create a mathematical model to build a 3D mathematical model of the face.

Step 5.

This 3D mathematical model of the face is then compared against your stored image that was set up earlier.

Step 6.

The processor checks whether the 3D model and stored image matches.

Step 7.

Once the identity is authenticated the phone unlocks or authorizes a payment.

All this happens in real time within a fraction of a second.

A new beginning

Apple is not the one who invented the face recognition technology. In fact, the idea of face recognition goes back to 1960s. It is the technology that was previously used by intelligence agencies and expensive surveillance systems for face recognition and recognizing vehicle model, colour, license plate, etc.

But the fact that fascinates is the way Apple has encapsulated the technology in iPhone X with a flawless functionality and practical application.

Another astonishing feature of Apple’s new biometric system- Face ID is that it adapts to the physical changes in appearances over the period. It will recognize the user even if they change the hairstyle, put on glasses, wear a hat or even grow a beard. Apple has also worked to make sure that Face ID doesn’t work with a photograph, a detailed silicon masks that exactly replicates your face or even when you are asleep.

Face ID also works seamlessly in different lighting conditions whether it be day or night. The ‘Flood Illuminator’ produces infrared lights (which is not visible to human eyes) to recognize your face. So even if there is no light at all, Face ID will on the phone.

Apple has also acknowledged the importance of user privacy as the processing is done on the iPhone and not sent to a server. This ensures that user’s biometric data is safe.

The Rant

Since the introduction of Face ID, it is the talk of the town. Many people are criticizing Face ID that it is an epic fail. But it is not something new for the apple. Four years back when Apple introduced its Touch ID, even it was criticized highly.

When Apple introduced iPhone 5s with Touch ID, critics claimed it won’t work successfully. But now fingerprint biometric is an essential feature in every phone to unlock and even authorize payments. Same is with Face ID. The introduction of new technology has raised everyone’s eyebrows.

And the technology that raises eyebrows raises questions too!

But these innovations become our necessity with time.

Wrap up

The fact that Apple has engineered this amazing face recognition technology in a smartphone so efficiently in the upcoming iPhone X is noteworthy. Since the inception of iPhone Apple is redefining what a phone can do and is carrying on its legacy till today. Though this premium priced gadget is made keeping in mind the exclusive audience, apple’s Face ID is indeed the beginning of future smartphone biometrics.

“When you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.”

-Steve Jobs

The post iPhone X Face ID – The Future of Smartphone Biometrics appeared first on Techuz Blog.

How Netflix and Paypal did product transformation using Node.js?

Nilesh K. — Mon, 04 Sep 2017 07:06:22 +0000

Node.js V.8.0 released few month back and why there is so much hype about the Node.js around the world? Let me share some case study about Node.js, usage in production, future of Node.js and Why should Entrepreneur, Startups founder, CTO keep an eye on new shift coming in the market.

Case Study

Netflix

Netflix is the best example who leveraged the benefit of Node.js by implementing it for production and they achieved the tremendous result-economically and in performance.

Netflix is one of the world’s largest online media streaming providers delivering almost 7 billion hours of videos to nearly 50 million customers in 60 countries per quarter.

Earlier Netflix was using Java on server side and javascript on frontend side so developer had to code twice, which required them to understand both the languages. They had to write everything twice for error handling, activity tracking and debugging.

Why Netflix Implemented the Node.js by Yunong Xiao, Principle Engineer, Netflix

Primary reason to move to Node.js

Have a common language for both server side and browser side.
Performance that Node.js offers. From a 40 minute + startup time they went to under a minute
Node has a lot of modules that are mostly open source.
To build the single page application.

Future Goal for Netflix

Node.js support Non-blocking and can use for micro services like AWS Lambda to develop serverless architecture.The company is planning to use AWS Lambda to build rule-based self-managing infrastructure and replace inefficient processes to reduce the rate of errors and save valuable time.

Paypal

Paypal was one of the first company who was given a chance to use Node.js, to take the risk to make difference because at that time Node.js was not popular language.

First of all, they were using the Java on server side and javascript on the browser side. They first tried to develop the prototype using Node.js and same with java too. To develop the prototype using the java they assign a team of 5 developers and a team of 2 developers for using node.js.

Surprisingly, they got unbelievable result team of 2 developers caught the team of java developers in prototype development, That’s very fast. You can develop an application in half time using Node.js compare to Java.

Primary reasons to implement Node.js

Primary reason to implement the node.js in production was to handle the “100% Business Availability, even with Huge Load”.

“Around 1.5 billion dollars are being spent online in the US on a single day on Black Friday, each year.”

Paypal got the good result in performance which user can definitely notice:

35% decrease in the average response time for the same page. This
resulted in the pages being served 200ms faster — something users
will definitely notice.

Source: builtinnode.com

The future of Node.js is bright

Yes, I’m serious. You will be too ! Here is the proof –
Since Node.js has LTS (a long-term support plan which focuses on security and stability) since 2015, it’s no wonder that huge enterprises constantly add it to their stacks.

Source: risingstack.com

Why should Entrepreneur keep eye on trend?

You need half the team to develop your application or product
Can deploy an application in serverless architecture? You can reduce the number of servers required to serve a customer.
Makes customer happier by reducing the page loading time by 50 to 60% Kissmetric’s study showed that 40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load, and 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less.
Developers would be happy to work on your product as they need to understand the only one language to write the server side and browser side-Javascript only.

Applications areas for Node.js:

IOT
CrowdFunding
E-Commerce
Payment Processing
Powerful SPA-Netflix
Social Media
Real-time Services-Chat
Media
Enterprise Web Service

Need help with your project? Hire Best Nodejs Development Company with expert Nodejs developers.

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