Major Challenges That Come in the Way of Web Application Development

It is the time when technology is progressing rapidly, and we see web development accelerate at a high pace with their being the constant demand of better and user-friendly interfaces. Development tactics are also improving, and we see new tools and libraries emerging on a daily basis.

How does this change affect businesses?    

Now, this change certainly brings new opportunities, however with it comes complexity as well. There are new challenges, and it is necessary that the business address these challenges to make their applications a success.

As you begin developing a successful web application, it is necessary to consider numerous factors that define the success of the app. Here in this post, we will focus on the common and biggest web application development challenges which must not be ignored and should be addressed by the businesses now or in the near future.

Thus, to create successful applications, it is necessary that you address the following problems faced while developing Web applications:

Offering a good User Interface and User Experience

As we look at the things today, they are a lot different from what they were a decade back. Simpler and customer oriented web applications are in high demand these days. In fact, at times it is the small UI elements making the biggest impact.

In the present times, everyone owns a Smartphone. Thus, it is necessary for websites to be responsive enough on the smaller screens.  Do ensure that the web applications work smoothly instead of frustrating or confusing the users as that makes it tough to maintain your customer loyalty for your website. Website navigation is again an important aspect, though often neglected by developers. Intuitive navigation offers better user experience and leads your audience to the information they are searching for while preventing them from the visiting the competitors.

Scalability

Here as we speak about scalability, it is not regarding performance or to make proper use of computer power and bandwidth. Instead, it is about the load balancing between the servers. Thus, as the burden escalates (means, more traffic on the page), additional servers are added to do the balancing act.  Instead of putting all the load on a single server, you can consider designing the software so that it works on a cluster of servers. Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is useful in enhancing scalability when the many servers are added. It offers the flexibility to change in an easier manner.

Server oriented architecture is a design where application components offer services to other elements via the communication protocol, over a network.

Great Performance

Website speed plays an integral role in its success as when your business is online, every micro moment is crucial. Slow web applications are bound to fail as this result in customers abscond the websites, thus affecting your revenue and reputation badly. Website performance is the key to a web app’s success, and the often faced performance issues are badly written code, un-optimized databases, uneven load distribution, traffic spikes, unmanaged data growth, default configuration, and more.

A content distribution network (CDN) is widely distributed network of proxy servers that is deployed in various data centers. Thus, a network of servers can be used instead of a single web server for the website.

Benefits of CDN:

• It balances the traffic by routing the requests to the server to various servers
• CDN divides the files on different CDNs, thus no queuing and wait to download different files like images, videos, text, etc.

Knowledge of Framework and Platforms

Frameworks are significant for development languages as they enhance performance, offer coding libraries and extend capabilities. This way, developers don’t require hand-coding web applications.

There are some features offered by Framework such as models, APIs, snippets of code, etc., useful in developing amazing web apps. Some frameworks have a rigid approach while some are flexible. Among the various frameworks, PHP, ASP.Net, Ruby on Rails and J2EE are the prominent ones.

Meanwhile, web platforms offer client libraries build on existing frameworks useful in developing a web app or website. External API can be used to add new functionality. Besides, it is vital that developers and small business owners are well-versed with the company requirements related to website and app development. Like information delivery and online presence requires a simple web platform such as WordPress or Squarespace. However, a selling product needs e-commerce platforms such as Magento, Shopify. As you choose, the best platform considers various factors such as technical skills, pricing, analytics, customization options and learning curve.

Security is taken utmost care of

Security breaches are prominent nowadays, but it has offered no respite from the web application security. As per a recent study, around 96% of all web applications contain at least one serious threat.

Thus, application security is turning complex day by day, and it must never be ignored. It is vital to offer security all along the software development lifecycle, mainly when the app deals with crucial information such as payment details, confidential data, and contact information. Various factors need to be considered in the case of web application security like denial of service attacks, user data safety, unsafe access to restricted parts of the website, etc. Few of the security threats are Cross-Site Scripting, Phishing, Cross-Site Request Forgery, Shell Injection, Session Hijacking, SQL Injection, Buffer Overflow, etc. Ensure the website has been coded well to be safe against these security concerns.

As we talk about the challenges, the list could go on and on. However, these are the most crucial development challenges faced by business nowadays. If you have something more to add to the list, feel free to share in the comments.

 Author Bio : Ajit Jain is marketing and sales head at Octal Info Solution, a leading mobile app development company, offering platform to hire iPhone app developer for your own app development project. Connect with him on Google Plus, Twitter , Facebook , Linkedin and go through his ideas on distinct topics.