Web app design process

Mobile and web applications become the must-have digital footprint for anyone who wants to be successful in their business. The core of such application development is solving user problems online, and depending on your business type, they may connect your online and offline activity or operate fully on the Internet.

The web app design process involves many various steps: from formulating the idea and conducting research to the development and testing. All these processes are performed by various people with different competencies, so as we’ll see, your team must be quite diverse to succeed. Let’s see the web apps’ key stats to understand why you certainly need one and where to start.

You won’t go without an app

Today, the Internet and smartphone usage is so widespread that ignoring placing your business online is self-destructive. It means that you allow others who will do that to outperform you by simply following the progress trends. Also, note that the progressive web application market is one of the fastest-growing ones, with a predicted annual growth (CAGR) of 30%. So, everything invites you here!

If you don’t want to develop a mobile app or think that it’ll be excessive, think about the web service. More than 5 billion people use the Internet regularly today, most of them doing so using the mobile phone. As you can see below, the mobile traffic share is rising and is already the largest one. Web app development is usually must cheaper than creating a mobile app, so it’s a good way to start when conquering the Internet with your business.

While many local businesses continue to ignore the increasingly sharp necessity of having a digital footprint, it’d be much better actually to have it. Those who were left behind in the pre-Interned era will eventually be pushed out, as the Internet will probably penetrate all areas of human life. So, how to do that?

Where to start?

Everything starts with the purpose, and when talking about web app design, it’s more actual than ever. Which problem your app may solve? How it’ll improve people’s well-being around the world? If you already have the company, you know the answers to these questions, but how will it realize them via the Internet? See below the statistics of the most common user complaints regarding web applications to understand what to avoid: it’s the best thing to start from.

Let’s see now the key options of the good web app design.

Crucial activity

Your web application’s purpose manifests itself via the developed interface and features, enabling customers to apply them to solve their problems.

• Define crucial features of your application and conceptualize how each of them will help users solve their problems or improve their lives.
• Develop a good user interface (UI) to ensure seamless and convenient interaction between users and your features.
• Conduct usability research to make your app work without flaws and bugs.
• Build an app based on the user data, not only your assumptions and suggestions. That’s true that you determine your app’s mission, but all your activity should be based on clear data.

App development

Therefore, web app design includes refining the app’s main idea, prototyping the webpage’s general look, planning all essential features, and implementing them all together using web development tools. 

Various people work on the project at different stages and that’s why the app development team is always diverse. Let’s describe each development stage shortly and specify which roles are necessary here. Please note that one person can combine more than one role. 

📋 Requirements Gathering and Planning: Creating the app’s vision, mission, main idea, and essential features list.

• A business analyst conducts market research, defines the project scope and creates a project plan.
• A project manager follows the project plan, allocates all work to team members, and tracks their progress.

📐Design and Wireframing: Building the app’s basic structure and defining how it’ll look.

• A UX researcher conducts usability research and ensures that each element of the design will have a specific function, improving the overall app’s performance.

🖼️Front-End Development: Interface, interactivity, and usability.

• A front-end developer implements the visual design to create the client side of the application using coding.
• A UI designer collaborates with front-end developers to ensure the interface’s visual consistency and usability.

💽Back-End Development: App logic, data flows, and main features.

• A back-end developer implements server-side functionality, database integration, and app logic using programming languages, realizing all app’s features.
• A database administrator creates and manages the database, defines its structure, and maintains its performance.
• Integration/API specialist integrates third-party services and develops the application’s APIs.

🧪Testing and Quality Assurance (QA): Test an app in various conditions to ensure its workability.

• QA engineer tests the application to see whether it operates as planned, identifies bugs, and reports issues for resolution.

🧱Deployment and Maintenance: Release an application and maintain its stable, efficient work.

• DevOps engineer sets up deployment pipelines, manages servers, and ensures smooth maintenance and operational processes.
• Technical support specialist provides ongoing support and assistance to customers, addressing their issues and answering their questions.

Web design process

No one can guarantee you that the web app design will be successful because it’s not designers but customers who determine its success. However, based on our research, we can elucidate several crucial components of the web application that can increase its success greatly.  

🎯 Clear Goals. Identify what problem your app solves, who is your target audience, and which value your app brings to them.

⚡ Performance Optimization. Compress files, optimize images, and minimize server requests to enhance performance. It will ensure fast loading times, smooth navigation, and responsiveness.

🔐 Security Measures. Use modern encryption protocols, secure authentication methods, and technologies such as blockchain. Test and update software components regularly to identify and address potential vulnerabilities.

🚻 User Experience. As mentioned, usability is one of the most important elements of web app design. Aim for a seamless and enjoyable user experience throughout the application. Ensure smooth transitions between pages, intuitive user flows, and error handling that guides users through any issues they may encounter.

📐 Efficient Design. Design the application using clear objectives based on user research results. Each component should be in its place, solving some user problem. Prioritize intuitive navigation, interactive elements, and a visually appealing interface.

📈 Scalability and Flexibility. The future growth and various changes associated with it must be considered if you don’t want your app to remain small and limited forever, of course. Flexibility means the ability to change some features without breaking them, while scalability includes increasing the app’s capacity to handle user requests and proceed with data. Plan for increasing user demands, feature enhancements, and integration with third-party systems.

🖲️ Testing and Improvement. These processes are actual during the web app design and while it may be tempting to ignore them, it’s always a bad idea. Test your web application for bugs, usability issues, and performance bottlenecks regularly. Gather feedback and working data to identify areas for improvement and implement updates and enhancements accordingly to them.

📢 Marketing and Promotion. Even if your product is actual and necessary, your target audience should know about it and accept it seamlessly. So, develop a comprehensive marketing strategy using various channels such as social media, content marketing, search engine optimization, and target ads.

To summarize our tips, the user-centric design, clear mission, convenience and security, and smart promotion are components that will increase your web app design success chances greatly.

In summary: the vital role of web app design for business success

Web app design is one of the crucial nowadays activity to ensure your business’s development and survival. No one can guarantee 100% success, but you can increase it to make much higher than 0%. For that, optimize each stage of the development process and ensure that your app will be secure and usable and solve a specific range of actual user problems. Add a good marketing approach based on the target ads directed at your audience to maximize your chances.