Web Developer vs Web Designer

What is the difference between a Web Developer vs Web Designer? This is a difficult question to answer when it comes to the different roles within or between companies as the role can encompass a wide range or a very limited scope. However, generally speaking, one can differentiate between these two roles and understand how they differ but at the same time compliment one another.

A Web Designer, to consider that role first, is someone who is basically involved in designing the website in a way that would be best for their consumers. So a Web Designer needs to work closely with the User Researchers to understand what the consumers really want so to make sure that the design elements that you wish to put on the website is relevant. Therefore, the web designer works more on the front end of the website as opposed to the backend.

The Web Developer on the other hand works on the technical side of the development process where the developer has to consider what the designers have decided to come up with. The developers have to consider closely the exact way that the designers have decided how the website should look, feel and operate as. In other words, they have to ensure that not just the technical things such as speed have to be considered, but exactly what does the designer want the website to do.

Therefore a web developer does work pretty much on the backend of the enterprise where they code the website. Therefore most of the software that a web developer must learn is programming languages that are necessary to develop a website. On the other hand, web designers have to learn other software such as Illustrator that is more aligned towards the design elements necessary for that relevant task.

However, it must be noted that in a small company these roles could be combined into one where the web designer and the developer are the same person. In this case the person would essentially have to work directly with the user researchers to understand, then design and then develop the website. This can be seen to be a good thing as this person would be quite efficient, but there are problems that may rise with regard to too much work. In a bigger company these roles could be even further split or where there will be multiple web designers and developers who will work together even on a single website. 

Advertisements in Websites and Applications

What is the right way to have advertisements in applications and websites? We all understand that monetary concerns makes it necessary to have advertisements on our digital products, unless of course we have other ways of monetization such as the use of subscription options. However, we must make sure that these advertisements do not cause annoyance for our customers as it could be one of the main reasons for customers to be dissatisfied with our products and services of android app development.

Generally speaking, one does have some control over what advertisements that visitors to the website can see. Google for example, provides services where customer can see customized commercials when they visit any website based on their browsing history and cookies. Therefore, one must keep in mind what kind of advertisement may pop up when designing the website as these need to work well with the rest of the design of the website. Take a look at the example from a website below.

If we analyze this from a design perspective this is not good at all. It takes up bulk of the screen and could be seen to be a distraction by the customer.  Furthermore, there is another commercial on the right hand side which has bigger text than the rest of the page which drives the users attention there. When the user comes across this text, they will be annoyed as this it is not what they were looking for.

Modern applications tend to have some form of a subscription option that allows you to block ads. However, one must keep in mind the customers who do not subscribe to this option as well in order not to overwhelm them with commercials. One might think that these users will simply pay more money to get rid of the nuisance but what will most likely happen is that they will leave you for one of your competitors. Therefore, the primary purpose of the business, which is to say the retainment of customers who take precedence over ad revenue at all time.

Furthermore, even if the consumers find the ads helpful, the ability to easily manage and cross the ad out has to be visible. We have all had encounters where it is nearly impossible to get the ad away from the screen and use the relevant service offered in mobile app development. This defeats the primary purpose of having an app in the very first place. All of these things need to be considered when we decide to use advertising in our websites and applications. 

Feedback of mobile app development in Singapore

Consider the image above. When the user has touched the box on the screen next to the word “excellent” what is the response that the screen gives? As shown, the feedback given is a tick box that tells the user essentially that the application understands that the user has selected that option. If that feedback or the tick sign rather was not there, it would be impossible for the user to tell if the application even works.

Consider Figure 2 from above which shows the response that is given when the finger is placed on the number 2. The number lights up in blue and it shows to the user for a split second which number they have chosen. This is important as it would be difficult to tell which number was pressed unless this was the case. Although it must be noted that eventually the user gets used to their passcode to a point where they would input it without even looking at the screen.

In the figure above the letter F is indicated in the color grey. This is another form of feedback that shows the user which key he or she has selected. Although in the current version of iOS app development what actually happens is that the letter becomes bigger to show that you have selected the key. This lasts for not even a second and it does not obstruct at all when you are typing fast, which shows that such a concern has been addressed.

We are all now familiar with the icon above that pops up on websites when there are elements or links that can be clicked that will take us to another site. This happens when we move the cursor over an element that contains a link. This icon is a form of feedback that shows us that there is a link present and we can just click to open it or right click to open it on another window or tab if we are using a modern web browser.

These are just a few elements of feedback that modern developers and designers must consider when developing applications and websites. This can change depending on the type of interface we are dealing with. For example, a touch interface would require different considerations in terms of feedback than a non-touch interface. Another example would be the feedback expected from at trackpad as opposed to a mouse. Feedback considerations allow us to make sure our products and services are easy to understand for our users of mobile app development. 

Responsive Design in Singapore

Responsive Design is basically making sure that your website works on the variety of devices that are around today. This means that one must consider the type of devices, the user experience company that makes the products, the software that is run, the browser that is used and many other factors. Let’s start with the type of devices that are used.

The type of device that can be used could be a desktop computer. This is usually the biggest form of a screen that you will come across and therefore you have to ensure that the images that you used in the website for example, translate well in high definition. Furthermore, this type of devices has the best processing power and therefore it should be able to retrieve information from your website server very rapidly.

The other type broadly speaking is laptops and tablet computers. These devices fall somewhere in between a mobile phone and a desktop. However, as opposed to desktop computers they usually have a touch screen that you need to be aware of in order to make sure that things such as clicks don’t happen when the user wants to scroll of ui design.

The last type is the mobile phone which in almost all cases is a touch screen device that can be generally held in the hand. These devices have less processing power than their counterparts and therefore the websites developed must be easy to load and responsive. Furthermore, one can use features such as GPS and call-making ability when a user requests for your website from a mobile device.

Another thing to consider is the software that the device is running on and the browser. For example, in most Apple products the browser would be Safari and in most Android devices it would be Chrome. You have to test your web design in both of these different browsers to ensure that nothing goes wrong in terms of cookies, cache and other tiny differences in the way that these software store and process data.

You must also keep in mind the network capabilities of the users that you are targeting at. For example, if most of your target market are in more remote parts of the world where access to high speed internet is still not possible, you do not want to use images that are heavy in size or forms that are too complicated and unresponsive.  These are few of the key things that you must keep in mind when considering responsive design. 

Chatbots in Mobile Applications

Chatbots have been growing increasingly popular over the past few years. Most companies either on their websites or on the mobile applications offer some form of a chatbot that allows their consumers to communicate with a pre-programmed software that can answer questions. This is convenient for both companies and users for many reasons.

From the point of view of the company, chatbots allows the maintenance of low numbers of people who will need to be in call centers and thus saving cost. Furthermore, it allows the users to input certain preliminary responses that would help the user get to the correct help desk agent if necessary. This saves valuable time for both the consumer and the company.

From the standpoint of the consumer, chatbots are important because you do not have to hold in line anymore. You can easily open up the application or the website and immediately start looking for what you know. With the advancements in natural language processing and machine learning, chatbots are much more helpful and they continue to improve using their algorithms.

However, from a design and effectiveness point of view, companies have to be careful before rolling out this feature. One has to be fairly certain that the chatbot algorithm is able to answer the pressing questions that the customers generally have and that it can process the information fast enough to provide value. This is because that customers who use chatbots do so for convenience and will not be happy if the service is slow and unreliable.

Furthermore, companies have to keep in mind the demographics that they are dealing with. Chatbots are mostly used by the younger generation as they have grown up with smartphones and are comfortable with interacting with screens. This is contrasted with customers who are in earlier generations prefer to talk to a human being. These customers could be handled by automated agents that can process voice and provide answers if necessary.

Another advantage of chatbots is that companies can gain valuable insights into the behavior of each individual consumer. For example, if you are a fashion company and a customer is asking questions regarding a specific type of clothing, you can use this data in future recommendations to suggest customized clothing of that category. Further, from the typing style and choice of words of the consumer, valuable insights regarding preferences can be understood to improve the customer experience as a whole. Therefore, chatbots are an essential component in modern mobile app development.