Top 15 Best Practices of Web Application Development

Web applications are still one of the most powerful tools on the Internet today. Whether you’re building one yourself or just maintaining an existing one, there are some principles that can improve your web application’s usability and help it achieve its goals more effectively. This web application industry continues to evolve as new products and new technologies emerge every day.

In order to ensure that you are keeping up with the standards in your industry, here are the top 15 best practices of web application development, based on information from industry experts and leading software development firms. This web application development best practices page will be updated regularly as new best practices emerge in the future, so feel free to bookmark it if you don’t want to miss out on any important updates!

1) Keep it simple

The functionality and usability of your web application should be accessible to those who are not technologically savvy. Avoid the temptation to overcomplicate your web app, especially if you’re a solo developer.

Choose the simplest solution that will still get the job done. If it doesn’t work for one person, it won’t work for everyone! Keep in mind that simplicity is also just as much about function as it is about design. A simple design can be beautiful and easy to use, but a complicated design can still be unnecessarily confusing.

2) Develop for all devices

Develop for all devices. The web is no longer just a desktop experience. You should develop your website or web application to be responsive and easily accessible on any device, whether it’s a desktop, tablet, or smartphone. This will ensure that users have the best possible experience with your site or app regardless of what device they are using to access it.

3) Optimize for speed

It’s not just about having a fast website, but rather optimizing for speed. Optimizing your site’s speed is crucial if you want your visitors to stay on your site longer or come back later when they have time to read everything you have posted – and trust me, they will! Visitors typically leave websites that don’t load quickly so speeding up your site can mean more traffic and better SEO rankings from Google.

Here are some ways to do that:

• Load as much as you can through JavaScript instead of rendering on the server.
• Use CDNs for your static content and use caching plugins like WP Super Cache and W3 Total Cache to cache your pages.
• Reduce the number of HTTP requests by using sprite images and minimizing file sizes with tools such as Photoshop or ImageOptim.
• Keep up-to-date with the latest web browser technologies by subscribing to HTML5 Boilerplate, a project that provides modern build tools, responsive layouts, CSS frameworks, and more.
• Use analytics to make informed decisions on load times and optimize accordingly.
• Minimize network latency by hosting your content near end users.
• Optimize images so they take less time to download; this is achieved by reducing their size, adjusting their quality, and tweaking color settings so that the colors are vibrant without being overwhelming.
• Reduce page weight by combining scripts into one minified script file and combining style sheets into one minified style sheet file. Include them both on your page in place of multiple files with each type. If you’re worried about accessibility, include an alternate text equivalent for any images.
• Avoid extraneous whitespace because it wastes bytes and slows down downloads.
• Preload external scripts by inserting a link to the file before the tags where it will be used.

4) Use progressive enhancement

To create a web application that will work on all devices and browsers, use progressive enhancement. Progressive enhancement is the process of designing for the lowest common denominator and progressively enhancing to meet the needs of more capable browsers or devices. If a web page works on an older browser, it should also work on newer ones.

5) Design for the user

Design for the user can be one of the most difficult and time-consuming aspects of web application development. The most important thing to remember is to always consider how your users will interact with your product.

This may sound simple, but it’s easy to forget as you’re busy coding out functionality. There are many user interface (UI) testing tools that can help you identify potential problems early on in the design process. These include usability testing, human-computer interaction (HCI), eye tracking, and A/B testing.

Here are some tips for user-centric design:

• Give users a clear understanding of what they should do next. Often times when designing a new site or mobile app there is a lot going on at once, and this can lead to confusion among the user. One way around this problem is by providing prompts that indicate what they should do next. Consider placing a button or an arrow directing them toward the next step after completing an action.
• Provide ample feedback when completing actions – every time you take an action within a site or mobile app, provide feedback about whether it was successful or not so that the user knows what happened and what might happen if there were errors.
• Be consistent – Once you’ve created a convention for something, stick to it. Consistency reduces cognitive load and makes things easier for the user to understand.
• Eliminate distractions – In order to maximize efficiency, minimize extraneous details and focus on what’s relevant at any given moment in the process of completing tasks.
• When people are confronted with too much information, their eyes glaze over until all meaning is lost. Make sure your product is designed for efficiency first and foremost because otherwise, no amount of polish will make up for it!
• Engage users – Remember that people like being engaged!

6) Develop accessibility

Accessibility refers to the design and content that is available for all users, including those with disabilities. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) defines accessibility as the design, development, and evaluation of products, devices, and services that are usable by as many people as reasonably possible. When you Develop for accessibility, it’s important to have an end user in mind. This means considering their abilities and challenges during the Design phase.

In the Implementation phase, it’s important to consider how all aspects of your product will work for different types of users. You should look at things like color contrast or font size to be sure everyone can read them easily. It’s also important to make sure you’re following web standards when you Develop your site so it can be universally readable by browsers.

7) Use web standards

Web standards have come a long way in the last decade. Yet, some developers still need to be convinced that web standards are important. We’re here to show you why web standards are so valuable and how following them will help make your life as a developer easier.

An average website is expected to have 40 pages. These 40 pages typically encompass many different elements like text, images, videos, forms, etc. With such diversity in webpages comes a variety of formats that all require processing on the browser’s end (e.g., HTML tags).

Without standardized code across all of these elements, there would be chaos and browsers would take much longer to process each page because they would need to use different functions for every format encountered.

If you can stick with basic HTML tags like header and paragraph, then browsers can parse through your code much faster because there is no guessing about which function should be used for which tag when encountered by the browser—you’re using it exactly how it was meant to be used!

8) Optimize for search engines

You should optimize for search engines. SEO is a complex process, but there are a number of things you can do to improve your site’s visibility and ranking. You should start with the basics, such as optimizing your titles for search terms and making sure that the URLs on your website are keyword-rich.

Remember to include keywords in your meta tags and alt text, too! It may take time before you see an improvement in search engine rankings, so be patient! Once you have implemented these simple steps, you should explore other ways to optimize your site such as by creating quality content and using social media marketing.

Here are the best practices for doing search engine optimization of your website:

• Make sure that your pages are optimized for SEO and structured with search engines in mind. This will make it easier for them to understand and process your content, which will help you gain higher rankings.
• You can do a quick readability test on yourself as a human being by using Google’s Insights for the Search function to see if you can easily understand what is going on on your page, even if Google’s spider might have some issues making sense of it.
• Try reading your own page aloud–does it flow? Do the words sound natural? If not, go back and rephrase until they do.
• If you want to know more about how search engines work, check out Google’s Panda blog post or this guide to increasing SERP rank on Moz.
• This final tip comes from the folks at WiderFunnel Marketing, who tell us having content written to answer questions users may be asking via online searches can dramatically increase conversion rates.

By identifying common questions people type into a search engine and writing detailed articles around those topics, you not only provide visitors with helpful answers but also offer an opportunity for capturing their email addresses through lead capture forms.

9) Use security best practices

Security best practices should be a natural part of your web application development process. Ensuring security is an important step in the development process that should not be overlooked. A team should be assigned security responsibilities, and this team should be responsible for testing all code before it is released.

Security needs to be at the forefront of all decisions made during development. The process should start with a threat model that focuses on potential vulnerabilities and then incorporates these threats into the design phase.

The project plan should include a security review and an assessment of risk management procedures, which includes penetration testing, a review of your monitoring system, and an assessment to see if personnel can access data they shouldn’t have access to.

If you’re wondering, How can I secure my website? Here are the top ten security best practices to consider:

• Use HTTPS to encrypt data in transit and protect it from eavesdropping and tampering.
• Protect your credentials with a password or two-factor authentication.
• Always use SSL for sensitive transactions or personal information like credit card numbers, social security numbers, or PINs.
• Restrict privileges for all accounts on your system so hackers don’t have access to your entire network just because they compromised one user’s account.
• Use encryption to send private data securely across the internet.
• Apply additional layers of protection when dealing with financial transactions.
• Perform penetration testing regularly against live websites and exploit any vulnerabilities found.
• Monitor for changes to passwords and other credentials (especially admin accounts).
• Implement antivirus software on each computer connected to the Internet, even if you only work in a small office environment.

All of these steps will help minimize exposure risks and prevent unauthorized access by unauthorized parties. Remember to keep up with the latest updates in security best practices.

10) Choose the right tech stack

What is the right tech stack for your new web application? Well, there are a number of considerations to keep in mind as you make this decision. To help out, we’ve put together a list that includes the top ten best practices to keep in mind when choosing a tech stack.

Always use the latest stable version of frameworks and libraries. As software evolves, it’s essential to stay up-to-date with the latest releases – and even beta versions if they’re not too buggy – so that you can take advantage of features and improvements as soon as they become available.

It also means that bugs have already been worked out by developers and you won’t need to spend any time debugging them yourself. However, before upgrading an existing project, make sure that the current framework or library has an upgrade path available. If an update makes significant changes to an existing API, then upgrading might require some work on your part; but in most cases, it’s just a matter of following instructions outlined on their website.

• Always validate input
• Do code reviews
• Keep code DRY
• Favor object-oriented programming
• Use defensive programming
• Use asynchronous requests

11) Create an Attractive Interface

Designing an attractive website is a top best practice. Studies have shown that up to 90% of people will not buy something if they don’t like the look, feel, or layout. Create a design that is both aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly for visitors to your site, and you’ll see more conversions.

Consider how important aesthetics are when it comes to developing your application, as well as what type of layouts work well in different situations.

• What color palette would best suit the design?
• Will you need stock photography?
• Can those be purchased inexpensively from sites such as iStockPhoto and Getty Images?
• What fonts work best with this project?
• Would these fonts provide personality while also remaining readable on any device?
• Is there a certain style you are looking for or are looking at other designers’ portfolios for inspiration?

12) Provide Great UX

Providing a great user experience is the key to any successful website. Here are some best practices that will help you make sure your website is easy to use and helps achieve your goals. Designing and developing for people, not devices.

• Get users’ attention with visual content.
• Present relevant information first in an intuitive hierarchy.
• Make content short and concise (less than 250 words).
• Use mobile-friendly templates or frameworks like Bootstrap or Foundation
• Use navigation buttons or tabs to guide users through menus and options
• Provide simple instructions at each stage
• Keep animations brief
• Avoid overly complex interactions
• Allow people to share their progress on social media networks with one click

13) Use a robust CMS

Choosing a CMS can be difficult. You want to make sure that you’re using the best technology for your business, but you also want to avoid overpaying for features that you don’t need or won’t use. This is a list of some of the best practices to consider when selecting a CMS for your website:

• A robust CMS will allow for more control over content management and editing.
• Do research on what type of CMS will work best with the design team that is designing your site.
• Consider how often you plan on publishing new content, as this will determine if a blog-style CMS or one with fewer restrictions would be better suited.

14) Keep the Code Concise

When developing a web application, there are many best practices you should follow. Some developers may think the best practice is to keep the code concise, but this is not always the case.

Keeping code concise will make it difficult to debug errors and troubleshoot issues that may arise in your code if something goes wrong. If a developer needs to change something in their application and they’re trying to decipher what’s going on in the code, they need as much detail as possible. This will allow them to pinpoint where the issue is occurring.

15) Create Animations

Creating Animations is a great way to engage your audience and make your message memorable. You can use animations in social media posts, infographics, product pages, and marketing emails to convey a message in an interesting way.

If you’re using animations to promote a new product or service on social media, be sure to post it at the optimal time for your audience. For example, if you want to reach Millennials on Instagram, post at 8 AM when they’re most likely scrolling through their feed.

Here are some top animation tools you can use today:

• Create simple GIFs with GIPHY’s GIF Keyboard
• Design eye-catching icons with IconBeam
• Add motion to your photos with MotionPicker
• Get creative with Animatron’s drag-and-drop interface to animate practically anything
• Bring any photo to life with Flinto’s easy-to-use WYSIWYG editor which features customizable templates
• Create interactive prototypes of your mobile app or website with the InVision App (Web)

Conclusion

This is an important part of the process. You need to think about how your application will be used, who will use it, and who can access it. Then you need to consider how secure and safe the application needs to be. If you take these steps into account from the beginning, then you should have a better chance of developing a successful web application.

Even though each company has its own set of best practices, there are general practices that apply to all websites. To save yourself time and money, hire a website development company to create the site for you! There is no need to struggle with design or code when experts exist who specialize in making this process easy and enjoyable.