Explore Our Blog

Hey, are you here to find a solution for a consolidated and easy-to-access “home” for your business information, which is usually transferred from different places, often unrelated to each other? Then, you probably need to think about creating a digital space where it will be integrated, cleaned, structured, and stored accordingly, for further use in your regular business operations. But what is this space? Let’s find it out right now.

What Is Data Warehousing?

In a nutshell, it is a repository where your business data comes from disparate sources, where it is brought to the proper quality, and where it is stored, providing individuals with the appropriate rights with easy and fast access to it. Typically, such repositories serve as one of the central components in automated analytical solutions, but, as practice shows, the range of their application can be much wider.

Key Components of a Data Warehouse

In general, its main components are considered to be the following:

• Sources, from which structured and unstructured information comes – these can be third-party databases, tables, systems, applications, etc.;
• Data Extraction, Transformation, and Loading (ETL) tools, which define scenarios for extracting, transforming, and loading the information;
• Data warehouse database, which is the main repository (usually in the form of a database management system, DBMS) with already prepared, i.e., cleaned and structured data, that can be used for analytics, reporting, and other business tasks without additional manipulation;
• Metadata repository, which includes the permissible data types and the rules according to which this data will be used;
• Query and reporting tools, which define algorithms for fast and unified access to data, as well as its analysis;
• Data mart, a subset of the data warehouse that is used for individual business tasks (this can imply, for example, marketing data warehouse design) which formation occurs either directly through the collection from disparate sources or pre-preparing within a consolidated space.

Core Principles of Data Warehouse Design

Now, let's talk about the main data warehouse design principles:

• A clear definition of business requirements and goals, as well as metrics that allow you to objectively assess the degree of their achievement;
• Understanding how information is integrated from multiple sources and what should be the unified format after its transformation;
• Choosing the right type of data modeling – these can be star schemas, snowflake schemas, fact tables, and so on;
• Choosing the right methods and data warehouse software to ensure the quality and consistency of information, in particular, the methods of cleansing, validation, and supplementing of data;
• Planning, scaling, and managing the performance through various methods of indexing, partitioning, compression, etc.;
• Choosing the right tools for metadata management to simplify and improve access to the information;
• Ensuring security and access based on policies and rules (usually, this is achieved through the implementation of advanced encryption algorithms, the introduction of access policies for different user groups, as well as providing reliable authentication and authorization methods);
• Implementing end-to-end monitoring for ensuring data quality and security, performance of processes occurring within the data warehouse, and so on.

Steps in Data Warehouse Design

In this section, we invite you to consider the key steps leading to a successful and agile data warehouse design.

Requirement Gathering

According to the principles to design a data warehouse we defined above, the key to effective data warehouse design is to gather business requirements and clear business goals that it should fulfill. It is also important to identify the requirements for security, scalability, and performance of the repository.

Data Modeling

This is not yet a practical stage, but it still requires the participation of specialists – in particular, it implies the identification of entities, their attributes, as well as possible relationships between them. After this, the most suitable type of DBMS implementation needs to be selected – for example, in the form of tables, columns, indexing, etc. After this, you have to make sure that the selected type performs all the tasks assigned to it according to the predetermined requirements.

ETL Process Design

We have already explained above what the ETL process means, and this stage actually involves choosing the right tools and scenarios for their use.

In particular, you will need to define methods for extracting information from disparate sources (these can be database queries, API calls, file transfers, etc.), methods for bringing data to a single format and ensuring its proper quality (since you will most likely have to deal with big data, there may be many inconsistencies), methods for aggregating data to create complex information structures, automation methods for bulk loading of data (this can be full or incremental loading, and so on) with the usage of temporary storage areas, methods for detecting and eliminating data errors, as well as methods for checking data for completeness and accuracy.

Database Schema Design

There are several well-known data warehouse design patterns, such as:

• Star, which has a fact table at its center and dimension tables associated with it around it;
• Snowflake, which is a more complex Star and also implies additional dimension tables that surround each base dimension table;
• Galaxy, which contains two fact tables and the dimension tables between them.

Data Integration

Now, you can start integrating the data using the previously defined ETL tools and technologies. At this step, you need to make sure that everything works as intended, and the data is transformed into the required unified format.

Data Storage Solutions

At this stage, you need to choose specific data storage solutions according to your requirements for the expected data volume, performance, scalability, and cost. Usually, the choice is made between relational databases, columnar databases, data lakes, and cloud data warehouse solutions.

Data Presentation Layer

Finally, to design data warehouse, you will need to understand what your data presentation layer will be – the layer at which end users will be able to seamlessly access the data and use it to solve specific business problems. This includes developing interfaces, dashboards, reports, and various data visualization tools.

Conclusion

Now that you have a clear guide to data warehouse design, you can begin implementing it with a full understanding of the principles and stages on which it is based. If you would like to delegate this comprehensive task to seasoned data warehouse development specialists, just contact us.

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.

As the practice shows, no idea, even the most brilliant one, when embodied in a digital product or service, will become successful without quality assurance. It, in turn, always includes two non-intersecting procedures that occur before software is launched: the first of them is aimed at obtaining a clear understanding of whether development is moving in the right direction, and the second of them clarifies whether the solution being created meets end user needs. So, how are they called and performed? Let’s find it out right now.

What Is Verification Testing?

In a nutshell, it is a procedure aimed at checking whether the solution being created meets its predefined specifications and generally accepted design and development standards. Software verification testing is performed throughout the entire creation process and involves the use of various automation testing tools and verification methods, such as modular, integrational, and system testing.

What Is Validation Testing?

Unlike the previous type of testing, this one involves planning real-world scenarios that allow the development team to make sure that the solution being created meets its audience’s needs (for this, you can apply, for example, the alpha- and beta-testing validation methods). After that, the solution has to be compared with its specifications. If any discrepancies are found, they need to be eliminated before this solution is released to the public. Actually, that’s why validation testing is repeated until the team achieves full compliance.

Purpose of Verification and Validation

The main goals of verification and validation testing are to fully satisfy the needs of the software solution owner and the audience as well. As soon as these procedures are successfully completed, the project can be launched.

Difference Between Verification vs Validation Testing

So, what about the verification and validation difference? Generally speaking, while verification is aimed at checking the compliance of a product or service with its list of requirements agreed upon between the development team and the owner, validation allows teams to make sure that this service or product will be positively accepted by its end users. 

In this regard, the first procedure starts from the very beginning of the development process and lasts until the final testing stage and the second – only after the product/service is completed. This also imposes certain differences on the test data used: during verification in software testing, QA engineers use sample data (in this regard, automation methods are often applied), and during the software validation – real data (usually, manual methods do a great job here).

How Are Verification and Validation Testing Performed?

Now, let's look at the four most popular approaches used for validation and verification in software testing:

• Peer reviews, which involve providing a software solution to focus group representatives for a certain period of time in order to obtain feedback on their experience of interacting with it;
• Assessments, which are left by focus group representatives after checking the solution for functionality and identifying errors and inconsistencies in it;
• Walkthrough, which implies a preliminary explanation to focus group representatives of how exactly to interact with the software solution, after which the latter leave their feedback on how well everything was clear and whether they think some areas need to be optimized;
• Desktop-checking, which includes reviewing the software code by specialists (in particular, software engineers).

Tips for Successful Verification and Validation

To ensure these two procedures go smoothly, follow these guidelines:

1. Define the tasks and goals you are pursuing through these procedures and what the results should be upon their completion;
2. Choose the specific tools and approaches you are going to use – they should cover all possible scenarios of user interaction with your software solution, as well as generally accepted software development standards;
3. Create a testing plan, where you will specify deadlines, available resources, and evaluation criteria (along with the acceptable minimum compliance);
4. Proceed directly to testing in order to identify bugs and inconsistencies that will need to be fixed before the project is released;
5. Involve representatives of the potential target audience and stakeholders in the testing procedure to get the most objective assessment of the quality of your team's work;
6. Don't forget to document and monitor the testing results from one bug fixing to another to understand the dynamics of improvements.

Popular Test Automation Tools For Verification and Validation

Although automated testing is considered a standard approach for verification testing only, sometimes, it also brings benefits when implementing validation testing. In this regard, we have compiled a small selection of popular tools that you can use for quality control in software:

• Selenium, an open-source web solution that supports a lot of programming languages, such as Java, Python, C#, and so on, as well as integrates with different frameworks;
• Appium, an open-source service for automated testing of mobile apps on iOS, Android, and Windows (both native, cross-platform, and hybrid ones);
• Robot Framework, an automation framework aiming at implementing acceptance testing and acceptance test-driven development;
• Jenkins, an automation server used for continuous integration and continuous delivery that streamlines the build, test, and deployment stages;
• TestNG, a popular testing framework that is actively used for testing Java-based software solutions;
• Cucumber, an environment for running automated acceptance tests written in Java, Ruby, etc.;
• JMeter, a perfect solution for performance testing of web apps.

Conclusion

We hope that we have helped you understand the difference between validation and verification testing, and now, you can also assess their importance in creating high-quality and competitive software solutions. You can also check out our blog to learn more about software development and design.

Evolving companies regularly look for new ways to bypass competitors in today's dynamic world. At the same time, software development for business is one of the most effective strategies. External expertise enables them to achieve higher levels of efficiency, innovation, and financial savings. However, finding the perfect outsourced web development team with all the individual needs can be tricky. Today, we will share essential tips on this topic with you.

It should be noted that the demand for hiring software development team has increased significantly in recent years. According to Statista, global income from IT outsourcing will continue its rapid growth for the next eight years. The following figure shows the projected increase in its revenues worldwide:

How to Find the Best Outsourced Development Team

As already noted, the process of finding the perfect web outsourcing team is in most cases an absolutely daunting task, but we are ready to share with you some effective methods that will simplify this process:

• Internet search: Look for companies with high ratings and many positive reviews directly through search engines (Google and so on). It is worth starting with the main search queries and gradually detailing them using filters or keywords. It is also recommended to browse companies' websites, articles, and blogs directly to be more guided in their expertise.‍
• Recommendations: One proven and reliable way to find real pros is to seek advice or recommendations from your colleagues, employees, or business partners. If your acquaintances already dared to outsource dedicated software development teams, you can directly ask people from your professional network who they can recommend and for what reasons.‍
• Implemented cases and portfolios: Carefully review the portfolios and cases of your potential partner. This will help you analyze the outcome of their previous projects and determine if their style and approach meet your individual requirements. It is also necessary to pay attention to those projects that are similar in structure and concept to yours.‍
• Social networks and professional communities: Social networks and professional communities (like LinkedIn) are great options for finding reputable, highly specialized outsourcing service providers and analyzing customer reviews. They are also an excellent way to get more information about your contractor and its professional connections.‍
• Freelance platforms: Upwork, Toptal, and Freelancer are useful platforms for finding and communicating with experienced specialized specialists. These platforms also provide access to a vast database of freelancer profiles, ratings, and portfolios, which will help you get a complete picture of their professional competence.‍
• Events and conferences on professional topics: By attending various specialized events, you can expand your network of social contacts. In addition, you can personally communicate with potential partners, ask them questions that interest you, and make more or less objective impressions of them.

What Should You Look for When Searching for an Outsourced Development Team?

Clear positioning

Each company excels in a specific area, focusing on a single or a few related directions, such as mobile and web development. This specialization ensures their expertise and quality in these particular fields. It's important to note that the best outsourcers refrain from attempting to offer design, coding, and a myriad of other services simultaneously.

The presence of the grads and their description

If an outsourcer sells the services of Junior, Middle, and Senior specialists, there should be clear descriptions of what they can do and at what level.

Consent to interview

Even if you plan to interview only some experts, asking the service provider representative if they are open to interviews is beneficial. This step lets you feel more involved in the selection process and ensures that the outsourcing company is transparent.

Cases

The cases may be so problematic that the outsourcer projects for other companies are under NDA, and details cannot be disclosed. Therefore, cases can be impersonal without specifying specific customers.

How Do You Evaluate an Outsourced Development Team?

It is worth paying attention to several main aspects to make an informed, balanced, and final decision regarding outsourcing software development to a dedicated team. Undoubtedly, the portfolio and successful cases should be reviewed first to evaluate their previous projects.

After that, assess the technical skills and ability to work with the tools and technologies necessary for your project. For practical analysis, conduct technical interviews or ask for a test assignment to verify their qualifications.

Pay attention to the level of communication. The remote development team should respond quickly to your requests, clearly formulate their thoughts, and be ready for regular reports.

Compare the cost of services, considering the value for money your future partners ask. No one will argue that when you hire software development team, the cheapest option is not always the best, so it is worth assessing the cost of services in the context of the overall quality of work and the results you will receive.

Clarify the guarantees and level of support after the project is completed when you try to find outsourcing companies. For example, reliable contractors usually offer a specific warranty period and post-project support to ensure the smooth operation of the product.

Finally, assess whether the outsourcer's culture and values match yours. This may not be the most pragmatic metric, but it is equally important during hiring remote outsource developer. Specifically, your contractor must share your values and be prepared to work according to your standards and requirements. This will ensure harmonious cooperation when you hire outsourcing team.

Software Development Outsourcing with Darly Solutions

Choosing Darly Solutions for software outsourcing development gives you several advantages that help solve problems of any complexity efficiently and without compromising your budget. Regardless of the specifics of your project, we will provide you with the necessary resources and support, allowing you to focus on the main thing – ensuring the prosperity of your business.

• Access to new resources for development and support:

When you hire a remote outsource developer Darly Solutions, you get seamless access to talents with experience in new, improved, and specialized tools and technologies. 

• Cost-effective development:

Darly Solutions offers affordable prices for programming and support services. Moreover, technical support is included in the service package for a certain period, contributing to reduced overall costs.

• Clear deadlines for the project:

At the stage of forming the technical assignment, Darly Solutions provides you with clear deadlines for the project implementation. Strict adherence to the project terms eliminates the human factor's influence and ensures stability in achieving goals.

• Reliable forecasts and adequate perception of the project:

As your digital partner in outsourcing software development for startups, we always guarantee reliable forecasting of software performance, ensuring a clear idea of the results and investments.

• Competent optimization of any processes:

Systematic optimization of software, increasing its stability, and reducing the likelihood of errors allow us to meet pre-defined standards and business goals.

Conclusion

The aforementioned insights about hiring outsourcing team will allow you to make the right choice and find the best one, considering all the features and details of your project. However, you should remember that choosing a software development company as the right and reliable partner is more than just the immediate outsourcing benefits of high-quality and prompt task fulfillment – it's more about laying a solid foundation for future success.

There are about 8.93 million mobile apps worldwide, with new ones popping up daily, but not each of them has a good mobile interface design. At the same time, those who have it, win the hearts of customers and earn millions of dollars. So, how can you achieve this goal? Let’s find it out right now.

What Is Mobile App Design?

Mobile app design is the visual identity of an app tailored to the user's behavior. It has two components: UI and UX. UI (user interface) is how the application looks, and what colors, fonts, icons, buttons, or other elements it contains. UX is how an app works, responds to user actions, and helps fulfill people’s needs.

Interface design for a mobile application calls for consideration of the specifics of mobile platforms, such as screen size, data input methods, battery level, and internet connection speed. You should bear in mind that design can have a big impact on the success and popularity of the product, its usability, and its attraction to users.

Key Principles of Mobile App Design

Creating the interface of mobile applications is a truly complex and multi-layered process. It can vary dramatically depending on what project the app is created for, who the target audience is, and what functionality its owner is looking for. However, there are a few fundamentals to keep in mind when designing.

Here are top basic mobile design principles:

1. Prioritize the user’s needs 
2. Focus on visual design
3. Make the app interface convenient
4. Make the content easy to read
5. Add some interaction
6. Optimize the interface for different mobile devices

User Interface (UI) Design Principles

Let’s define the most important user interface design principles.

Simplicity

An eye-catching and straightforward user interface is ideal. There shouldn't be too many interface elements that can confuse a user. Nobody wants to explore a new interface once an application is downloaded – instead, people just want to get what they need or have fun.  All they seek is simple products that “just work”, that’s why, you have to prioritize the main parts for design and remove the unnecessary ones.

There is a simple rule of thumb: one main action per screen. Each screen you design in your application should support a single, genuinely important action for the user. This makes it easier to learn and use. One hundred clear screens are better than a single cluttered one.

Consistency 

The interface has to be intuitive and easy to navigate. You can add a great feature or content, but if people can't find it, it doesn't matter. Mobile navigation should be consistent. To ensure navigation doesn’t require any explanation, you should use the right visual metaphors, and check that each navigation item leads to the appropriate place.

Feedback and Response Time

Feedback informs users whether they are doing the proper action or not. It can be audible (the ding of a new message notification), tactile (the vibrating signal for a new email or call while your phone is set to "silent"), or just visual. Feedback should be provided after each operation to show if it was successful. 

Feedback can be useful in responding to problems in four areas:

1. Locating: Where are you?
2. Current Situation: What's happening? Is it still going on?
3. Prospects: What comes next?
4. Effects: What did you get?

Quick, insightful, and observable feedback is essential to let people know their actions were noticed. The link between the activity and its effect should be clear so that users understand what happened, and what to expect next. Feedback is supposed to optimize and complement the user's experience rather than complicate it.

User Experience (UX) Design Principles

Now, we propose to list the key UX design principles.

Usability

Usability measures how easy and convenient it is for the user to interact with the interface of an application. It depends on the ease of navigation, structure, content quality, text layout, mobile app design, and a bunch of technical features. This aspect affects users' time on an app, conversion rates, and customer loyalty. 

Here are five components of usability:

1. Learnability: how easy is it for people to perform basic tasks the first time?
2. Productivity: how quickly can people complete tasks?
3. Memorability: when people come back to an application after a time out, how easily can they recover their skills?
4. Error recovery: how many errors do users make, how serious are they, and how easily can people fix them?
5. Enjoyment: How engaging is it to use the app? Does it help people accomplish their tasks? 

User-Centric Design

User-centered design is an approach that consistently identifies user needs and translates them into a product. The core value is to focus on what people are used to, on what is “easy” for them and meets their basic needs.

Figure out what users want from your mobile application. On a food delivery app, people want to see available propositions, and discounts, place an order, track a delivery, and that’s it. They don’t want to read the history of a local family restaurant and its owners - this information may be kept in subsections. 

Accessibility 

If you want people to use your app, make it easy to reach. First, make sure it’s available on all mobile platforms and devices. Secondly, remember about inclusivity while designing for mobile devices. Partially blind or colorblind people may also use your product. So, you should help them effortlessly use it by adding voice interaction, and alternative text for images and employing color-blind oriented templates. Additionally, let customers change the text size in the app to suit their visual requirements.

Best Practices in Mobile App Design

Creating an interface that is both attractive and user-friendly is a challenge and an art. To achieve a delicate balance between aesthetics and functionality, designers need to utilize best practices. 

User Interface and Navigation 

Navigation in a mobile application must be intuitive. Each button or link has to state its purpose clearly. All icons must be recognizable and standardized. 

Mobile UX design's best practice for icons is to tag them with text. Tagged icons ensure that the purpose is conveyed quickly and easily.  You can see this in the most popular apps like YouTube, Spotify, and TikTok. 

Content Organization and Data Entry

When directing user attention across the application interface, use visual hierarchy. Distinguish important elements from less significant ones by varying size and spacing. Features that stand out attract attention, and clustering related items makes them easier to understand. For better readability and differentiation between titles, subheadings, and body content, designers should use the proper font sizes and styles. 

As for good examples of great content organization, we’d like to pay attention to Airbnb, an illustration of minimalism and simplicity. People love it for its aesthetic graphic design, balanced font sizes and colors, and the absence of flashy elements or bright banners. Airbnb has also made booking real estate clear: users understand what they are paying for.

Input fields and forms are the basic parts of mobile apps and are also crucial in mobile design principles. Improving the total user experience requires making these elements efficient and usable. Make a user type as little as possible by utilizing default values and input masks. Give consumers immediate feedback on validation so they can fix mistakes quickly. To help users fill out forms correctly, provide them with informative error warnings and visual clues.

Usability and Accessibility 

If you choose the right color palette, you can greatly improve the user experience. Remember about color blindness and test how your app looks to users with different types of color perception. Use contrasting colors for text and background to make content easy to read for anyone and anywhere. Add some extra explanations if needed. 

For example, the choice of clothing color in an online store should have a text explanation to be understood by people with a violation of color perception. Also, consider how the interface will look on small screens.

Performance and Responsiveness 

Take into account a diverse range of screen sizes and resolutions. Your design should be adaptive to ensure perfect display on any device. To check adaptability, test your design on a tablet, smartphone, and computer: this way you can adjust the display of elements in the interface and understand what and where to improve. Make sure the elements are not overlapping and are scaled correctly.

Platform Conformance

Research iOS and Android operating system guidelines. A guideline is a set of rules that determine how mobile apps are designed within an operating system. The iOS and Android systems have recognizable elements that users expect to see, so the guidelines help to create optimal UX and UI. Also, it will speed up the development process and reduce bugs.

Tools for Designing for Mobile Devices

As for the most popular tools designers use to implement solutions for mobile devices, we can consider the next four.

Figma 

Figma is an application for all kinds of graphical works: from creating website layouts to developing mobile interfaces and prototyping. Its biggest advantage is an opportunity to work directly in a browser, allowing access to projects from any computer or platform. You don’t have to buy multiple licenses or install the software. Another plus of the application is the collaboration feature that allows simultaneous changes to the project design by several users without the need to upload files locally.

Adobe XD

XD is designed from scratch to meet the requirements of modern UX/UI design with many features not available in other graphic applications. It solves the main problem that competitors can't cope with: it provides interaction with non-static elements and allows you to implement thoughtful dynamics on the page. Adobe XD is ideal for vector UI design, wireframe modeling, implementing engagement with interactive elements, and prototyping.

Sketch

Sketch is a simple vector tool. Designers and front-end developers use it to create UX/UI components. Sketch is simple and easy to learn, has an intuitive interface, and offers cross-platform design tools. It has a preview feature to see how the project will look on different devices. It has many good plugins and resources, plus some useful functions for working in the cloud.

InVision

InVision is a versatile design tool that focuses on maximizing UX for apps. It can be used to create automatically customized interactive prototypes for different devices. InVision Studio has tools for working with vector drawing, interactive design, and built-in animation. The application can be installed on macOS and Windows.

Mobile Application Design Process

UI UX mobile app design is a complex process that requires a thorough approach to ensure it is visually appealing and compatible with various devices and operating systems. You also need to make sure it’s handy for both experienced users and newcomers and meets modern trends in app design. So, what are the stages of mobile design?

1. Gathering data and design requirements. Research is a crucial part of the design effort, guiding the development of a product concept that accurately defines the market niche, functionality, monetization, and usage scenarios. 
2. Planning the architecture and navigation of the application. UX specialists create architecture based on application usage scenarios, ensuring navigation and consistency. This design stage is crucial for the end-user, as it directly affects the app's navigation and overall user experience.
3. Development of prototypes. Mockups are created for prototyping a mobile application, allowing for easy modification and identification of best solutions. This process involves discussing the architecture with the team and client, and later involving a team of developers to evaluate the technical design.
4. Testing the prototype. Interactive prototypes allow testing the app design to ensure it is suitable for the target audience, allowing for detailed feedback and understanding of user behavior patterns. This stage of development helps identify non-obvious patterns and improves the product's overall functionality.‍
5. Final refinements and development. Next, the agreed prototype is handed over to designers to make the product more attractive, refine the styling, and improve small user interactions, taking into account the final UI of a product. The final design is passed to developers who do the technical part.

Get Some Inspiration with Our Case Studies

Below, we invite you to check out some of our projects where we have successfully implemented all the ideas described above:

• Booking beauty appointment platform
• Takeout food delivery app
• Social network
• Advertising placement system
• Vehicle rental mobile app
• Smart city mobile app

Conclusion

Creating an aesthetically pleasing design is not enough. You also need to make it user-friendly and inclusive, bearing in mind mobile device demands.  Your target audience will be captivated and delighted by the appealing, highly engaging, and intuitive mobile applications if you carefully adhere to mobile app design principles and never stop learning from real-world examples of great mobile applications.

In software development, selecting the proper version control and collaboration platform is crucial and can significantly influence a project's success. Today, numerous solutions are available on the market, but two of the most popular choices are GitHub and GitLab. Both platforms offer powerful features for managing code repositories, yet they possess unique characteristics tailored to different needs and project types. The choice of platform depends not only on the development team's convenience and efficiency but also on development speed, product quality, and scalability.

This article compares GitLab vs GitHub features, similarities, and differences to help you determine which option is best in 2024. We will examine both platforms' essential aspects, analyze their strengths and possible shortcomings, and provide recommendations for choosing a platform based on your project's specific requirements.

GitLab vs GitHub: The Basics

Before moving on to the details, it is essential to understand the fundamental aspects of both GitHub and GitLab. Both platforms are designed to simplify the software development process by offering a variety of tools for version control, continuous integration, and collaboration. Let's start with a closer look at each platform.

What Is GitLab?

GitLab is a comprehensive DevSecOps platform and software repository designed to facilitate the entire software development lifecycle, from planning and coding to testing, security, and deployment. 

Launched in 2011 as a simple Git-based version control system, today GitLab is more of an “all-in-one” platform that supports every stage of development. This includes not only DevOps practices such as continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD), but also project management, security testing, and monitoring, making it a robust solution for all phases of software development.​

Here are the main functions of GitLab:

• Comprehensive DevSecOps platform: GitLab integrates development, security, and operations in a single platform, providing a complete toolkit for DevOps workflows.
• Compliance and audit management: GitLab helps manage compliance and audit requirements with automated compliance pipelines, audit logs, and policy management features​.
• Built-in security features: GitLab offers built-in security features like Static Application Security Testing (SAST), Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST), container scanning, dependency scanning, and secrets detection that are integrated directly into CI/CD pipelines.
• Project management tools: GitLab offers extensive project management features such as issue tracking, milestones, task boards, and roadmaps to help organize and track projects.‍
• Remote development and Web IDE: GitLab supports remote development with features like the Web IDE, which allows developers to code, commit, and collaborate directly in the browser.

What Is GitHub?

Established in 2008, GitHub is a web platform that provides GitHub repository hosting, version control, and collaboration tools. Renowned for its user-friendly interface and thriving community, GitHub has emerged as a pivotal platform for open-source projects and individual developers.

The main functions of GitHub include:

• Strong community and emphasis on open source: GitHub is known for its active developer community and many open-source projects.
• GitHub Copilot: GitHub offers an AI-powered code completion tool called GitHub Copilot that provides code suggestions directly in the editor, significantly increasing developer productivity.
• Packages: GitHub integrates package management into the platform, allowing users to host and manage software packages, and use them as dependencies in other projects, all within GitHub.‍
• Security and code scanning: GitHub provides security tools such as Dependabot for automated dependency updates, code and secrets scanning.‍
• Integration with third-party tools: GitHub offers many integrations with popular development tools such as Slack, Trello, etc.

GitLab vs GitHub: Similarities 

Both platforms from our GitLab vs GitHub comparison have a lot in common, making them popular choices for developers:

• Git-based version control: GitHub and GitLab use Git for version control, allowing developers to track code changes and collaborate on projects.
• Collaboration tools: Both platforms provide collaboration features, such as pull requests, merge requests, code review tools, and issue tracking.
• Continuous integration and delivery: GitHub and GitLab support tools for continuous integration and delivery, which helps automate the development process.

Key Difference Between GitHub and GitLab

Despite the similarities, there is critical difference between GitHub and GitLab:

• Hosting: GitLab offers the option of self-hosting, allowing users complete control over their repositories, while GitHub mainly focuses on cloud hosting.
• Pricing: GitLab provides a free version with many features, while GitHub has a more limited free version with advanced features in paid plans.‍
• Open source: GitLab itself is open-source software, allowing anyone to study its code and participate in its development, while GitHub offers some open-source components but is not fully open-source.‍
• UI/UX: GitHub’s interface is known for being simple and user-friendly, making it easy for new users to navigate, especially for open-source projects, while GitLab’s interface is more complex due to its wide range of features, which can make it more difficult for beginners to learn initially.

GitLab vs GitHub: Which Is the Best Option?

The choice between GitHub and GitLab depends on your project's specific needs. GitLab is preferred for teams looking for a comprehensive DevOps platform with built-in CI/CD tools, self-hosting capabilities, and additional features for project management. For example, large enterprise projects that require an integrated approach to continuous integration and deployment will find robust deployment tools and extensive workflow customization options in GitLab. Essential aspects of choosing GitLab are the possibility of self-hosting and integration with other project management systems.

On the other hand, GitHub is ideal for open-source projects, individual developers, service providers and teams who want to take advantage of a large community, a broad ecosystem of integrations with popular third-party tools and ease of use. This makes GitHub an excellent choice for open-source projects where visibility and community engagement are essential and for small or medium-sized teams working on collaborative projects. The main advantages of GitHub include:

• A large community of developers.
• Access to many third-party integrations and plugins.
• A user-friendly interface for collaboration.

When choosing a platform, it's not just about the features; it's about your project. It's essential to carefully consider the specifics of your project, the number of participants, the need for integration with other tools and the requirements for continuous integration and deployment. This thoughtful approach will ensure you make the right choice for your project's success.

GitLab and GitHub Alternatives

In the world of software development, there are many tools to help effectively manage repositories. In addition to the popular GitHub and GitLab, other platforms can be useful for your projects. Consider a few of them:

• Bitbucket: Offers integration with Jira, making it convenient for teams that use this tool for project management. In addition, Bitbucket supports Mercurial, which can be helpful for teams using this version control system.‍
• SourceForge: This site is famous for open-source projects and has an extensive software archive. It allows users to host projects and provides tools for version management and code collaboration, which makes it attractive for open-source developers.‍
• Azure DevOps: This is a comprehensive platform for DevOps from Microsoft that provides a complete set of tools to manage application development, testing and deployment. Azure DevOps integrates with other Azure services, making it an excellent choice for organizations already using Azure infrastructure.

Conclusion

In the world of software development, you are choosing the platform that best meets the needs of your project. GitHub and GitLab offer powerful tools for managing repositories and collaboration, but their unique advantages make them more suitable for different use cases. In addition to these two popular options, it is worth considering other platforms such as Bitbucket, SourceForge and Azure DevOps, each of which has its characteristics and advantages. Consider the specifics of your project, integration requirements, number of participants and other important factors to make the best choice for your project. The deliberate choice of platform will help to increase the team's efficiency, ensure the final product's quality and contribute to the success of your project as a whole.

These days, Fintech is becoming one of the world's fastest-growing industries. Every year, the number of new Fintech startups increases. In 2024, more than 13,000 such enterprises were recorded in the Americas.

Financial technologies include online banking applications, lending platforms, trading platforms, and robo-advisor apps for investing and budget planning. All these innovations demand top-notch Fintech solutions to serve customers, so aspiring Fintech startups need to find a talented team that can build an advanced product.

Key considerations when hiring

Before hiring a FinTech development company, it’s crucial to ensure the specialists have all the essential hard and soft skills. This way, the Fintech application project will have more chances to succeed. So, to hire reliable developers for your project, you need to understand the essential compliance requirements, which you will need to check. 

What are the must-have competencies of web development companies for Fintech?

• Technical knowledge. The company's developers must be well-versed in all the necessary coding languages, frameworks, technologies, and security norms. 
• Background in your niche. Check if a company has a portfolio of projects related to the financial field. 
• Familiarity with applicable finance legislation. The company must know industry norms such as PCI DSS and GDPR.
• Social skills. Seek a team that is able to ensure transparent communication, flexibility, well-organized teamwork, and attention to detail.

Experience in FinTech

Familiarity with the industry is obligatory for financial services development because the specialists must comprehend the main finance principles. A deep understanding of monetary standards and risk management allows developers to craft solutions that meet the niche requirements. Look for a company that has worked on apps or websites for mobile banking, budget management, cryptocurrency wallets, or other products related to Fintech app development. 

Technical Expertise

First of all, make sure the tech specialists know the necessary programming languages. For instance, frontend development for Fintech may require knowledge of JavaScript, libraries and frameworks such as React.js, adaptive and cross-browser layouts, as well as principles of responsive web design and great user experience. At the same time, Python paired with Node.js may be useful for backend development for Fintech.

Secondly, developers must ensure the product's security. To achieve this, they must understand finance APIs and data encryption protocols. Similarly, implementing secure coding methods and following best practices are critical to providing data security. Additionally, expertise in cloud and blockchain technologies can be vital for the safe and reliable launch and scaling of Fintech products.

Security and Compliance Knowledge 

Fintech solutions must meet the latest regulations and standards for user data security. Since Fintech startups and online banks carry sensitive customer data, they are often victims of cyber attacks. That’s why there are legal regulations aimed at the safety of clients and ensuring secure accounting transactions. So, to get secure Fintech development services, check if a company has relevant experience and understanding of the best practices in data protection along with industry norms such as PCI DSS and GDPR.

Communication and Collaboration

Effective communication is crucial for successful Fintech website development. A simple and streamlined interaction provides quick response, the ability to adjust tasks quickly, and full transparency of their implementation. Also, the tech team members must evolve their problem-solving skills, be adaptable, and demonstrate excellent collaborative skills. The last thing can be reached only by an experienced provider, so you should assess the management style in a company.

Research Potential Partners 

Before hiring a Fintech development company, conduct research on your own. A company must have a website providing all the information about its expertise, portfolio, and contact details. Besides, don’t forget to check customers’ testimonials to determine the quality of the services provided. Likewise, case studies of Fintech projects will best demonstrate a company’s expertise and outcomes achieved. 

Develop a Request for Proposal

When you already have a candidate for possible cooperation, the next step is to write a project proposal. Initially, you need to define the project's goals, target audience, desired functionality, and budget. This process will help your possible contractor fully understand your business demands and provide you with a personalized offer.

Conduct Interviews

While conducting a technical interview, ask detailed questions about the development process to check your possible contractor’s skills. Secondly, the organization's leadership style and structure should be analyzed. Inquire about any cross-functional initiatives the company has worked on.

It’s also important to find out who is on the team. In addition to the usual members of a tech team, such as a technical lead, developers, and QA testers, there should also be an expert who works on UI/UX design for Fintech. And, of course, don’t forget to ask about their previous experience in the niche and evaluate their grasp of your business needs and vision of the product.

Portfolio Review

When selecting a software development company, experience is a key consideration. And the easiest way to assess it is by checking the portfolio. Companies that have been on the market for a while usually have numerous projects. However, you need to pay the strongest attention to those connected to the Fintech industry. Check for mobile banking apps, home loan calculators, or trading tools technologies to make sure their design, usability, and the achieved results are close to your goals and needs. 

Conclusion

Developing a Fintech product is not an easy task. Besides the fact you need to retain customers by providing an outstanding service, you also have to worry about things like regulations and data security. That’s why it’s essential to learn how to recruit decent Fintech development specialists. By following the clues given above, you will be able to find suitable candidates.

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:

‍

‍

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.

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. 

If you have a great idea, and it involves creating something innovative, aiming at solving standard problems using unconventional methods and tools, it’s probably worth bringing it to life gradually. This way, you will move from priority features to secondary ones, relying on real users’ opinions – both positive and negative ones. Actually, here, we described the essence of the MVP development process. Below, we will explain its definition and check its benefits and specifics of implementation. 

Understanding MVP in Software Development

If you are going to build an MVP, you should first understand exactly what it is.

In a nutshell, a minimum viable product (MVP) is a product that has basic functionality to satisfy some needs of the target audience. Its main goal is to attract first users, determine their impression of interacting with it, and think through a further strategy for its development.

Key advantages of an MVP approach

When you decide to build MVP, you get the following benefits:

• Ability to confirm or refute hypotheses about the product
• Attracting investors through accelerated confirmation of the idea’s viability
• Help in analyzing the target audience
• Reduction of financial risks
• Development costs reduction thanks to proper prioritization of the product’s features
• Faster engagement of the target audience, long before the launch of a finalized product version
• Early bug fixing
• Reduced time to market

Thus, by resorting to MVP building, you can start to earn faster. At the same time, the development of a minimum marketable product is especially relevant for startups as it allows you to find out the real needs and pain points of your target audience in practice.

Developing Your MVP: Focus on Core Functionality

Now, let's find out what the MVP process looks like.

Identify your target audience

No matter how universal your solution is, its audience still has something in common, be it goals, pain points, demographics, or something else. Therefore, before you hone your product concept, you will have to define who it will be intended for – that is, conduct user research. To do this, you need to draw up a detailed portrait of the client – gender, age, place of work, hobbies, income level, desires, needs, problems, etc.

Come up with core functionalities

Surely, you have already seen a picture on the Internet that reflects the essence of MVP – a skateboard gradually turning into a car. Formally, this means that you need to understand which functions will be fundamental, that is, without which no user will be able to implement the task assigned to your product. These will be your MVP requirements. Then, as you receive reviews from real users, you can add features of less priority that make your solution more usable than the previous version.

Prioritize correctly

Before you start to develop MVP, think about which stages of your project are the most resource-intensive – they will need to be implemented first. As resources become available, you can assign lower-priority tasks to individual members of your team. Actually, this prioritization will determine your product roadmap. Thanks to this approach, you will eliminate downtime in your work processes and will be able to bring the MVP software launch date closer.

Define tools and resources

Finally, you should determine what tools you will use in development and what resources will be needed for this. We are talking about programming languages, wireframing and software development tools, platforms for project management, business messengers, etc.

Iterating Based on User Feedback

Any MVP strategy consists of iterations – that is, constant repetition of the development cycle based on user feedback received after testing its previous version. Let's look at the nuances of implementing these iterations.

Data collection methods

Depending on the resources available, you can collect data from real users by applying different methods. This could be live interviews, questionnaires, A/B product testing, supervised and unsupervised testing, and so on.

Feedback analysis and prioritization

Once the data has been collected, you will need to identify which reviews should be processed first and which ones can be postponed. In fact, everything is simple: the highest priority belongs to those that indicate that the user cannot perform the target action in your solution at all. Second in priority are reviews related to the complexity of the functionality – that is, those in which users claim that they did not immediately figure out what to click, or that they had to spend too much time to perform a simple operation. Everything else that does not affect the accessibility and simplicity of functionality can be optimized later, in subsequent updates.

The importance of iteration

Since building MVP for startups involves creating a primitive version of a full-scale solution, most likely, you will have to deal with a lot of negative feedback. Some will not like the typography, some will find the navigation inconvenient, and some will not even understand what actions need to be performed to achieve the goal. This is okay. At the same time, those who leave you reviews now are likely to use your solution after its optimization, too – therefore, in order not to lose their loyalty, you should constantly improve it. This will show your audience that you appreciate their opinion and that they also contribute to your project.

Launching Your MVP: Getting It Out There

Each iteration that brings your MVP closer to its finalized version must fulfill a specific business task – this could be confirming or refuting hypotheses, testing functionality, attracting users, choosing the best version from several proposed ones, identifying competitive advantage, etc.

This means that with each new iteration, you may have to take different approaches to each stage of the development cycle, from MVP planning, as well as choosing development tools and startup methodology, to testing and determining methods for collecting user feedback. Ultimately, this flexibility will open up further development prospects for your minimum viable prototype and reduce the risks of its possible failure.

Conclusion

Generally speaking, the benefits of creating an MVP from a business point of view cannot be overestimated. This approach helps reduce the risks of failure, attract investors, ensure a more moderate expenditure of the project budget, evaluate its competitiveness, and much more. In addition, it allows you to quickly enter the market because instead of the time-consuming development, you can spend less time creating its primitive version and, thus, more quickly test its viability and prospects in practice.

If you are just considering the possibility of implementing your business idea in MVP format, feel free to contact us. We will take on all stages of its implementation, from concept approval to usability testing and launch, and will repeat iterations until it transforms into a full-fledged product.

When you are going to create a new web solution from scratch or optimize an existing one, one of the key indicators of top high quality will most likely be a high response rate (to user actions) and SEO-friendliness. 

Unfortunately, client-side rendering, which is done by default in many modern web frameworks and libraries, can become an antagonist for developers pursuing these two goals. In this case, it makes sense to consider the possibility of implementing server-side rendering. Below, we will explain to you what it is, what its features are, with the help of which software tools it can be implemented, and also for which projects it is best suited. 

Definition of Server-Side Rendering

Generally speaking, server-side rendering (SSR), as is probably clear from the name, occurs on the backend side. First, the browser sends a request from the client side to the server, after which the SSR server returns an HTML page with all the necessary meta tags, styles, markup, and other attributes. Then, in the browser, the rendering itself happens, the results of which immediately become visible to the end user.

Why is all this necessary if you can use the default option, client-side rendering (CSR)? – you may ask. In fact, everything is simple: search engine crawlers do not recognize the SEO text contained on the pages (or the page, if it is the only one) of the CSR solution. Thus, if the CEO occupies a significant part of the promotion strategy of your project, you can achieve better results only by implementing SSR. Let us add that projects with sophisticated business logic may “suffer” from CSR in the context of performance since the increased load in the form of several synchronous requests will lead to delays in the interface’s response to user actions. And this is exactly the case where server-side rendering can also become a win-win solution.

Currently, SSR technology is actively used in such world-famous solutions as Airbnb, Upwork, YouTube, Netflix, Uber, etc.

What Are the Benefits of Server-Side Rendering?

Now, based on the above, let's look at the key benefits of SSR.

• SEO and social media friendliness. The server side render approach ensures improved SEO ranking through the correct indexing of pages – now, search robots can recognize SEO text and other attributes important for good ranking. First of all, this is due to the fact that now, search robots do not need to read SSR JavaScript code. As for friendliness for social platforms, it is explained by the ability to display colorful previews when sharing SSR-rendered pages – all due to the correct recognition of meta tags. 
• Better app/website performance. SSR rendering provides a faster initial page load as the JS to HTML conversion is done on the backend. Thus, users see refreshed content faster than with CSR, in particular when it comes to dynamically updated pages. In the long term, this can ensure a reduced bounce rate for websites and web applications. 
• Lower load on the user's device and better user experience (UX). Due to the fact that user requests are now processed on the server side, the user device will experience minimal load. All that remains for it is to interpret the HTML code returned by the server.

What Are the Risks of Server-Side Rendering?

To ensure the objectivity of our review, let's also analyze the disadvantages of server-side rendering.

• Higher TTFB. TTFB or time to the first byte is one of the highest priority indicators of good (or, vice versa, insufficient) performance of web pages. This parameter indicates the time it takes for the browser to receive the first byte of page data processed on the server side. Typically, compared to CSR, the TTFB value is higher because instead of returning a file with links to JS, the server spends some time converting JS to HTML code.
• Limits on the number of requests simultaneously processed on the server side. Due to the increased load on the server, the number of requests processed synchronously will be less than in the case of client-side rendering. Thus, the server throughput will be reduced.
• Need to wait for all the HTML code to load. While the page is loading HTML code under SSR, the user will not be able to perform any new actions on it.

If we add to the above disadvantages a fairly high entry threshold into SSR, as well as an increase in the budget of such projects (due to frequent requests to the server), it becomes clear that this approach is not suitable for everyone.

Server-Side Rendering Frameworks and Tools

As for the server side rendering frameworks and libraries that can be used to process client-side requests on the backend, these include React, Next.js, Nuxt.js, Angular (v7 and newer), and Svelte/Sapper. They use one of the most universal server-side templating languages – JavaScript.

Below we propose to consider server-side rendering React concepts only since React is one of the main tools that we use in web development.

Server-Side Rendering vs Client-Side Rendering

Server-side rendering is not a one-size-fits-all solution since there are situations where its alternative, client-side rendering, is the best choice. In particular, if the content on web pages is updated dynamically – that is, it requires the rendering of some components only (i.e., those with whom the user interacted) while the whole page doesn’t need to be updated, CSR is better suited since part of the content with which the user did not interact will be already loaded.

However, considering that during initial initialization, the content is not displayed until the page is fully loaded into the browser (this can take 2 or 3 seconds, which is critical for a modern consumer of Internet content), when implementing CSR, the site may have poor SEO regardless from the professionalism of SEO specialists (note that this is not a default situation, because with the right approach, lightweight projects with CSR are still ranked well). And this is where the SSR React approach can come to the rescue as usually, React server side components are well-recognized by search crawlers. Thus, by resorting to it, you will be able to ensure enhanced content visibility for search engines.

Server-Side Rendering: SEO vs. Performance

As you can already understand, server-side rendering is capable of providing the best SEO performance for solutions that really need it. In particular, thanks to this approach, search engines will not need to interpret JavaScript. At the same time, if you decide to render in React applying CSR by default, for the React server side rendering implementation, you will have to use additional tools to indicate metadata (for example, React Helmet).

As for performance, in the case of high-load projects, with the server side React rendering, this indicator will be better than with CSR since the SSR website or application will not be limited by the resources of the user device and browser. Also, the user device itself will be less loaded since its only task in the context of updating content will be its output (without rendering).

Conclusion

To sum up, we would like to emphasize that with the correct use of JavaScript frameworks for SSR, you can solve the problem of poor ranking of single-page applications (SPAs) as well as content-heavy websites where SEO and bootstrap performance are critical. On the other hand, CSR is suitable for software with dynamically updated content, that is, content that should change without completely refreshing the page.

However, you should not limit yourself to just these two rendering approaches. In particular, there are also hybrid rendering approaches that combine the best characteristics of SSR and CSR. For example, you can consider the static site generation (SSG) vs SSR couple – perhaps the first option will be the best choice for your project.

‍