{"id":6313,"date":"2013-06-25T09:00:57","date_gmt":"2013-06-25T14:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/?p=6313"},"modified":"2022-11-22T13:20:32","modified_gmt":"2022-11-22T19:20:32","slug":"rules-for-modern-web-application-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/rules-for-modern-web-application-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Rules for modern web application development"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Education\"<\/a>Web application development has experienced a fundamental shift over the last 5 years. Mobile devices have exploded. Consumer applications have largely surpassed business applications in both capabilities and overall simplicity. Development libraries, frameworks, languages, etc… have evolved. <\/p>\n

The fact is, development standards have changed, yet many companies are stuck developing applications based on outdated standards and technology. If they don\u2019t adapt, these companies will only fall further and further behind as technology rapidly evolves.<\/p>\n

The big questions: How has development changed? What rules must developers follow when building modern web applications? What current development principles will help ensure success?<\/p>\n

To help you answer those questions, here\u2019s a short list of guidelines that you must follow when developing modern web applications. Of course, if you\u2019d like to add anything to the list, please do so in the comments.<\/a><\/p>\n

1. Build for usability<\/h3>\n
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photo credit: Tim Dorr<\/a> via photopin<\/a> cc<\/a><\/i><\/div>\n

While always important, usability has now become an absolute necessity. After all, user expectations have changed. They expect the well-designed, intuitive interfaces they receive on their smartphones and consumer applications. These days, users have options. If the application confuses the user, they\u2019ll find something else.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy approach has really had to change since I am building a consumer-facing set of apps,\u201d says Alex Genadinik, founder and developer for Problemio.com<\/span><\/a>. \u201cInstead of focusing on the server and database, and optimizing them to scale, I had to shift focus on first, observing user behavior as much as possible, and making sure all the buttons and screen elements are A\/B tested to ensure the best usability. So I had to shift focus from the backend technologies to focus very intensely and with great details on the front-end and usability. Because if there is no usability, the backend tech becomes useless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, usability is a vague term. What does it look like? More importantly: How can you build applications with good usability? Here are three steps to take that will help you improve application usability:<\/p>\n