Author: galaxy-admin

How Headless CMS Helps Build Future-Proof Websites

Posted on by galaxy-admin

The headless CMS space has earned a huge hype in recent years, leading to the excitement around a content management model. A Headless CMS is a back-end-only content management system (CMS) built as a content repository that allows you to create, manage, store, and publish content over APIs.

The simple answer to “What is headless cms?” is the absence of a frontend.

Before getting into how headless CMS works, let’s first recap the ‘traditional’ CMS.

A traditional CMS is responsible for both serving the content to end-users and the backend management of that content. With a traditional CMS like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and so on, the users edit and create their content through tools like an HTML editor or a WYSIWYG editor, and save it to the back-end database. Then, CMS shows the content according to the front-end delivery layer built into the CMS.

Let’s have a look at WordPress and its features-

  • To read and write content, a database is there.
  • To let editors manage the content, an admin interface is there.
  • Integration of reading and writing.
  • Front-end that combines the data to HTML from the database.

To convert this into a headless CMS, we simply remove the fourth feature from the stack. That means, the content repository ‘body’ is separated or decoupled from the e3presentation layer ‘head’. Thus, we get an application that allows reading (API: combined Integrations) and content management (Admin UI). 

Future-proof your digital assets

Adopting an API-first platform helps businesses to develop and deploy engaging content experiences for their audiences no matter the device. In addition, codes are more often reusable. Thus, the content remains future-proof irrespective of the devices that come next in the market.

Using APIs instead of plugins

In the traditional CMS model, you would build your website on top of your installed CMS. Where you will get to leverage third-party plugins or built-in modules to gain particular functionalities in your application. Need a password-protected section on your website? Or a newsletter? Or a simple shopping cart? There’s a plugin for that!

With that, you get logged in to your CMS and its plugin ecosystem. Plus, you will have to completely rewrite your application when you would want to move to another CMS.

Whereas, in a Headless CMS, you build your application as a standalone project and only use CMS as an API that provides you with content. Need to move to another CMS? You can now just switch to another API and migrate your content!

Is Headless CMS a good fit for your requirements? 

A Headless CMS will best fit for a web application in various use cases:

  • Ecommerce websites
  • Native Mobile Apps (iOS, Android, Windows)
  • Websites created with static site generators (Gatsby, Jekyll, Middleman, etc.)
  • Websites, Web apps that use JavaScript frameworks 
  • E-Learning Apps
  • Application with basic CRUD operations

…And it is not just limited to websites!

Since headless CMS can deliver your content through an API, the content can be used on an Android app, iOS app, as well as other platforms and technologies. It is, therefore, a lucrative option for mobile and web development.

Advantages of a headless CMS

1. Front-end agnostic

Being focused only on backend APIs to manage meta-data and data entries, a headless CMS is front-end framework agnostic. In other words, front-end developers are free to use their favorite frameworks and tools, and publish content on any device or channel via API calls.  

2. Reuse across multiple channels

The key to selecting a content model is to organize and structure the content in a way that allows for easy reuse. Headless CMS provides the ability to create content that can be used on any device and channel. You create it once and then you can use it across multiple websites, in your mobile app, AR/VR apps, in-store displays, digital assistant, chatbot, email marketing, etc.

Which headless CMS should you choose in 2022?

The next step after learning about the basics would be to choose the best headless cms. So here is a handy list of headless CMSs to keep an eye on:

  1. GraphCMS
  2. ButterCMS
  3. Contentful
  4. CloudCMS
  5. Contentstack
  6. dotCMS
  7. Mura
  8. Cockpit CMS
  9. Core DNA
  10. Craft CMS

Conclusion

Why headless CMS and why now?

There has been hype surrounding headless content management for the past few years. And the most probable reason is the increase in multi-channel publishing complexity. 

Headless CMS on Google Trends

Even though the most traditional CMSs are already allowing publishing to a handful of channels, in the era of IoT, it will not suffice. Large brands want the power to publish their content anywhere, apart from just desktop, tablet, and mobile – because new channels and devices (such as smart home assistants, VR headsets, and smartwatches) are popping up faster than you can say Content-as-a-Service.

Contact us, if you are interested in more details on how we approach website development with popular CMSs.

About Galaxy Weblinks:

We are your offshore CMS development partner! We offer expert capabilities in developing feature-rich solutions using the latest CMS technology trends. We have hands-on experience in building popular CMS-based websites using our frontend and backend expertise for different business needs. We offer assistance from building custom CMS websites to website migration and maintenance processes.

5 Reasons Building Your Startup App in Flutter Is Great for Business

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In this blog, we will take a look at the various pros and cons for startups if they choose Flutter to build their mobile applications. 

Mobile apps are instrumental in driving the success of most startups. You must choose a reliable framework to build your mobile application. We will be sharing with you the various reasons why we recommend Google’s Flutter to develop efficient and profitable apps for startups.

The age-old question – Native or Cross-Platform? 

The first decision that you need to make while building a mobile application is – 

  • Shall I go ahead with one application for all the platforms using Cross-platform technologies?
  • Does it make more sense to develop native applications for Android and iOS?. 

Advantages of building a Cross-Platform app for Startups: 

Low development and maintenance costs

Cross-platform is a budget-friendly and faster-to-deploy way of building an app. This is good news for most startups. Native apps on the other hand are costlier to make and maintain as there are different codebases to look after, update, or fix. Cross-Platform with a single codebase in comparison, is easier to make and maintain.

Quicker-to-market

Cross-platform app code is reusable and allows you to make apps for both platforms with a single codebase. As a result, the time-to-market becomes shorter. With native development, you’ll be spending twice the time to provide the same set of functionalities for two separate audience bases.

Plug-ins for every need

As cross-platform development has become a common practice, the plugin marketplace is crowded with plugins to make your developer’s life easier. Plugin eliminates the grunt work, hence making your mobile app development more efficient and flawless. 

Quick and easy testing

When you have a single codebase, you don’t have to hire different engineers with different skill sets to test a single app performance on different operating systems. Checking and optimizing a single app takes only half the time it takes for two apps with different codebases.

Looking at all these advantages, you may wonder why cross-platform isn’t a default for mobile app development already. Here is the catch!

The user experience of cross-platform applications is not at par with that of native applications. The applications are run through a code interpreter since they are not compiled as Native ARM code. As a result, the native apps are more intuitive and efficient. 

Enhanced UX with Flutter – 

Flutter is also a cross-platform development kit. However, it does things a little differently to provide a more native-like feel to your apps. Flutter leverages native UI elements of both Android and iOS. 

Here are some pros of using Flutter for mobile app development for Startups:

1. Better design and customizations 

Design is pivotal for any early-age startup app, as it needs to grab the attention of investors and users alike. Flutter comes equipped with rich UI features and intuitive designs that grab attention like lucrative crypto investments. You will also find custom widgets for Android and iOS quite useful, as it completes the native look of an app with a seamless and crisp UX. Among the list of countless widgets, Flutter is also equipped with Material Design for Android and Cupertino/ iOS widgets for iOS applications. 

2. Dart hits the target

Developed by Google, Dart is Flutter’s programming language. It significantly reduces the launch time of the application. Additionally, Flutter does not need to name OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) widgets because it utilizes its own. As a result, apps built on Flutter don’t require a JavaScript bridge, because Flutter skips the JavaScript bridge to connect directly with the native platform. 

3. Firebase for backend is great for startups

Firebase is Google’s backend solution and comes equipped with Flutter. It makes for a great backend solution, especially for mobiles. With Firebase, Flutter offers out-of-the-box and stable assistance, hosting solutions, real-time databases, and protocols for user authentication as well.

With Firebase’s release automation tool, mobile app launches and maintenance become more straightforward and seamless. 

4. The hottest feature of Flutter | Hot Reload

Hot reload allows developers to apply and check changes to the code in real-time. The feature allows developers to quickly fix bugs and issues without risking functionality and redeployment of the code. With Hot Reload, developers can add new functionality, fix bugs, and experiment in real-time. This feature can increase your developer efficiency up to 5X.

5. Smart Libraries for a functional UI

No matter if you’re developing an app for iOS, Android, or Google Fuchsia, you can easily gain access to widgets for the respective platforms. When you’re using Flutter as a UI creation tool, you can use widgets to integrate all the platform-based functionalities like scrolling, navigation, icons, and fonts.  

For business applications built for internal communications, ticketing systems, geolocation, and so on, Flutter offers powerful functionality to generate structured and intuitive UIs. These UIs rely on geographic locations along with the ability to change the UI based on language, text, and target area’s layout. 

How Much Does it Cost To Build A Startup App with Flutter in 2021?

Like any other app, the pricing of apps built on Flutter is correlated to its complexity. The simpler ones like a fitness app with suggestions, plans, and profile should cost you around $26000 to $34800. Compare that to a highly complex app like Instagram, it will set you back around $41,500 to $55,000.

Factoring in the cost of making two separate native apps in the picture makes the Startup app development with Flutter an even juicier proposition.

Closing Thoughts

Owing to its convenient libraries, customization widgets, and native-like experience, developers are preferring 4-year old Flutter over many older counterparts. Therefore, its framework is evolving at a great pace. Flutter does have some flaws. They include architectural approach and lack of third party integrations. However, the cost of building an app and other benefits outweigh its flaws to make it a good choice for Startups. 

Everything You Need to Know for Better UX Survey Results

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Business decisions nowadays are guided by “what user wants?” and hence rely heavily on data. UX Surveys are the best way to get that data. With UX Surveys you can gather insights, guide strategy, prove or disprove hypotheses, and back unique and fresh ideas. 

However, the data that is gathered from these surveys is not always accurate. In this blog, we’re going to address some biases, the UX surveys processes, and some UX survey best practices.

Content and Design

Survey branding, prototypes, assumptions, and biases are some factors to consider that impact a UX Survey. You need objectivity in your surveys and that is established by the content, design, and development itself. 

Identifying any biases in survey design is relatively simple. You can go through questions and eliminate logos, branding, and lofty assumptions that aren’t of any value. Even when you remove all the fluff from your survey design, surveys based on instant data will always pose a challenge of going stale as you process the research and present the results as data goes redundant pretty quickly. Political and COVID surveys are apt examples of this. 

Data Collection

Participant selection is crucial for the quality of the survey. When selecting participants, you need to take into account several biases like sampling, demand characteristic, extreme responding, and non-responsive. The right audience ensures good quality and is time-efficient, giving you better results to back original ideas. Getting the right people is more important than quantity. 

Create criteria for qualifying participants and stick to them. It could be to disqualify anyone who completes the survey way before the estimated time or the respondent who selects the same option for more than 60% of the questions.

Data Analysis

The quality of data won’t matter if the interpretations are baseless. Remember you’re not the participant. Look at the data in terms of what it shows and not the reasoning behind it. Just look at the numbers the very first time you take a look at the dataset, avoid reading too much into it at once. Focus on one thing at a time.

Research accuracy

We have addressed survey accuracy at participant, content, design, and analysis level. We now need to determine how the results look while calculating errors concerning population values.

Research accuracy = True population plus/minus any errors. 

To put it differently, survey accuracy is defined with its closeness to the truth with repeated measurement. The more repeat surveys we do for similar audiences, the closer we get to this perceived “True population”. However, repeated surveys are difficult and impractical so we consider confidence intervals. The most common measurement of sampling error in surveys is a 95% confidence interval. This implies that if you repeat the survey, the accuracy of answers will be 95% every time.

Using the confidence intervals, precision and the number of sampling errors can be calculated. This will ultimately give you an idea of closeness to true population value. Even after all this, we can’t completely say that the results are accurate and the biases eliminated. Then again the aim is to identify biases and minimize them instead of assuming that objective surveys consist of no biases at all.

A different look at the Data

Before you go on to convert your data into insights, here are a few things that you should consider:

  • Revisit the objectives of the survey before your draw any insights
  • Identify segments and respective respondents
  • Exclude bias and anomalies before analysis

To sum up we have covered three stages for data analysis and getting better results out of your surveys.

  1. Cleaning the data – Filtering participants and responses
  2. Analyzing the data – Number based analysis
  3. Getting the insights – Revisiting objectives to compare the findings

These stages are different and require a different level of commitment, concentration, and engage different parts of the brain. So it’s advised that every single one of these stages is addressed separately and one at a time. It’s crucial for the quality of results you’re seeking and the impact it will have on user experience.

About Galaxy Weblinks


We specialize in delivering end-to-end software design & development services. Our UI/UX designers are creative problem-solvers with a decade of experience in all facets of digital and interactive design. We create compelling and human-focused experiences delivered through clean, and minimalist UI. Get in touch with us here.

How Much Does It Cost to Develop a Mobile App?

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Turning your great mobile app idea into reality requires a significant amount of time, effort, and money. One of the most crucial questions towards this is “What is the cost of developing a custom mobile app”? Determining the cost is one of the most difficult tasks and requires a significant understanding of the overall development process. Even survey reports of the experts have a wide range of estimates – 

  • Clutch surveyed some of the world’s leading mobile app development companies to determine the average cost of mobile app development. And it yields startling results: “The average cost of app development ranges between $25,275 and $171,450.”
  • According to a VDC survey of enterprise app developers, mobile apps cost an average of $140,000 per app.
  • According to a Kinvey survey of CIOs, the average cost of app development is $270,000 per app.
  • According to an EMM survey, more than 75% of enterprises budgeted more than $250,000 for mobility solutions.

With such varied cost estimates for the development of a mobile app, we have listed a few important considerations that will help you identify the right cost estimate based on your requirements and will also help you in the selection of the right mobile app development company. 

1. Identify what type of app you are building

The type of app that your business needs will determine the overall design, functionalities, and cost. The more complex the app is, the more expensive it is to build one. Apps that cater to gaming, social networking, shopping, marketplaces, etc involve several features and functionalities that add to the pricing. These features include payment processing, in-app messaging, data security, geolocations, single sign-on, third-party integrations, etc. 

In addition to this, you have to identify the type of app that best suits your business objectives. Your costing is influenced by whether your app is hybrid or native. Developers create native apps for a specific operating system (mainly Android or iOS). Hybrid apps allow launching on multiple platforms simultaneously; thus reducing the development time for cross-platform builds. Native apps are typically expensive as they are built for specific platforms and provide a better user experience. 

2. Understanding the app development process 

Costs to develop a mobile app can be more accurately estimated by understanding the overall app development process. There are five key stages in the development process – Discovery, Design, Development, Testing/Deployment, and Marketing. The first two stages (Discovery and Design) help understand the requirements better and define the total costing. These stages are often given less importance which results in changes at later stages and project overruns. 

The Discovery stage ensures the real need for the app where the focus is given on the target market, users, and competition. Typically, the average cost of the Discovery stage varies between $5,000 and $10,000 and spans between two weeks and a month. A good mobile app development company focuses on the outcomes of this stage to move forward.  

In the Design stage, the app development company understands the key functionalities/features that the app needs to have. Based on these, they design the look of the app through wireframes, visual design, and user experience (UX) design. The cost of the Design stage varies considerably based on the number of screens in the app, typically ranging between $10,000 and $20,000 and could take up to a month.  

Both the Discovery and Design stages focus on the end-user to provide maximum customer satisfaction during their interaction with the company’s app. Additionally, they help better estimate the hours and costs required for Development and Testing/Deployment. Together these four stages cover the majority of the mobile app development costs. 

3. Pricing

Once you have narrowed down the complexity as well as time efforts needed to build several features/functionalities, the next crucial step is selecting the right mobile app development vendor based on their approach as well as their hourly rates to arrive at their final pricing. One important point to remember is that the cheapest quote is not always the best option.

The vendor’s approach to arrive at the final pricing is an important factor to distinguish between several vendors. The best way is to review a few proposals and compare the project plans and time estimates for each phase. Understand the # of hours, resources each vendor is proposing, and then compare their total costs.

Also, never pick a vendor purely based on their hourly rates. These rates depend on the region of the development company. The typical hourly rates for development activities based on regions are – 

  • Asia/Eastern Europe: $15-$30 / hour
  • South America: $30-$45 / hour
  • North America: $80+ / hour

Lastly, most vendors provide support/maintenance services, and their pricing can vary. Look at the monthly support hours each vendor is proposing and at what cost.

Given the importance of the Design stage in the overall app development process, it is crucial to hire a company that specializes in product design along with significant development experience. Galaxy’s UX Studio has been a unique differentiating factor from many of our competitors. If you’ve any doubts related to mobile app development and if you need assistance developing one, then feel free to talk to us here.

5 Reasons Why Angular Is the Best for Enterprise Application Development

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Google’s Angular is an open-source, dynamic, and feature-rich framework. Several enterprises use Angular to build powerful, stable, and large-scale applications. In an interview, Stephen Fluin, Developer Relations Lead at Google, discussed how many Fortune 500 companies have benefited from their Angular enterprise applications.

Google, for example, uses hundreds of Angular applications for internal processes. These enterprise-scale Angular apps are tremendously empowering both their employees and their partners. In this article, you will know about the top Angular framework features that indicate that Angular is the best for enterprise application development.

1. Cohesive Component-Based Architecture

One of the primary reasons why Angular is the future of enterprise-scale applications is its component-based architecture. An Angular web app’s skeleton is made up of components. All Angular apps benefit from a clean API provided by these well-encapsulated components.

Maintainability: Angular’s components are loosely coupled. These components can be easily replaced with desired implementations whenever the app requires the addition of a new feature or changes to an existing feature. As a result, Angular simplifies the upkeep of your enterprise app.

Reusability: Once you’ve created a component with specific functionality, you simply reuse it in all parts that use that functionality. When it comes to developing enterprise applications, the Angular framework’s reusability is the most desired feature. In large applications, Angular’s component-based architecture saves time and ensures consistency.

Contact us to team up with enterprise applications development experts. We can help you build Angular-based modern and faster applications.

2. Use of Typescript

Developers and business owners alike can rest easy, thanks to Angular’s use of the TypeScript programming language, which places a greater emphasis on security. This makes it easier to detect and eliminate errors early in the code writing or maintenance process. It also enables easy debugging of Typescript code directly in the browser or editor. Navigate with ease as well, thanks in part to improved refactoring and autocompletion features.

3. Angular Universal for Enhanced Performance

Angular Universal is an Angular framework service that allows applications to be rendered on a server rather than a client browser. This server-side rendering in Angular can benefit your enterprise application in a variety of ways- 

  • Increases the traffic to your web app
  • Facilitates high search engine ranking. 
  • Reduces the load time 
  • Improves mobile performance 

Angular Universal provides an overall seamless experience to all users of your enterprise application.

4. An Ideal Solution For Businesses

Angular is the first choice for video streaming apps, travel apps, social apps, e-commerce and m-commerce apps, review apps, and weather apps. The framework has powerful features that can be leveraged by enterprises, startups, as well as, small and medium businesses. 

  • Cross-platform – Progressive web apps, native mobile apps, and desktop apps are all examples of cross-platform applications.
  • Performance and speed – code generation, serving app views on servers, and code splitting
  • Productivity – Angular CLI, editor, and IDEs, as well as powerful template syntax.
  • Full development – Save time with unit tests, animation timelines, and ARIA-enabled applications.

Using Angular has a significant benefit for businesses of all sizes.

5.  CLI to simplify the whole development process

One of the main reasons for Angular’s popularity is its effective command-line interface (CLI). The simple, quick commands of Angular CLI help to simplify the entire development process by automating critical processes such as app initialization and configuration. You can add features to your Angular enterprise application in minutes with the help of Angular CLI. It also allows you to run end-to-end testing on individual components as well as the entire software with just a few simple commands.

Conclusion

Because of the Angular framework’s slick tooling and efficient architecture, large companies have chosen it for building apps for internal processes as well as for external users. Angular has a robust ecosystem and strong Google support, making it a dependable framework with no breaking changes. Angular is an excellent framework for developing enterprise web applications, particularly front-end development, because of its stability. Angular is without a doubt the web application framework of the future.

Want to leverage Angular for your enterprise application? Get in touch with us for a free consultation.

About Galaxy Weblinks

We specialize in delivering end-to-end application design & development services and have hands-on experience with Angular, React, Vue, and other top development frameworks. Our back-end and front-end engineers also help in improving security, reliability, and features to make sure your business application is scalable and secure.

User Experience Mapping Methods – A Study Guide for All

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Let’s start with – What is User Experience Mapping?

UX maps help you visualize how the end-user will experience your digital product, be it an app or website. A UX map is a tool for UX designers to understand customer motivations, hesitations, needs, and concerns.

Most businesses bank on the data gathering to know about their users. They have KPI trackers in place. That said, data alone miserably fails to communicate the user experiences and expectations. A storytelling tool like a user experience map is the best bet here. 

UX mapping uses visuals and storytelling to illustrate the user-brand relationship. The story is told from the customer’s perspective. It helps brands understand and address the pain points and needs of the target audience.

User journey maps show businesses how customers engage at various sales process touchpoints. This also gives the chance to determine the points of friction and rectify them. UX mapping narrows the gap between the customer needs and the product. 

To put things in perspective, let’s take a company as an example. The company is launching a website. They want the website to be easy to use and appealing to their users. What are their options? How should they get going? Knowing the users and how they are going to interact with the brand is the key here. And, creating a UX map will help with the same. UX user maps are a point of start. This includes a range of mapping processes. 

UX mapping provides insight into:

  • How is the interface being used?
  • Is the UX  appealing to the end-users? 
  • What are the results being derived? 
  • How is the user behavior being addressed?   
  • How to deliver information to the user? 

Therefore, a UX map is critical to designing a digital product. An effective UX map has the following functions/impacts:

  • Improve the information delivery to customers and users
  • Making the user experience pleasant and intuitive
  • Effective connection with users and customers
  • Building a bigger user base
  • Develop a better ROI
  • Enhancing the brand reputation and market visibility

Reasons to use UX mapping

User experience mapping aims to improve customer experience quality. 84% of companies have claimed that enhancing customer experiences boosted their revenue. There are straightforward reasons to utilize the UX mapping technique  –

  • One gets a bird’s eye view of the entire journey of customers
  • Specific hurdles faced by customers can be identified and resolved
  • Knowing where additional developments are required and simplifying customer journey paths
  • Customer retention rate increases 
  • Higher and faster customer conversion rates 
  • Minimizing negative user experiences
  • The revelation of the gaps between departments and channels
  • Better brand reputation, greater market visibility, and a smooth and enjoyable customer journey

Let’s Know Each UX Mapping Method – yes there are several UX mapping methods 

1. User Journey Mapping

The user journey map is useful when a customer has a specific need that the company product or service is addressing. A UX journey map is a detailed representation of how a customer will search for information on the app or website. 

A UX map focuses on the customer’s aim and makes it effective and easy for the product to meet the user’s goal. Moreover, the UX journey map considers the thoughts and feelings of the user. It utilizes a linear process and maps out how a single customer interacts with an application or website. The user journey map is broken down into four “swim lanes:”

  • Phases
  • Actions
  • Thoughts
  • Emotions and Mindset

The customer is at the center of the design process in each of the lanes. Each one is meant to address the overall experience. Service- and product-centered businesses will find UX journey maps useful. A journey map will help identify customer needs by breaking down bottlenecks during the interaction.

2. Empathy Mapping

A user empathy map is the deepest dive into the mindset of the user and helps build a thorough understanding of their thought process. There are four stages to this – 

  • Thinks
  • Says
  • Feels
  • Does

What are they thinking? Saying? Feeling? And doing? 

This map is not linear or sequential like the journey map. It is considered to be a useful mapping technique to understand users better and build rapport and empathy with customers. The empathy map attempts to externalize their internal experience. The whole experience is tied to the externalized experience of the user from the above four perspectives: thinks, says, feels, and does.

3. Experience Mapping

For designing a product, it is useful to build an overview of general human behavior. This comes in handy in a scenario where there is no defined target audience. 

The experience map visualizes an end-to-end journey from a generic user’s perspective. In the experience mapping, the user is not from a specific target audience. They are not interested in a specific service or company product either. 

The experience map is also divided into four key areas:

  • Phases
  • Actions
  • Thoughts
  • Feelings and Mindset

The experience map is among the most useful technique to build a picture of general user behavior.

4. Service Blueprinting

At times, one kind of UX map isn’t enough. Two UX maps can be combined to visualize the multiple interactions. For example, the user journey map is effective in visualizing the point of the user, but it does not provide insight on happenings on the business side. In such situations the service blueprint map is handy.

A customer journey mapping focuses on the user whereas a service blueprint map is all about the company. Companies offering multiple services and products need a way to visualize the way their departments and employees interact with customers. 

Like other mapping processes, the service blueprint is also divided into four key areas, referred to as “swim lanes:”

  • Customer Actions
  • Backstage Actions
  • Frontstage Actions
  • Support processes

This mapping technique is useful for large companies in identifying areas of weaknesses. It offers useful insights to improve both processes and interfaces. Benefits both users and employees.

Closing Thoughts

UX mapping assists businesses, individuals, and organizations in improving their relationships on the digital landscape by providing customers with a fantastic user experience. User experience maps help

A Comprehensive 9-Step Guide to Manual Testing

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Manual testing is a time-consuming, but thorough process. The primary objective of manual testing is to test the product against defined requirements or user stories to identify problem areas. After identifying the bugs, the application is then reviewed and handed over to the development team where they resolve the problem areas. This leads to the development of a flawless product.

Manual testing helps us understand the entire problem and explore other angles of tests with flexibility. While Test Automation helps save precious time, it comes with its own limitations. Test Automation can never ever substitute manual testing in its entirety. 

A step-by-step approach to Manual Testing

Software Testing generally falls into two categories – Manual and Automated. While the process may differ, the steps in both these testing methodologies overlap. 

Here are the most common Manual testing steps – 

Step 1. Requirement Gathering

As the name suggests, this stage is all about understanding what the client’s requirements are and curating them.  Requirement gathering is done through 

  • Reviewing available documentation
  • A thorough study of existing systems and their integrations
  • Interactions with stakeholders to understand business goals

The gathered information then guides the testing strategy and the implementation plan. In this stage, the live demos from developers help greatly. Development and QA share a symbiotic relationship, in a way that directly impacts the quality of the tests and ultimately the product. 

Step 2 – Sharing and Discussion

After gathering the data, you can consolidate and prioritize the information inside into usable components for creating test cases and scenarios. While making test cases, you will also have to consider several factors like types of testing, scope, and time needed for the tests. At this point, the QA team needs to understand the software inside out. This will facilitate knowledge sharing and discussions about the current state with the stakeholders.

In software testing, mind maps are becoming increasingly popular. They provide a visual picture of the software testing project with all the cases and detailed workings. This makes life easier, especially for the team leaders as they can use it to share test planning and accountability with the team.

Step – 3 Test Environment and Resources Setup

Manual testing largely focuses on the end-user experience. Testing in a dedicated environment standardizes the product’s performance under lab conditions. A basic framework of the test environment is prepared based on the requirements. Manual testing tools, hardware, resources, and assets are also procured and set up. 

Step 4 – Creating Test Scenarios and Test Cases

A quick analysis of requirements and user stories will clear up any doubts about what and how to test. Like other aspects of development, documentation is crucial including writing the test cases. Review the specification documents in detail, gather knowledge about the scope of testing, and create high-level test scenarios, once the documents have been shared with the team.  Along with the what and how of the test, the cases also provide expected outputs.

Step 5 – Test Execution and Defect Reporting

In the execution stage, the test cases are performed by one or more people, who follow the instructions detailed in the test cases. Their focus is to achieve the said objective while being vigilant about any mismatch between expected and actual cases. Things that do not fit in the definition of normal in requirements are flagged as bugs in the report, to be conveyed to the developers. Then the Test case status for the concerned action is marked as failed.

Step 6 – Defect Retesting and Closure

The job of a tester is not just to identify and report bugs. They also need to ensure that the reported problems are addressed. The testers are accountable for the defects and verifying the fixes, and ultimately updating the status of the defect in the concerned test case.

Step 7 – Feedback and Recommendation

The software is put through a final round of tests so that everyone involved can learn about the quality of the product. The manual testing process is said to be completed when the test report is delivered to all the stakeholders. The test results go through a feedback and recommendations process. This is the final point where the team can point out any areas of improvement if any.

A testing report should have:

  • Testing status of the product tested
  • Testing metrics
  • Areas tested
  • Areas out of scope
  • Non-testable items

Step 8 – Product Release, Test Cases, and Repository Maintenance

When your product functions as per the expectations, it is handed over to a release manager and scheduled for release. Even though the product has technically passed the QA, it may just come back to the testers in the case where something fails after reaching the marketplace or any updates have been made to the product following review.

Step 9 – Updating Test Cases

As a best practice, update and maintain the test cases on file and keep good version control so that no obsolete test cases are run or cause any previous bug to resurface.

Conclusion

Unlike automation testing, manual testing is easier to adopt but the quality and output depend heavily on the thought process of the testers and best practices employed. This blog highlights the manual testing process and how testers should approach it for the best possible quality of the product.

About Galaxy Weblinks

We specialize in delivering end-to-end software design & development services and have hands-on experience with automation testing in agile development environments. Our engineers, QA analysts, and developers help improve security, reliability, and features to make sure your business application and IT structure scale and remain secure.

What Are the Essential Design Elements of a High-Performing WordPress Website?

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Businesses are ruled by customers. For online businesses, the user experience is one of the most crucial factors that determine the success of your company. It is important for your website to drive maximum traffic and have high lead conversions. A well-designed and high-performing website adds credibility to your offerings. Remember that it takes very little time for the user to form an opinion about your website! Research shows that over 80% of users are unlikely to return to a website after a bad experience. 

WordPress is the most popular CMS (Content Management System) that powers over 40% of the websites globally. Given its popularity, it is easy to get your website started. However, integrating your website with the right set of tools, plugins, and design is crucial to make it a high-performing differentiated offering versus competitors. 

In this article, we have highlighted key design considerations while building a WordPress website.

  • Branding

Before even starting working on a WordPress site, you need to focus on branding elements such as logo, color palette, high-quality images, fonts, etc. Your brand represents your business, and good branding helps you stand out in a competitive online environment. 

  • Navigation

Navigation helps the flow of your WordPress website and therefore, it is important to enhance the user experience by having simple but effective navigation. Since a lot of traffic these days comes from mobile devices, it is even more important to have good navigation of your website. It will also enable better SEO and result in higher traffic to your website.

The navigation should be designed keeping your users and these questions in mind – Why are they visiting your website? What actions do you want them to perform? We recommend avoiding unnecessary menu options and will focus on simplicity. You should also have CTAs (call to action) for your users. 

  • Consistent design

Your WordPress website should have a consistent design and layout. In simple words, common user interface elements such as logo, site navigation, page content, images, etc. should appear in the same place throughout the website. This allows visitors to navigate through your website efficiently as they know where these common website elements are placed on every page. This also leads the users to spend time engaging with your content. 

In addition to a better user experience, there’s also a time/cost-saving benefit to you of having a consistent design. Having a consistent layout means that your website developer only needs to create a small number of reusable templates which effectively cuts down on the overall development time and costs.

  • Responsive Design

This is a crucial design element of your WordPress website. Your website must be responsive and should adjust to your user’s devices and their screen/size. Search engines such as Google rewards websites that prioritize the mobile experience for visitors. WordPress has several tools (Elementor, Gutenberg, etc) that help develop high-performing responsive websites. 

  • Selection of right tools & plugins 

The performance of any WordPress website is measured by the loading time. The speed of the website is a very important factor and can result in a bad user experience leading to a user abandoning your website within seconds. A few important considerations to improve your WordPress website’s performance is – 

  • Plugins: You should focus on including only necessary plugins for your website’s features/functionalities. Unnecessary plugins can increase load time. 
  • Image Optimization: Heavy Images can lead to an increase in the site load time hence using optimized and presentable images can help reduce the site load time.
  • Enable Caching: Caching saves certain data which can be later accessed directly instead of being loaded again. This reduces the load on your WordPress hosting server and makes your website run faster.  
  • Minimize HTTP Requests: The request that any visitor’s web browser sends to the WordPress hosting server is called an HTTP request. This request contains details of your website such as content and images. Having more files or having more pages on your website results in a longer response time from the server to respond, and hence poor website performance. This problem can be improved by carrying out activities such as combining your CSS files, removing redundant images, etc. 

Conclusion

No doubt WordPress is the most popular and quick way to get your website started. But, making your website a high-performing one requires paying attention to these little details. A well-made website would drive maximum traffic and result in achieving your business objectives. If you’ve any doubts related to WordPress website development and if you need assistance developing one, then feel free to talk to us here.

What Are the Best Practices for Running a Successful Ecommerce Website?

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Ecommerce is growing at a quick pace and having an online store is getting increasingly important for your business to stay ahead of the competition. Ecommerce stores provide a great opportunity for businesses to explore several geographical markets and attract new customers that were not accessible with only a brick and mortar store presence.

Your company’s growth and success will be determined by your Ecommerce website. Hence, the need for a well-designed Ecommerce website to increase traffic, high conversions, and achieve more sales. We know how important it is to set up an Ecommerce website in this highly competitive online environment. In this article, we have compiled seven best practices for running a successful Ecommerce website.   

  • Simple and Effective Design – Ecommerce websites with simple designs offer customers a better user experience which results in a higher conversion rate. A well-designed home page is crucial for visitors as this will be the first thing that they see on your website. You should design your home page with a clear point of focus to drive visitors to perform the desired Call-To-Action (CTA). The right CTA would depend on your business objectives – to register a user or sell a product or draw attention to a specific point. A too complicated and cluttered design would make it difficult for visitors to identify your CTA. 

A simple design eliminates confusion and makes everything easy for visitors. Simple menu features, search bar, filters, etc are key components of a well-designed Ecommerce website. Concisely introducing your products can boost your value proposition and enhance the experience of your users. 

  • Page Speed Optimization – Page speed is the time taken for the content on a page to load. It is an important element when it comes to measuring the effectiveness of a successful Ecommerce website. Research indicates that even a delay of a second in the page loading time leads to a 16% decrease in customer satisfaction and a 7% loss in conversions. There are various ways to optimize page speed such as the selection of an Ecommerce platform based on your business needs, using a fast and reliable hosting service provider, using the appropriate server network for content delivery, etc. 
  • SEO Optimization – Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is very important to get noticed and drive traffic. Most visitors start their buying process from search engines like Google. Therefore, your Ecommerce website needs to feature in the top results of any relevant searches. Based on industry research, almost 40% of Ecommerce traffic comes from direct searches, and hence most successful Ecommerce stores invest in good SEO plans.
  • High-Quality Images  – Once a visitor starts looking in your Ecommerce website, having high-quality relevant pictures helps you engage and connect with the visitor. A high-quality picture can influence visitors in making a purchase. 
  • Customer reviews and testimonials – Customer reviews and testimonials help add credibility to your products and brand. When it comes to buying online, customers mostly tend to buy products with the most reviews. Customer testimonials can be a powerful tool for a successful Ecommerce website. Not only do they help build credibility but also help spread your products and brand; thus, effectively reducing your marketing spend and increasing profitability. 
  • Customer Service – Online businesses need a customer service division to help their users. This includes everything from helping them complete their purchases to resolving shipping/ refund/ payments issues. Having a well-thought-out customer service plan is a prerequisite for a successful Ecommerce store. These customer service touchpoints would vary depending on businesses but would cover topics such as shipping, returns, product feedback, etc. By having seamless customer service functionality, you can create greater customer loyalty in the overall process.
  • Responsive Website –  A responsive website design is essential when it comes to a successful Ecommerce store. Mobile makes up almost half of all internet traffic, and having a responsive design allows your website to properly load across all devices, and ultimately provide a good user experience.

Conclusion 

Running a successful Ecommerce website in today’s highly competitive online environment requires adhering to several best practices. While we have listed down some key best practices, there are many more considerations in order to drive maximum traffic and have high conversion rates. If you’ve any doubts related to Ecommerce platforms and if you need assistance developing one, then feel free to talk to us here.

How to Estimate the Cost of Software Development?

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Your custom software development partner can help you build a high-performing software solution based on your needs and specifications. 

Choosing the right development partner is a critical decision and so is ensuring that they stick to budgets and timelines. But what is the tentative price of developing a custom web or mobile application? While engaging with several software vendors during the selection process, you will get different pricing from each of them. This makes your task of selecting the right software development company for your custom application very difficult. 

There is no formula to determine the right pricing as each software application is unique. Cheapest isn’t the best option and never pick a vendor purely based on their quote. We have listed a few important considerations that will help you estimate the right price based on your requirements and will also help you in the selection of the right development company. We have also compiled five important questions later in this article to help you in the decision-making. 

Scope and Complexity

The scope and complexity of the software application are the two most important driving factors in determining the cost. Project requirements are directly proportional to the development cost. Feature-rich and complex applications will have a higher development cost. Additional billable hours and costs go towards specialized software skills of the developers, development, testing, and deployment. 

More features and functionalities spell higher costs! These include efforts associated with design UX/UI, third-party integrations, data mapping complexities, etc. For example, if you are looking for social media sign-up functionality for new users instead of a traditional email/password sign-up, the complexity increases as a result of new screens as well as integrations with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Similarly, features such as payment gateway integrations, data security, real-time instant messaging, etc also add to the complexity and cost of the overall software development. 

Development Time 

Once you have identified features/functionalities needed for your software application, the next step is to determine the development efforts. Do you need to build from scratch or use third-party plugins/solutions that can be integrated? 

Building a custom solution for each feature/functionality will be expensive as it requires coding efforts as well as efforts for testing and bug-fixing. There might already be a ready solution that you can use in your software. The selection of a ready solution will depend on the number of expected users that will be using your application. For example, it will likely be cheaper to integrate an existing third-party live video feature for the learning and development needs of a small organization in comparison to building a custom video player from scratch. However, for an ed-tech company targeting millions of users, it might make more economical sense to develop its live video functionality. 

Separately, the total development cost will also be determined by the urgency of a turnaround. Depending on your deadline and how quickly you plan to develop the application, the total development cost will likely vary. The development vendor will likely need to add additional resources in a short space of time which would require additional planning and project management time. 

Pricing

Once you have narrowed down the complexity as well as time,  the next crucial step is selecting the right development vendor based on their approach as well as their hourly rates to arrive at their final pricing. One important point to remember is that the cheapest quote is not always the best option.

The vendor’s approach to arrive at the final pricing is an important factor to distinguish between several vendors. The best way is to review a few proposals and compare the project plans and time estimates for each phase. Understand the # of hours, resources each vendor is proposing, and then compare their total costs.

Also, never pick a vendor purely based on their hourly rates. These rates depend on the region of the development company. The typical hourly rates for development activities based on regions are – 

  • Asia/Eastern Europe: $15-$30 / hour
  • South America: $30-$45 / hour
  • North America: $80+ / hour

Lastly, most vendors provide support/maintenance services, and their pricing can vary. Look at the monthly support hours each vendor is proposing and at what cost. 

Five questions to help you estimate the cost of software development

Based on the above considerations, here are five important questions for which you need clarity to estimate the software development costs. 

  • How does the software vendor plan the project timelines and phasing? 

(Tip: It is important to be clear on the project scoping from the start. This way it is easier to evaluate and benchmark different vendors. The way any company approaches a project should be transparent, as it helps in defining timelines, resources, and costing.)

  • Do they have expertise across the technology spectrum and do they have experience with similar projects? 

(Tip: Ask about the projects completed across the technologies you are planning for your software application. Also, ask for a few sample projects. Check clutch.co or have a Zoom/Skype call with the references. This will help you evaluate the company’s capabilities and reduce the elements of overruns in terms of time and cost.)

  • In the case of outsourcing, have they worked with clients from your location?

(Tip: Ask them about a few clients that they worked with, in your timezone so that you become comfortable with issues such as time difference, cultural and linguistic barriers.)

  • What will be the pricing model?

(Tip: You should be aware of the various pricing models that the developer can work with – fixed pricing, time & material (T&M), or hybrid. Each pricing model has pros & cons, and selecting the right model will depend on your clarity on planning, scoping, and budgeting. If your project scope is not well defined and subject to change, T&M contracts provide more flexibility and are typically the right choice.)

  • What overhead costs are likely to be incurred as part of the development?

(Tip: Ask them about overhead costs such as third-party licensing and subscription costs, technical support/maintenance, server costs, etc.)

We know how important it is for you to get things right when it comes to custom software development as your business is in question. If you’ve any doubts related to software development and if you need assistance developing one, then feel free to talk to us here.