Custom web applications make your business accessible and portable, anywhere and on any device. So you can be just as productive at a client meeting or getting coffee as you are at your desk. When you find yourself in the need of a custom web application, here are a few things to consider for building a custom web application.

Don’t Rethink from the start

We recommend researching and reviewing “software-as-a-service” (SAAS) or “off-the-shelf” based solutions that could meet your business needs. If there is a solution that meets all of your business requirements and has positive reviews in the industry, then it might be easy enough to work with that tool. However, oftentimes, packaged tools do not meet every specific business need. Some tools are ideal for specific company sizes, budgets, technical compatibilities, etc.

A custom web application will be able to address all of your unique requirements. We help our clients research existing products and then decide if completely customizing a tool is the best solution or if supplementing an existing tool will work. Sometimes leveraging the features of an existing product and integrating different functions, such as analytics, calendars and cloud storage can be done without having to build it from the ground up.

Design a device independent web application

Your web application should be accessible on common operating systems and browsers and it should be responsive to different screen sizes (smartphones, tablets and desktops). There are a lot of quality HTML, CSS and JavaScript front-end frameworks that can help you create a web application theme so that you don’t have to write it from scratch. For example, Bootstrap works well for building a front-end user interface. We like it because it’s easy to understand and supports responsiveness design for a variety of devices as well as standard animated transitions. There are advantages and disadvantages to using frameworks, but if you are venturing into it for the first time, we suggest using a responsive framework.

Use a development framework to build your application

A development framework offers an organized approach to configure your web application in terms of security, database communication and business process implementation. We like frameworks like Angular, React, node.js, etc., because it helps us to efficiently maintain and organize our codebase. Frameworks provide easy-to-read code in an organized structure, which in turn, allows your web applications to be easily manageable and extensible.

Invest time in building a better user experience

Developing better workflow and user experience is arguably the most challenging phase of the development process. This is where you actually try to envision the end product. Planning each module, workflow and function systematically lay the groundwork for a strong project foundation. Using collaborative and visual communication tools are very helpful during this phase. We find paper prototyping and building wireframes very effective in defining the path we are going to develop the application. Building a prototype always helps visualize the final product before investing precious development time.

Sevael Technologies has years of custom application development experience. Our staff of technical experts is familiar with a variety of existing and emerging technologies for developing a perfectly custom designed web application tailored for your business needs.