What is Web Development And What Are Methods And Tools Involved

The shift to digitization is here. To take it well, the website is essential. Your site is obsolete, and you need to consider a redesign. You don’t have a website yet? Whatever your situation and your needs, web development is a decisive step in your project.

The choice of service provider and the elements of the contract are points of vigilance on which we will focus. Take advantage of this article to discover the various methods and tools used by developers.

This will help you better understand the complexity of a web project.

• Web development: outsourcing and choice of the service provider
• Web development methods and tools

WEB DEVELOPMENT: OUTSOURCING AND CHOICE OF SERVICE PROVIDER

Developing a website will inevitably lead you to call on an external service provider. The agency is often the most popular model in the context of creation or complete overhaul projects.

How to choose your web agency?

Increase your traffic, increase your turnover, have more visibility… all the reasons are good to embark on a web project, and the choice of an agency is crucial. They could almost all look alike and yet not.

Some are generalists; others are specialized in digital fields and very specific sectors of activity. And then there are the big agencies, the smaller ones, the local ones… How to make the right choice? Follow our advice:

• Define all of your needs as far as possible: write specifications for the occasion.
• Correctly identify what a generalist agency and a specialist agency is.
• Shortlist a few agencies that meet your criteria. Trust your feelings!
• Take a critical look at the websites of the selected agencies. Their know-how must emanate immediately from their virtual showcase.
• Pay attention to the references of each.
• Choose an agency size that fits the size of your business.
• Request a quote as soon as possible.

How to outsource web application development?

Outsourcing is a solution increasingly considered by companies; it is an excellent alternative to recruiting developers internally.

Outsourcing means delegating a service to a third party who does not belong to the company. Doing so has two additional advantages:

• The agencies or freelancers solicited are real experts and are operational immediately.
• The company continues to focus on its business, its core business.

To make outsourcing a success, here are some tips:

• Plan your project early enough.
• Compare the services of a freelancer and an agency.
• Communicate widely with the person(s) selected for the project.
• Require a prototype at every stage of development.
• Be curious and ask questions.
• Determine the mode of payment with rigor.
• Go wholeheartedly for assistance once the mobile application is completed.

What are the terms of a website creation contract?

This is the reference document! The website creation contract is essential between the company with a project and its service provider. This must include specific elements:

• The specifications set the outlines of the project and avoid any misunderstanding during the service.
• The specifications are more technical than the specifications.
• The recipe clause includes the provisional recipe and the final recipe. The customer can thus check the conformity of the service with the initial needs stipulated in the specifications.
• The price of the service and the possible staggering of payment as well as late payment penalties.
• The copyright assignment clause: a website belongs to the person who develops it. The client must therefore specify the intellectual property rights in the contract.
• A warranty against hidden defects.
• The service provider’s information and advice obligations.

WEB DEVELOPMENT METHODS AND TOOLS

The critical steps in creating a web application

• Initially, it is a question of defining with precision the perimeter of the project: is it an already existing application that is necessary to improve or a very new creation? It is relevant to look at the positioning strategy (user experience, referencing, communication, etc.).
• In a second step, it is necessary to determine the expected significant functions: the application’s road map guides all the orientations to be taken. The Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is then decided to obtain an initial and minimal version of the platform, which will serve as a test basis.
• Non-functional needs must then be taken into account. We are thinking of security, UX, and autonomy vis-à-vis a CMS…
• Now comes the time to focus on the SEO strategy: key content, sharing on social networks…
• Visual identity and content creation are the following two steps: graphic charter, editorial, and visual content… what to put online and in what form to seduce your future users?
• Now come the more traditional stages of the creation of the web application: the architecture (UX, design, ergonomics) with the creation of models, the choice of programming languages ​​(frameworks), and finally, DevOps (the infrastructure of the project ).
• In the last step, the quality of software products must be systematically monitored and measured (expected type of deployment, versioning, test automation, etc.). Do not skimp on performance and penetration testing before rolling out the application to end users.

Website creation tools

Professionals use many tools to design web applications. We offer you a brief overview of the most common.

• Name Mesh helps to find a free domain name.
• MockFlow creates the interface models (wireframe). Very easy to use, it is recommended for novice developers.
• Typecast helps with web design with the choice of typography and layout.
• Adobe Kuler is the developer’s ally for color choice.
• Invision allows the creation of the prototype, the most decisive step in a project of this type. Proto.io is also worth mentioning for this time creating mobile apps.
• Squarespace Logo is the tool for creating a logo.
• Templated is a library of website templates.

It is obviously according to your specifications and your needs that the developer adapts the use of this type of tool.

The choice of web development technology

Which technology is the most suitable for a web development project? By technology, we mean here the DBMS (database management system), the programming language, and the infrastructure.

On the client side, do not favor proprietary technologies (which do not support specific extensions) but orient yourself towards the web standards defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is the standard communication protocol between client and server. It is also based on three standard languages:

• The HTML used to structure the content of a web page. It is a markup language.
• The CSS that formats the web page. It is a style sheet language.
• The JavaScript that enables interactivity. It is the programming language for web interfaces.

On the server side, you have more choices in programming languages. The favorites, however, remain PHP (probably the most popular: WordPress, the most used CMS in PHP), Java, and Python.

It is possible to associate development frameworks with these languages ​​for a more advanced result. PHP offers the Symfony and Laravel frameworks, and Python offers Django, Java offers Spring…

Finally, languages ​​and frameworks need to work with an SQL (Structured Query Language) or NoSQL database.

The developer has a choice, as you can see. A single responsibility lies with him: the viability of the web project, which therefore submits it more to web standards.