What Is Server Side Rendering: Definition, Benefits, and Risks

If you are working on a digital solution, one of its integral stages will be UX/UI design. While trivial projects usually have “beaten” paths for creating navigation and visuals, any deviation from the standard can lead to dissatisfaction among end users and increase the entry threshold for them. In this regard, no matter how sophisticated the logic of your project is, it is important to understand the usability principles maintained by human psychology to ensure its excellent user experience.

Theories of Perception in UX/UI Design

Generally speaking, there are several popular theories of perception in UX/UI design:

• Gestalt psychology aimed at gaining an understanding of how people associate individual objects with things that are meaningful to them. The main gestalt principles include figure-ground (according to which some objects, depending on their visual appeal, are perceived as key navigation elements, while others serve as background), similarity (according to which elements with identical visual characteristics are perceived as interconnected), proximity (according to which closely placed objects are also perceived as related to each other), and closure (which states that incomplete objects, if sufficiently detailed, can be perceived by users as complete).
• Affordance theory, claiming that to ensure intuitiveness, users should receive some cues from the interface from the very beginning on how to deal with a particular element – one way to do this is to use skeuomorphism;
• Hick's Law, which states that the time it takes a particular user to make a decision is logarithmic to the number of available options (which means that to maximize intuitiveness, the user's choice should always be limited);
• Fitts' Law, stating that the time it takes a user to reach a desired part of the interface depends on its size and distance (which means that to ensure a great user experience, you need to place interactive elements closer to the user's starting point);
• Signal Detection Theory, claiming that users can subconsciously distinguish between meaningful cues (calls to action) and background noise, meaning that they should be visually separated.

Cognitive Load: Its Effects on UI Design

Now let's move from theory to practice and consider individual insights extracted from the above theories of psychology in UX. 

In particular, the first insight is the minimization of cognitive load, that is, the efforts of the human brain that must be applied to perform a specific target action. Thus, the importance of reducing the amount of information or tasks provided to the user becomes clear – otherwise, there is a high probability that the user will begin to act erroneously. 

In practice, such brevity can be achieved by correctly grouping interrelated elements and removing elements whose functionality duplicates each other.

Emotional Response & UX Design

Another valuable insight from UX design and psychology is to establish an emotional connection with the end user through your interface. This is a global task that begins with user behavior analysis and identifying their desires, pain points, and intentions and ends with transforming the obtained information into design elements that resonate with them. 

Ultimately, you will have to walk in the shoes of the average consumer of your software solution to ensure the proper level of empathy with your emotional design. In terms of practical implementation of the emotional response, such user empathy can be achieved through the integration of “user experience stories” that can be presented by a service provider to users as they get acquainted with the digital solution, as well as the use of the right color palette, forms, audio, pop-ups, and text.

The Role of Memory in User Interaction

Since, according to cognitive psychology in design, the average person can concentrate on one object for up to 20-30 minutes, it is important to take this aspect into account if your software solution involves long-term interaction with it. 

Specifically, you can reduce the load on your users' memory by implementing elements and scenarios that work and occur in a way that is familiar to them. Otherwise, if something does not function as expected, it can lead to users’ confusion and erroneous actions. 

Understanding User Behavior Through Heuristics

Heuristics are specific UI design principles that can predict user psychology. Here are some of them:

• Visibility of system status, which implies the importance of informing end users about what is happening with your software solution at the moment through progress bars, loading animations, or status messages;
• Match between the system and the real world, which emphasizes the importance of correspondence between the system's behavior and the knowledge and experience that users received before they became familiar with your software solution;
• User control and freedom, which implies the need to provide end users with the ability to freely navigate your software solution and manage negative scenarios;
• Consistency and standards, which determine the significance of logical connections between elements, terminology, and layouts;
• Error prevention, which consists of preventing erroneous actions by end users by providing them with unambiguous and understandable instructions;
• Recognition over recall, which states that to ensure better intuitiveness, users should “recognize” familiar patterns from the real world in elements and scenarios of your interface.

Thus, you have to perform a heuristic evaluation to check whether your solution is good in terms of usability. Also, note that in reality, there are many more psychology UI design heuristics, but the above list will be sufficient for a basic understanding of what is meant by the term excellent user experience.

The Impact of Attention on User Experience

Many designers, in order to encourage the user to perform a particular action, abuse pop-up notifications and other features to attract attention, thereby increasing the cognitive load, the inadmissibility of which we have already discussed earlier. 

Instead, you can use such approaches as the correct building of a visual hierarchy, optimization of the color palette, breaking down complex processes into several simple ones, etc. And, of course, do not forget to appeal to the memory of users, which already contains some experience of interaction with other digital solutions and can automate some processes of dealing with them due to the familiarity of the mental models implemented.

User Motivation & Reward Systems in UX/UI Design

Finally, from the point of view of UX psychology, many UX/UI designs benefit from gamification, which motivates users to move toward the target action. In general, gamification is aimed at boosting user engagement and creating an exciting user experience that they don’t want to interrupt. Its main elements are rewards and recognition.

At the same time, it is crucial to note that some reward systems are too confusing for the average user and, thus, create unnecessary cognitive load instead of motivation. Moreover, gamification is not considered a universal approach that could be used in any project. Therefore, you have to always start with the appropriateness and the affordance of implementing this concept clearly and simply for the consumer.

Conclusion

We hope that with the help of this article, you were able to understand the importance of UX design psychology and how it is implemented in UI/UX principles like heuristics, emotional response, lowering cognitive load, user motivation, and others. If you are interested in creating a digital solution that fully meets all these psychological principles, feel free to contact us.

The medical field has been developing for ages, but over the past twenty years, we’ve seen the flourishing of healthtech. And it’s not surprising: this technology is a game-changer for patient care, workflow, and life-saving. 

The healthcare industry includes producing portable devices to monitor vital signs and online medical consultations provided by modern digital health solutions. And, similarly, every private clinic should have a top-notch website where patients can book an appointment with a doctor. 

What are the roles of a medical site?

1. A communication tool with patients. A site can be easily googled. Also, it contains information about available services and specialists. Thus, it makes it much easier for clients to reach out to you.
2. A communicational channel. Internet marketing is one of the most effective tools for attracting customers, but you need a web resource to use it. Thanks to a site, you will be able to find customers among users of search engines and social networks.
3. An image-maker of your organization. You need to give a good impression to make others want to collaborate. 
4. A source of getting feedback and statistical data. Thanks to analytics systems, you can track changes in behavioral factors, perform A/B tests, and monitor the effectiveness of various traffic channels.

So, a medical website must be very comprehensive, secure, and accessible at all hours. To achieve this, it’s important to involve specialists responsible for different aspects of the work at each stage of the healthcare website development. 

Key Considerations When Hiring

Before you hire a health tech development company, it’s essential to ensure their team has the necessary hard and soft skills. The task of the dev team will be to make the site appealing to users and customize traffic channels. In turn, the site owner should provide the essential information and approve tasks in time to avoid excess of the final healthcare website development cost and pauses in the work process.

What should you bear in mind while searching web development companies for healthcare?

• Relevant experience. The more projects related to medicine they have, the better. 
• Technical knowledge. Find out if the developers know the required programming languages. 
• Communication skills. Website development is a team effort not just for the performers but also for the customers, so soft skills are vital here.
• Ability to comply with regulatory requirements. The company must know about HIPAA compliance and other legal provisions. 

Experience in HeathTech

The company you want to hire must understand your business. That’s why your healthtech development company must be experienced with medical data and technology. Look for the company that has previously worked on similar projects. They could have a background in developing electronic health record systems, medical visualization software, remote care platforms, or other products related to healthtech website development. Companies with extensive experience in this field are well prepared to meet the specific demands of healthcare software development.

Technical Expertise 

The company’s tech team should have certain skills required for medical website development. First of all, they need to ensure the security of the medical website. Secondly, it must be able to scale. This will allow you to upgrade a site following current changes like adding new services, functions, categories, or sections. It will also increase functionality and optimize it based on customer requests and company interests.

Another important aspect is defining the right tech stack. The developers must be able to choose a health tech website development programming language that meets business needs. The most popular ones are HTML/CSS, PHP, Python, JavaScript, Java, Ruby, and Swift. The final choice of one or another development tool must be made according to the goal of creating responsive web design and providing a brilliant user experience. The company should also have a skilled designer who can transfer your brand identity into the website’s UX/UI design. 

Regulatory Compliance 

A team working on a health tech site must guarantee its security as patients leave their personal data there – this can be ensured by its knowledge of how to create a secure website for healthcare providers. Specifically, such websites must meet HIPAA regulations and other confidentiality rules in health care, such as GDPR and PCI-DSS. Make sure the company is aware of these norms and can perform HIPAA-compliant website development. 

Communication and Collaboration

Healthcare website development requires ongoing communication between the client and the contractor. For example, in the beginning, you and the tech team will negotiate on choosing the right CMS for the website. Consider hiring only those who are accessible, transparent, and timely. If there are no meetings or any other forms of communication, move on to the next candidates.

Partner’s Reliability

Make sure the chosen company is trustworthy. It must be present on social media and have its website with a portfolio. Seek for clients' feedback on special resources, forums, and social networks. This way, you’ll quickly see what prior customers have said about a company's service delivery. And, if some field-specific media have published case studies about the company’s work, it’s a very good sign. 

Compliance with Your Request for Proposal 

Once you decide on a candidate, it’s time to write a project proposal. Health tech website development proposals include stating the project’s objective, target audience, budget, and other features specific to your project. This way, the potential company will understand your business needs better and be able to provide an individual proposal. 

Impression After Personal Interviewing

A key to successful collaboration lies in communication. Interviewing health tech web developers will allow you to test their understanding of your specific demands and the concept of the website. 

Crucial moments to clarify during interviews: 

1. Ask for details about their experience. Get candidates to talk about a project related to health tech they have participated in. Go into detail to assess their role and expertise.
2. Ask about the development process. Give them thorough questions to test their technical knowledge and figure out the workflow. You can also provide them with a test task to evaluate their skills firsthand.  
3. Uncover their management style. Ask if the team has worked on any cross-functional projects. Look for leadership qualities like guiding, empowering others to succeed, and handling conflicts constructively.
4. Find out the team membership. Alongside those who are usually present in the technical team, such as engineers, QA testers, and tech leads, there should also be a UX designer. 
5. Ask who will own the code. It’s much better for you if the web development companies for healthcare offer a total handover. Yet, the agreement may include a clause that allows the contractor to keep the code. The worst thing that can happen might be that the company charges you more money because of the constant glitches they fix. 
6. Question what happens if the team fails to meet the deadline. Find out how the company can repay for the lost time.

Portfolio 

Ask companies included in a shortlist to demonstrate their previous projects. A voluminous portfolio is usually a sign of a company that has extensive experience. This way, you’ll wind out what they’re capable of. The portfolio will show you if the team can manage challenging projects and meet high regulatory standards. Also, it will show how good and user-friendly their software is. And, naturally, pay strong attention to websites related to the medical field.

Conclusion

Ideally, a website solves several problems of a healthcare business at once. First, it is one of the most effective tools for attracting new clients. It also acts as a channel of communication with existing patients, forms the image of your organization, and allows you to get feedback and collect your customers’ data. All this is possible if the site is developed by the pros. That’s why you should be very picky when you want to hire a health tech development company. Follow the recommendations listed above to find the perfect fit. 

Single-page applications (SPAs) have earned a strong position in demand long ago. Such apps have one page where most information remains unchanged, and only its parts are updated when a user interacts with them. 

Maybe, you don’t know precisely what they are. However, you probably use them daily. Most social media, Gmail, and other programs are single-page apps. They are quickly adopted thanks to their fast load times and user-friendliness. 

As for React, it is quite a favored instrument for SPA web development. Programmers can build SPA’s components with React to ensure their scalability, reuse them with few configurations, and refresh them instantly without manually reloading a page. Besides, React solutions are optimized for SEO while delivering high flexibility thanks to the Virtual DOM. 

What Are React Single Page Applications (SPAs)? 

SPAs consist of one HTML page. To access it, you make a one-time connection and then – load and modify data without refreshing an entire page. Only the blocks engaged in the interaction process are updated while other page elements remain unaffected.

A clear illustration of a one-page application is Google Docs. While reading a text, you scroll through sheets, but the top row with the menu and the left panel with captions stay put. Whatever changes you make, certain things stay untouched.

React is very common for SPAs because of its convenience — it speeds up the programming process significantly. Also, note that it is not a framework, it’s a library. The main thing in it is the components as they represent particular items on a page. Each one of them contains the entire set of data and methods needed for work.

React allows you to save the state of the elements. This makes them isolated and self-contained. This feature, in turn, provides developers with the ability to reuse the elements as needed. Specifically, the same element can be applied to another page or parts of the website as many times as you want. This way, a developer doesn't need to re-write a significant part of the code. Therefore, the absence of complex dependencies between elements simplifies troubleshooting.

Pros of React SPAs

Why do giant companies like Meta choose React SPAs? It becomes clear after looking at its main advantages: 

• Versatility. SPAs can be used from any device that has access to the Internet. 
• Accessibility. There are no problems with сompatibility, as well as memory limitations, capacity, or installation time.
• Enhanced usability. These apps are straightforward and enjoyable to operate.
• Better responsiveness. It can be ensured thanks to the high speed of data load.
• Ability to process large volumes of data. The device's memory does not limit the processing power of an app and the volumes of data it operates.
• Code reuse. React allows developers to reuse parts of code as often as needed in the same app. 

Let's look closely at the main merits of React SPA development. 

Enhanced User Experience (UX)

The primary advantage of a single web page application is immediate data update, resulting in a smooth sensation from using and improved responsiveness. Since SPA doesn't have to implement full-page reloads during use, the contents of a page refresh very quickly. The program only needs to connect to the server at the start, and then simply loads the necessary segments as a visitor needs them. In a single-page app, everything works quickly after the first load and doesn’t keep users waiting. 

Improved Developer Efficiency

Programmers who use React receive a lot of tools that simplify the assembling of the single-page application architecture. Moreover, React allows reusing code in software architecture to speed up the work. For instance, if you decide later to evolve a one-page app into a full-featured multi-page application, you’ll be able to reuse about 30% of the code instead of writing everything from scratch. Plus, it will help your startup save time and reduce costs.

Rich Interactivity

React is a freely accessible framework library that has a JSX (JavaScript XML) compiler with a focus on the users’ comfort as it provides prompt rendering. Thus, by utilizing React, you can create a UI-centric product which is common to SPAs that should have fluid interfaces, rapidly responding to the actions of users.

Cons of React SPAs

Surely, React SPA development has its drawbacks. Otherwise, every app would be written using this framework. 

The most important cons of these apps are:

• Lack of SEO optimization. The whole point is in the structure of such applications, which consist of just one page.
• Longer initial loading time. Since all user-side data of the application must be loaded during initialization, this can cause unpleasant delays for users.
• The client-side routing challenges. React may not be the best choice for creating applications with complex business logic and data routing.

So, let’s check each of them in more detail.

SEO Challenges

Single-page applications are quite problematic to index because not much text can be recognized by search robots. At the same time, you can’t put all the keywords on one page because it will look weird and lead to spam problems. What's more, the page will have only one URL.

You can eliminate this issue by resorting to server-side rendering. It's a way to render a one-page application on the server side. The app is still one-paged, but the main work is done on the server. The application receives a finished page with the required SEO elements from the server immediately after its initialization. However, due to the complex introduction of this technique, the cost of SPA development might be higher.

Complexity for Large Applications

Managing complex states and data traffic can be a problem in large SPAs. That’s why using React SPAs relates mostly to projects with rather limited functionality. At the same time, if applied skillfully, this library can still be useful when creating large projects – evidence of this is the digital giants that actively use it in the development of their services and applications. 

Initial Load Time

With React’s ability to load all content during initialization, people can wait a lot when opening a SPA first (in comparison to other websites). However, after initial loading, all other data will be pulled up automatically, and there will be no issues with delays in provisioning page content. 

Code splitting solves the problem of slow app loading by reducing the volume of data sent on the first session. Rather than uploading the entire code at once, users do it only with the parts that they need right now. This, in turn, facilitates the coding procedure.

React SPAs vs Traditional Multi-Page Applications (MPAs)

These kinds of apps are paralleled and characterized as competitors. However, multi-page applications (MPAs) are unlikely to lose the race because each alternative works for certain products and commercial pursuits. 

Let's look at the core strengths of each application type:

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As you can see, each application type has its drawbacks and advantages. So, when choosing between them, come from the specifics and tasks of your company. 

What kind of companies should pay attention to one-page solutions?

• Products that run on a captivating platform with low data volumes. SPA is commonly applied to SaaS platforms, social media, and private communities. Some examples include Grammarly, Netflix, and Slack.
• Startups focused on usability. Single-page apps allow you to create an easy-to-use and intuitive interface that attracts the eye and encourages customers to explore the product. 
• Startups planning to go big. Later you can reuse some of the code of your single web page application. This helps reduce the time and expense involved in developing new, full-fledged digital solutions.
• Businesses for whom SEO is not a key metric. If your company doesn't require to be ranked high on Google from its first launch, to successfully implement your idea, SPA is right for you.
• Companies with their own APIs. You can build a one-page application based on a pre-built API.

Conclusion 

Today, we see that one-page applications gradually replace classic applications and begin to play an important role in the construction of large-scale web systems. Now, these apps are everywhere, and we use them every day without noticing it. Moreover, the big players in the app market already use SPAs.

What are the rewards of single-page applications? They are pretty speedy, don't keep visitors on hold, and generally improve their experience when dealing with the solution. in turn, overall consumer comfort has a direct impact on conversion rates and profits.

Still, SPAs are not ideal for all startups. But for those seeking a dynamic, high-speed, and lightweight digital solution, SPAs are an excellent choice.