What Is Web Application Development?

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We live in an age where the internet forms a large percentage of our lives. We use it for entertainment, shopping, interacting with our friends and family, and education among others. As such web applications are vital tools that we need to use every day.

This post will focus on web applications, what they are and how you can develop one. But first, let’s begin by answering the question, what is web application development?

What Is Web Application Development?

Web application development is the process of building a web application. The process involves designing, developing, testing, and deploying a web-based application.

Web application development differs from other standard engineering processes in that it is more focused on interacting with the browser. In most cases, web application development will involve defining the problem, creating a possible solution, choosing a tool or adopting a framework, engaging with users, and the actual building and testing of the web application.

What Is a Web Application?

A web application is an interactive computer program that runs on a web server and is accessed through a web browser. A web application stores data, is used by one or more users to perform tasks on the internet and is built with web technology such as Cascading Styles Sheets (CSS), JavaScript, or HTML.

Web applications are usually designed in such a way that the user interface collects valuable data. The data collected helps the development team behind the app gather vital insights into the web application's usage, customer interests, and preferences, which are in turn useful for creating useful products, effective marketing strategies, and for optimizing other client-centered aspects of the web application.

Web applications are different from web pages in that the design of a web application is mainly dictated by user experience. In traditional web design, programmers make design decisions based on enhanced usability. On the contrary, each web application has an application program interface that collects large-scale data from the user side and funnels the info into automation.

Most mobile applications that appear on your smartphone are web applications. Here's a list of common web applications you might already be using:

·   Email-based programs such as Gmail, Yahoo, and AOL

·   Social media applications such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

·   Query sites such as Quora and Google

·   Any self-service portal

What Is the Difference Between Web Applications and Websites?

A web application is a collection of HTML documents, as such, it might be built as a free-standing application or as part of an established website. Either way, the web application is interactive and user data informs iterations of the application. A website, on the other hand, is designed in such a way that only the developer or creator can make changes.

Another difference between a web application and a website is that a website is designed to serve a specific purpose such as delivering information in form of text or video, while a web application can produce a variety of possible outcomes based on the user's request.

You now have the answers to the questions of what is a web application development and what is a web application, and fully understand how a web application differs from a website. Now, let’s look at the different types of web applications, what skills you need to create a web application, and the web application development process.

What Are the Different Types of Web Applications?

Web applications fall under 3 main categories; client-side, server-side, and single-page web applications.

Client-Side Web Applications

Client-side applications are web applications that mainly focus on the user interface. The applications are dominant in front-end development and tend to prioritize UX and high-performance levels.

Any data that a client-side web application needs to function is loaded at startup. This leads to speedy interactions with content, highly responsive pages, and zero buffering for loading pages.

Server-Side Web Applications

In contrast to client-side applications, server-side applications are more focused on back-end development. Back-end development involves building the application programming interfaces (APIs), servers, databases, and other background processes that occur in an app.

Although server-side applications still display content and user interfaces, the most dynamic code is found in the servers.

Server-side web apps offer more security and browser compatibility than client-side web apps. However, they work better with static content as it takes some time for the web browser to send a request to the server and wait for an answer.

Single-Page Applications

A single-page application is a web application that only loads a single web document and then uses JavaScript APIs to update the body content of the document when different content needs to be shown.

Single-page applications allow users to use an application without having to load new pages from the server. This offers a more dynamic experience and enhances performance gains. However, single-page apps make it difficult to implement SEO, maintain state, monitor performance, and implement navigation.

The Web Application Development Process

The web app development process can have anywhere between 5 and 9 steps. On average, the process involves the following 8 steps:

Requirements Review and Proposal

Whenever you think of launching a web application, you must first start with a set of ideas of what you hope the app will accomplish. The first step you should take towards creating the app is to develop your ideas into a detailed document where you describe the features the app will have, the technology you hope to use, the goals of creating the application, your visions and plans for the app, and your budget.

By reading this document, your development team should be able to clearly understand what your app aims to achieve, the app's target audience, focus industry, milestones, and any other important information.

Once your development team has a clear understanding of what the app development project will entail, you should create a proposal to document everything that will be delivered.

Planning and Blueprints

Now that you and your team have the same vision for the web application, it’s time to create a roadmap you will follow to build the application. This is the time to create a blueprint using flowcharts and sketches to help determine the structure of the web app.

Flowcharts will help you understand the inner structure of your app, its inner workings, and the relationship between different web pages. For the User interface, you can use wireframes to create a visual representation of what everything will look like.

This stage of the web app development process should take around two weeks.

Web Application Design

Stage 3 of the app development process is all about perfecting the interactive elements and design of the applications. This is where designers toy around with different graphics, color schemes, icons, user experience, graphics, style guides, templates, buttons, and transitions to ensure the user gets an aesthetically pleasing web application with a killer user interface.

While the design team is making mock-ups for the application, the development team will usually be working on the programming end of the app development. Therefore, stages three and four usually move alongside each other.

Web Application Programming

The app programming stage is where developers build the value component of the app by making the different features function. In this stage, developers come up with frameworks, build app features, deploy APIs, add security layers, and integrate payment gateways among other capabilities.

Coding a complex web application is a time-intensive process, and this stage is naturally the longest in the app development process. However, the web application programming language you choose to use and the level of expertise and experience your development team has will determine how long the programming stage will take.

Copywriting and Labeling

Copywriting and labeling only make up a small percentage of the app development process. However, without it, it would be very difficult to make sense of what you have built.

This stage is about finalizing the copy, captions, headlines, labeling, and everything else that is in text form. The copywriter, information architect, designer, and developer must work together to ensure that usability and simplicity are upheld when adding copy and labels to the different features of the app.

Testing and Launch

Finally, once you have completed all other steps, it's time to test. Start by checking the core features, forms transitions, performance, copy, upload functionality, links, and buttons.

Once you have double-checked everything, launch your app in the beta version. This way, you can continue to make changes as you receive feedback from users. If the stakes are high and your resources are limited, consider unfolding your application in phases and to different audience groups.

Application Maintenance

All digital products, web applications included, need regular check-ups and enhancements.  With time, you might need to launch version two of your web application, integrate new features, or make product pivots.

Final Word

There are many reasons why you might choose to invest in a web app development project. Whatever your reasons are, the app development process we have discussed here will help build your app from the ground up in a seamless manner. It’s a helpful way to create applications to help you interact with and engage with your customers.

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