This guide is probably useful if you’re in the process of building a web application. I will go over a few topics that involve the development of web applications and what you can do to your application to receive maximum output and efficiency.
Installers
If you’re planning on distributing your application so other people can use it you’ve really got to make the installation process an easy one. I have seen quite a few applications that make the installation for un-experienced people quite hard, Drupal is a great example for this; it doesn’t have an installer, you have to import the tables into MySQL and edit a few files.
If you’re going to develop an application it’s because you want to make the life of a user easier, if that wasn’t the case we would all be programming our own applications and stop using ones that have already been written and are ready to use. Remember, simplicity is what users want, make your installation process easy and try to avoid making users edit files.
The User Interface
If you actually want someone to use your application you better get things straight and design an elegant user interface. I know that what really matters in an application is its functionality and features, not its design. However, let’s say you have both, functionality and design; this would make your application perfect.
Try and keep things simple and less bloated. I have seen so many applications out there that are so bloated and make it so hard for a user to use. Users want something that’s simple, easy to use and gets the work done straight away.
Organize your code
Although you may be the only developer of you application you always have to think ahead, what if you need someone else to join you and aid you with the development of future versions? Now that you’re starting to code it’s always a good idea to add comments so you know what your piece of code is actually doing.
Moreover, try and keep your code efficient. When I say efficient I mean use the least amount of code/lines as possible. If you’re using PHP (For example) you should develop some kind of framework, use headers and if you have the skill or ability, OOP. Keeping your code efficient will make your application lighter and faster.
Beta Testing
This is quite obvious, before you even publish your application so users can use it you have to test it out. However, when beta testing it’s better to keep the testing private, why? Well, from my personal experience you get too many users downloading your application which means more emails coming in saying “So and so doesn’t work”, at the end of the day you’re going to have quite a few emails that have got to do with the same bug.
So, what do you do instead? Invite a couple of people to test your application, depending on all the features and functionality your application provides you should decide on a number of people that can get the job done at a satisfactory rate and on time.
Conclusion
To summarise this whole post, keep your applications simple and design a basic and clean interface. Moreover, try and keep your code organised by using some sort of framework, functions and headers. Make sure you application has an installer and that it’s easy to use and doesn’t require users to modify many files or import anything to any sort of database. Finally, keep your beta testing private and only invite a couple of users to test your application.
– Contributed by Prash of Xirgo
