9 Steps to Ensure High Speed of WordPress Website

WordPress powers more than 40% of the web today. WordPress is powered by thousands of different plugins, themes, and technologies and all of these have to coexist. Things can quickly turn into a nightmare for regular WordPress developers here when the website gives them trouble and they can’t identify the problem area. 

The speed of the website is of the utmost importance and remains a top priority regardless of the nature, size, and function of the website. In every technical audit, an improvement in website speed is given weightage. Poor page loading is a big turn-off for users, as well as a factor that drives them away. 

User experience, content, SEO, mobile-responsiveness, etc are a few of the elements that make a successful website. However, website speed has become more and more important over time. The 4gs and 5gs have made consumers impatient. Even if a website is fractionally slow, they would move on to something else. 

A study from Microsoft Corp. says people are generally losing concentration after eight seconds. It is an effect of an increasingly digitalized lifestyle on the brain.

The fact that visitors are mostly using mobile devices, often having a slower data connection than computers exacerbates the problem further. 

As a result, WordPress website owners are hard-pressed to make their websites fast. But, this demands a lot of technical knowledge.

Here we attempt to guide you in speeding up your website step by step. 

First Up – Backup

The process of speeding up a WordPress website may cause you to lose data and other important components of the website. To that end, always make a backup to restore in case of a mishap. A fresh backup can go back to how things were before. The first step will always be downloading both website files and the database. Do it manually or via a plugin, whatever is convenient to you.

Let’s get to the steps… 

Step One – Damage Assessment 

Post backup, it is time to see how the site’s current performance is in terms of page speed. Then follows the before/after comparison. If you have before/after data, you can draw the comparison and check if your actions made any difference. Some of the commonly used tools are – Pingdom, GTmetrix, Google PageSpeed Insights.

Plugging the URL into these sites to see the site’s performance. These testing tools will provide inputs on how the speed of the page can be improved. The recommendations will look like this:

  • Enable compression
  • Leverage browser caching
  • Reduce HTTP requests
  • Eliminate JavaScript and CSS above the fold
  • Optimize images
  • Minify CSS and JavaScript
  • Reduce server response time

Step Two – Eliminating Unnecessary Plugins and Themes

There are always some plugins on the site that are not useful or have outlived the initial purpose. These plugins put an extra, unnecessary burden on the site, increasing the loading time. HTTP requests can slow a site down, so log in and sort through the plugin list. Disable plugins that are not in use and also stop by the theme menu to see if there is anything that isn’t needed.

Step Three – Run Plugin Performance Profiler

With Performance Profiler, plugin performance can be scanned, pinpointing the ones slowing down the WordPress website.

Step Four – Update!

Upgrading WordPress, themes, and plugins gives you access to the latest features and also lets you take advantage of speed improvements. Proper up-gradation of each element constructing the website is necessary.

Step Five – Optimization of the Database

Data optimization can be done using plugins like WP-Optimize. It helps you remove the data overhead from database tables and unnecessary entries such as old post revisions and more.

Step Six – Image Optimization

Images often make up the bulk of any webpage, especially if they are completely composed of visuals. For that reason, we optimize images as much as possible. 

Step Seven – Enable Compression

Next, zip up the files to make them smaller so that browsers need less time to download and present them on the screen.

Step Eight – Turn on Browser Caching

Enabling browser caching basically means telling the browsers of visitors to store parts of the site on their hard drive for a quick future load. This way, resources that aren’t likely to change, can be reused next time.

Step Nine – Minify and Concatenate

Using plugins like Autoptimize to reduce the number of HTTP requests made by the browser by minifying and concatenating the CSS and JavaScript files.

About Galaxy Weblinks 

Galaxy Weblinks is your one-stop solution for WordPress solutions, We offer a complete range of IT services including WordPress development and WordPress optimization. Contact us now for the complete WordPress solutions.

How Gatsby is so blazing fast? A Guide to GatsbyJS

Gatsby is an extremely powerful tool for quickly creating complex websites. It allows us to pull data from any source, provides access to a rich ecosystem (both of Gatsby-specific plugins and the broader React ecosystem), and even does things that feel magical, like auto-optimizing images.

In this article we’ll cover different attributes of Gatsby and how those features help in speeding up the application. And before that let’s take a closer look at GatsbyJS, a framework that has captured the hearts of many React developers worldwide!

Blending Static Websites with Dynamic Apps

In addition to using React, Gatsby is also a static site generator. If your website has multiple pages, it creates HTML files for each page.

Node.js will mount the React application to create HTML files with the rendered content for each route. Gatsby’s core is this.

Gatsby pre-builds pages instead of waiting for them to be requested.

-Gatsbyjs.com

In order to understand why this is important for performance, let’s go back to the basics.

An HTML file is accessed by an HTML browser, which renders its contents. Using an anchor tag, without any cache or JavaScript, will load another HTML file when clicked, even without any cache or JavaScript.Consequently, the user may have to wait or, in the worst case scenario, see a blank page while the page is being rendered.

Until Single Page Applications (SPAs) came along, this was the most common way to design a website.

JavaScript is used to render the page. This allows you to update much more quickly than if you had to download static files. As the user interacts, they update a single HTML file.

As the view layer of an SPA, React is used. JavaScript code is required for such frameworks and libraries as React. This means that the Critical Rendering Path is significantly affected when these are built as SPAs.

Critical Rendering Path stalls the render while loading and executing JavaScript.

Source: Guillermo.at

What about API calls to fetch data from external servers or databases, such as blog posts or product lists for your eCommerce shop? After the build process is complete, GatsbyJS creates the corresponding site content. Every time you update your database, you have to run the build process again. A continuous deployment tool would be useful in this scenario.

You can see how Gatsby deploy and build website in the diagram below:

Below are the ways how Gatsby JS speeds up your web application.

Image Optimization

Image optimization can be one of the most effective ways to improve a website’s performance.

Less bytes to download means less bandwidth required, allowing the browser to download and render content more quickly. Some of the optimizations we can make are as follows:

  • Resize it to take up the same amount of space.
  • Create responsive images with varying resolutions for desktop and mobile devices.
  • Compression and metadata removal.
  • Lazy loading can be used to speed up the initial page load.
  • While the image is loading, show a placeholder.

This can take a lot of effort and Gatsby has a solution: this whole process can be automated.

Gatsbyjs-image, like many other Gatsby tools, is powered by GraphQL. This plugin prepares images in various resolutions for download. It generates thumbnails and compresses them. This is all on the construction step.

You will receive all of the following benefits by using this component:

  • Images that are responsive and optimized for your screen size,
  • By default, an image blurred by base64 encoding (low resolution) is loaded.
  • When the image is visible, an integrated IntersectionObserver swaps the base image for the proper image.

When the image loads, a “blur-up” technique shows a preview in a very low-quality image that is already in the HTML file (or just the background). To create the automated optimization, all of the work in coding GraphQL queries is reduced. Check out this example:

So, what does this mean for app performance? In summary:

  • Using media queries, a user will receive the smallest image that is compatible with his device,
  • Heavier images are requested only when they are visible,
  • A blurred image retains the required size,
  • Jumping content or shifting elements are avoided.

Prefetch on scroll and hover

The majority of people dislike apps that take too long to load or are unresponsive while in use. That is why Gatsby expends so much effort in resolving the issue. During the build process, your code and data are divided into smaller chunks. Users load only the most important elements on the first visit to ensure that your site is rendered correctly. Once everything is visible and the user begins interacting with the page, Gatsby by default prefetches data for other pages on the site, making clicking around and navigating between pages incredibly smooth.

Remember that the Gatsby application is still a single page application (SPA). It means that after a routing event on your site (for example, after clicking on a link), there is no need to retrieve the entire site from the server again, which saves a significant amount of transferred data.

Best of Both Worlds

Gatsby gives us the best of both worlds by generating HTML statically and letting React do whatever it needs to do on the client side.

Statically rendered pages improve SEO, TTI, and overall web performance, among other benefits. Static sites are easier to deploy and have a wider global distribution.

Conclusion

This does not mean that there will be no issues with the build version if the code runs successfully in development mode (Gatsby develop). Build the code regularly and fix issues. Builds are generated after every change, and the build time is only a few minutes. A build might be more difficult to create if there are frequent changes and multiple issues need to be resolved at the time of the build.

Sites with many styled components and libraries take longer to build. As a result, it is no longer feasible to run the build after every change, making it difficult to track down build problems.

About Galaxy Weblinks

We specialize in delivering end-to-end software design & development services and have hands-on experience with popular front-end and back-end frameworks. Our back-end and front-end engineers also help in improving security, reliability, and features to make sure your business application scales and remains secure.

Choosing Django as Your Backend Framework in 2021

Building a scalable product is a best practice and necessity, even if you’re starting out. Because once you get that user validation, scaling becomes difficult and not so cost-efficient. So you outsource backend in order to move things around to accommodate more users and tackle heavier loads. 

Now think about when you’re building an application, you need to get two major things right i.e. Frontend (what users see and interact with) and the backend (what happens in the background, invisible to users). For this blog we’re focusing on the backend side of things. Django backend framework to be precise. 

The Backend runs on a server, that’s why it’s called server-side of the application. Although invisible, this server-side of the application holds great importance in terms of performance. Hence, choosing the right backend framework becomes critical, if you want to avoid slow, buggy, and overall bad user experience. For this blog we’re taking a look at Django and its relevance in 2021 as a backend framework. 

Relevance of Django in 2021

Django provides generic functionalities to build a web app without many hassles, as it comes equipped with solutions that eliminate the need of writing everything from scratch. Django code is reusable, which subsequently helps in cost and time reductions in development.

Django is a batteries-included framework. And, for the Frontend part, depending on your goals, you can select and combine different complementary frontend elements with Django. 

Benefits of Choosing Django as Your Backend Development Framework

As mentioned earlier Django is batteries included so it comes with everything you need to build an MVP right out of the box. Provided you have user flow, information architecture and UX of the product planned to a T. Some other benefits are as follows:

  • Out of the box Django comes equipped with Content administration, site maps, RSS, user authentication, etc.
  • Django provides you with a production ready admin interface, you just have to define your models. It also lets you add and authenticate users with different levels of permissions. 
  • Django likes to keep URLs clean and elegant, so it avoids putting any cruft in URLs, like .php or .asp
  • Django is equipped with templates to help avoid security attacks like cross-site scripting, cross-site request forgery, clickjacking and SQL injection.
  • Scalability is one of the strong suits of Django and some of the famously large organizations across the globe use Django to build scalable web applications.
  • If we talk about versatility, Django is used to build robust backends for CMSs to Social Networks.

Why Do You Need Django in 2021?

If you were to do backend development from scratch, you will realize that raw SQL queries will be needed to manipulate the database and soon enough it will stop scaling. Subsequently you might end up writing your own wrapper on top of the raw SQL queries, to keep the code DRY. 

Now your users are interacting with the interface with raw queries. Which in turn makes your app vulnerable to SQL injection. Security vulnerabilities don’t just stop there, the app will be exposed to cross site scripting and clickjacking. 

Even if you even managed to tackle these security vulnerabilities, which is tedious to say the least, exposing the backend to the frontend of a web/mobile app in 2021 is even more difficult. 

Django Usage Across Industries and Countries

Here are the industry-wise and country-wise stats of Django usage. About 30,699 live websites run on Django.

django
django-country
Source: SimilarTech

Reasons to Choose or Not to Choose Django

If you need Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence based core features and functionalities then Django is highly recommended. All you need is a strong Python team. 

  • Django is great for growing projects, as they’ll need features like database, migrations, cache, etc right from the start. 
  • Django is great for use-cases like a CMS-style CRUD application or when you’re writing in the framework while it can be a real pain to work around when you need to do something it doesn’t easily support.
  • Django or even Python in general is not good at some async and CPU-intensive tasks. 
  • Django scales gracefully, has a great security track record, and sane deprecation schedules.
  • Choose Django when you require both API backend & web app within the same codebase.
  • Django supports ORM.
  • Don’t go for Django if your application is huge and you don’t intend to break your app into micro services.
  • Choose Django if you’re building something bespoke and from scratch. 
  • Django is not recommended for basic apps that do not require a database. 

Wrap Up

There are an impressive number of web/mobile apps that utilize Django as the backend framework because it’s fast, reliable, and easily scalable. These traits are enough to make it relevant in 2021.

If you’re still not sure if Django is the right framework for your project or not, then get in touch with us here and we’ll try to help you make the right decision.

About Galaxy
We specialize in delivering end-to-end software design & development services. Our analytics team and 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.

What Makes a Great WordPress Plugin?

There are thousands and thousands of listings in the WordPress Plugin repository, 58,600, to be precise. These plugins offer numerous different functionalities and use cases. But just like any other thing in the world, not all of these plugins are great at what they do. The ratings tell a different story altogether, even some great plugins get some flak every once in a while for doing something differently or worse, badly. Those 5 stars don’t last a lifetime. 

So how does this happen and what are the aspects that determine success or failure of a WordPress Plugin? Here is a dive into what makes a great WordPress Plugin.

Users judge apps, utilities, and other pieces of software based on their usage, needs, and previous exposure to other alternatives. How do we go on about this defining business of something subjective such as a WordPress Plugin being good or not? Each person will judge a plugin based on their own needs and experiences. It might be difficult but not impossible, here are some aspects to help you start:  

Get your Goal

According to the ‘Golden Circle’ rule, “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” A plugin developer should also start with a why and then move into other important questions like – 

  • Why is this plugin being developed?
  • What purpose does it serve?

Let the answers to these questions be the mission statement. Most of all the plugins should be solving a problem. The purpose can be something as simple as adding new functionality to an existing plugin, WooCommerce extension for example. Or something complex and comprehensive. 

The goal and the purpose is not just something to get the development started and getting the solution in the users hands. As the user base grows, it becomes vital for the developer to stick to that mission statement. The plugin might improve with regular updates but completely changing tracks is unadvisable. For example, it wouldn’t make sense if all of a sudden an SEO plugin starts adding irrelevant features like a shopping cart. Users might get frustrated and abandon the plugin altogether. 

Great plugins tend to stick to their initial goals and mission statement. 

Mind the Users

Be mindful of the users and respect their preferences. Users like to have control of the tools and what they do. Implementing policies that are not transparent is a bad practice. Don’t upsell unnecessarily and clutter the dashboard. Also don’t spam users with stuff they didn’t sign up for or enroll users for auto-update without telling them. Even if some of the actions might be good for the users but make it clear to let them know and let them make the choice. 

Users hate it when their personal space is being breached and when crucial functionality is turned on/off without their consent. 

Mind the Coding and Accessibility Standards

Not just for WordPress plugins but coding and accessibility standards should be followed in general. Sticking with the standards makes the plugin code efficient, secure, and stable, and UI accessible to everyone. 

WordPress being an Open-source platform, adhering to these standards is easier said than done. Literally anyone who wants to write code and build a plugin can do so. But not everyone sticks to the rules, especially when dealing with bigger, harder-to-manage plugins. A little piece of rogue code can create a big mess in an instant. A great WordPress plugin sticks to the standards for the very same reason.  

Support it and Maintain it

Developing a WordPress plugin is difficult and maintaining it is a major undertaking on its own. But it’s worth it because it’s one of the major factors that determines long-term success of a WordPress Plugin. 

Bugs are a part of the system, they appear even in the popular enterprise applications that have large and vigilant teams dedicated to hunt and rectify them. They will appear regularly and it can be frustrating but the key here is to deal with them in a timely and regular manner. Firefighting won’t take you far.  

Providing support reinforces user trust in the developer. When things go wrong, provide support, at least to the extent you can. Type and cost of the plugin also plays an important role here in determining what kind of support users are going to expect from you. A free product can survive with a basic knowledge base while a commercial product is expected to have a good support. 

Final Thoughts

WordPress Plugins are meant to solve problems and as long as your plugin does that, keeping the users needs in mind, it’s going to score good. Utilize the key aspects mentioned in this blog to make things easier while you try to achieve WordPress greatness. 

And if plugin development is something that you need WordPress experts to handle for you, then drop by here and tell us your needs.

About Galaxy

We specialize in delivering end-to-end software design & development services. Our analytics team and 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. Click here for a free consultation!

Product Analytics – Why They Matter and How to Get Started?

Product analytics have helped companies – big and small to better target and understand their customers. Analytics helps them determine product health, improve their customer experience, test product fitness and ensure they invest correctly, with limited time and resources. In essence, you can accelerate the growth of your business by analyzing products.

In the end-user era, when you purchase customers through product-led growth, it is essential to know what specific actions people take to guide your strategy through product, sales, marketing and client success.

Your first thought could be: ‘My product has so many features. How do I know what I’m supposed to measure?’

Here is the first scary answer: all your events and commitments must be measured. The secret is placing them in a setting that helps you to understand them. That is because not all user actions have the same value even for the user, and certainly not for the company you run.

Why should companies care about product analytics?

Historically, implementing product analytics has been difficult. It takes time and requires the collaboration of multiple stakeholders to develop a working product analytics engine that can be used to propel your business forward.

However, the effort is well worth it because some of the fastest-growing companies use product analytics to expand their operations. So, let’s take a look at the top reasons why businesses use product analytics.

  • You will require data to validate your decisions. Product analytics ensures that you are investing your time and effort in the right areas. By connecting with what your customers are doing, you can create better customer experiences and, as a result, improve your core growth metrics.
  • Product analytics allows you to examine the growth of your company. Trend analysis can be used to see what happened in the past, how the business is performing today, and make predictions for the future. This is extremely useful when attempting to forecast a course for your business.
  • If you want to measure product-market fit, you need to include product analytics in the mix. You can use retention analysis to see if the same group of users returns week after week and derives value from your product.
  • Product analytics can help you understand how customers use your product and which features resulted in retention.

Product analytics with Pirate metrics

It is easier to keep track of all your product metrics if you have a framework to contextualize them. McClure’s pirate metrics for startup growth is one framework:

  • Acquisition 
  • Activation 
  • Retention
  • Referral 
  • Revenue

If you look at the initials of this list, you’ll notice a very nice AARRR, and if you read it with a pirate accent, you’ll know where the name comes from.

Delve into the specific metrics for each step of this framework by knowing about the key mobile metrics to make your app profitable. This framework helps to overlay it with the long-term customer experience of an ideal user who chooses to stick with you. Consider a user persona when making UX decisions and changes, and consider a user persona when determining how their behavior may be reflected in the numbers you’re tracking. 

How to get started with product analytics?

Begin with the North Star metric, a guiding output metric that can help drive business and product success. Its goal is to provide clear evidence that your product solves the problem for which it was designed and adds value to your target market.

If your product has a vision statement, the north star metric is how many users you’ve reached that vision with. For instance:

  • If you’re building Quora intending to become a source of knowledge on the internet, the number of questions answered is your North Star metric.
  • If you are Spotify and want to entertain people by providing the best music, your North Star metric is time spent listening to music.
  • If you’re Uber, Lime, or any other ride-sharing app to get people from one place to another, your North Star metric is the number of rides taken in a week in a reasonable amount of time (e.g. between 5 to 10 minutes). In most two-sided markets, the North Star metric is a result of both demand and supply, rather than just user demand. Monitoring the supply side ensures the overall success of the market.

It reflects the results of the entire AARRR framework.

When it comes to the future business outcomes that your team cares about, a good North Star metric is a leading metric. Furthermore, it is supported by all of the metrics (and thus actions) that a user triggers as they gain value from the app, use it, and make it a habit to use the app.

Is this to say that the North Star metric is a single metric on which you should concentrate your efforts? It’s simpler to think of it as an output metric. You can’t zero in on it because it’s too broad, too big, and not actionable enough for your team to take action on.

However, it is a scoreboard that tells you how you are doing in terms of the product vision you have set for yourself. To change the score, look for specific input metrics that will also move the needle on your North Star metric.

As an example, consider Spotify (remember, their North Star metric is time spent listening to music):

The tech stack for product analytics

There are loads of different tools available serving both particular niches and the sector as a whole. Here, we’ll look at a few platforms that serve a variety of different needs.

1. Mixpanel – as the data visualization analytics

Mixpanel is a self-service reporting tool for product analytics. It serves as the data visualization analytics tool in our data scheme, assisting us in making sense of all the data gathered in the product and acquisition campaigns.

It is more specifically:

  • Data from Segment and other platforms is interpreted (Branch).
  • With the help of Segment, aggregates ALL data received from various sources.
  • Allows the Product Strategist or Product Owner to see a complete picture of the results of product tactics, current user engagement, and user cohort behavior, as well as track any other experiments.

2. Segment – as a data warehouse

Segment is a customer data platform that assists you in gathering, cleaning, and controlling your customer data. Singular is an alternative.

Because Segment organizes all data around the user, it acts as a data warehouse, telling you what the user does within the product as well as on the path to purchasing your product.

Segment is used to collect the following information:

  • Events and properties resulting from product interaction.
  • User traits are used to associate specific characteristics with a user (i.e. product preferences, device properties, personal data).
  • Events that are automatically tracked – App Installed or partner-specific events (i.e. Deep Links opened, through other Partners integration).

3. Branch.io – as the marketing attribution tool

Branch offers the leading mobile linking platform, as well as solutions that unify user experience and measurement across various devices, platforms, and channels. Its primary functions are to provide reliable linking and to attribute those links.

The tool is used to do the following:

  • Installs, campaigns, and attribution can all be tracked.
  • Make trackable links (deep links).
  • Determine whether the product already exists or whether it is not installed on the user’s device.
  • Attribute and track app installs across multiple channels, then aggregate them in a unified fashion.
  • Integrate with Major Advertising Partners (Google Adwords, Facebook Ads, and Apple Search Ads) and Customer Data Platforms.
  • DeepViews of the product – provides a preview of the product.

Conclusion

Product analytics is the process of collecting, inspecting, and analyzing data about your product’s interactions with users.

By tracking, recording, and attributing each user’s action, you can create an extremely detailed picture of:

  • Who are your customers?
  • How they are interacting with your product
  • What tasks do they find difficult?
  • Points where they come into contact with each other
  • Which features are the most popular and which are underutilized?
  • How different user groups behave and achieve value, and so on.

Product analytics, in its broadest sense, allows you to assess the impact of the digital experiences you’ve built into your product. At the end of the day, you have no reason not to get product analytics right. It is critical to the long-term success of your product. Need analytics expertise for your application? Reach out to our experts

About Galaxy
We specialize in delivering end-to-end software design & development services. Our analytics team and 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. Click here for a free consultation!

Ecommerce User Journey – 15 Must-haves to Include

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on global eCommerce trends. With brick-and-mortar stores closing overnight, customers flocked to the internet to purchase their necessities. The pandemic hastened the shift to online shopping by up to five years.

mCommerce, or mobile commerce, refers to online shopping via a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet. It will continue to grow in the coming years as a majority of people now prefer to shop on their phones. 

Even though mobile devices account for the majority of Ecommerce traffic, desktop sites have lower cart abandonment rates and higher average purchase values. Mobile Commerce is the way of the future, but if designers want to maximize profits now, they must improve desktop sites with Ecommerce UX best practices.

Yet, mobile sites fail to meet three key metrics: they have higher cart abandonment rates, low conversion rate, and lower average order values than desktop sites.

Four Crucial Pages of the Ecommerce Experience

Almost all Ecommerce sites on desktop rely on a similar sequence of pages to guide customers through the sales process.

  • Homepages that are uncluttered and offer irresistible value propositions
  • Category pages that are well-organized and simple to navigate
  • Product pages that have been polished and incorporate social proof and compelling content
  • Checkout pages that are simple to use, show progress, and make customers feel safe

Uncluttered Homepages

1. Product Names That Shoppers Understand

Internally consistent product names can be perplexing to customers. Provide context for decision-making. Names based on model numbers or underlying technology run the risk of alienating the general public. The same is true for titles that are overly cute or creative. Choose product names that indicate utility or value in the eyes of shoppers.

2. Enable Search From Anywhere

Ecommerce websites offer a plethora of products and therefore, the search feature becomes an essential way for customers to find products based on their requirements. Sticky search bars ensure that search is available everywhere on every page, but for the sake of conversion, it is best to remove search from checkout pages.

3. Highlight Deals and Promotions

Customers visit Ecommerce sites with a specific product in mind. Deals and promotions go unnoticed when they blend into homepages. Bright colors, bold text, and full-page photos are used in call-out advertisements.

If a promotion is the most important thing shoppers need to know about, make it the center of attention.

4. Make the Product’s Value Immediately Visible

Getting the product page right is important as first impressions matter. Customers must be able to quickly determine the worth of a product. We recommend that you assist the customers in visualizing how your product will solve their problems and improve their lives (the Jobs to Be Done framework is a useful starting point). 

Keep your product descriptions and technical specifications brief and to the point. Use photos and videos that demonstrate the benefits of the product. If the shoppers must read and scroll a lot, or watch long-winded explainer videos to understand the value, then you are doing something wrong here. 

Well-organized Category Pages

1. Display Best-Sellers

Bestsellers should be labeled with distinct icons or placed in bestseller sections. Why? Bestsellers provide social proof. When people are unsure, they will look to others’ actions to determine their own. This is especially true for first-time buyers.

A similar rule applies to newly released products. Displaying new and improved items is more than just a one-time sales tactic; it is a way to entice customers to return for future updates.

2. Ensure Ease-of-Use Navigation

The navigation must be simple. Customers should not have difficulty switching between category pages or enabling product filters. Sites with a large number of products in a single category should use left-column navigation to allow customers to sort products by various attributes (faceted search).

3. Display Products in Grids

Desktop screens provide ample space for product grids. Grids align with F-pattern scanning and allow shoppers to quickly compare multiple products. They are especially useful for items that are easily explained with pictures. To get the most out of grids, keep the number of items per row between two and four. Grids become significantly more difficult to scan when there are five or more products.

Bonus: List views can be useful, but they’re best for products that require more detailed explanations.

Polished Product Pages

1. Create large, eye-catching “Add to Cart” buttons.

When it comes to product pages, “Add to Cart” buttons must be visible. Make them large, contrast-heavy, and easy to click. Resist the urge to be witty and instead create call-to-action text that is clear and action-oriented.

When customers add items to their shopping carts, they must receive visual feedback. Many desktop sites do this with cart-summary overlays that slide in from the side of the screen for a brief moment (a creative way to allow shoppers to transition to checkout or keep browsing).

2. Upsells and related products can help you earn more money.

If customers are dissatisfied with what they see on product pages, they should not have to return to category pages to find other options. Show them alternatives at comparable price points or more expensive options with better features, reviews, or brand recognition.

It is also possible to suggest complementary items to the product page. Considering purchasing shoes? Why not get some shoelaces and arch supports as well? Make sure that related items have a “Add to Cart” option to reduce friction.

3. Make use of copy and imagery to demonstrate the good life.

Ecommerce content should be informative, but persuasion requires more than facts and feature lists. Use text and images to help customers imagine the good life that awaits them after they complete their purchase.

Again, desktop sizes are advantageous. There’s no reason not to use massive photos and videos or show products from multiple perspectives. The same is true for the copy. Don’t be afraid to use large headers and a lot of white space around text blocks.

4. Use Social Proof to Persuade

Shoppers are more likely to buy if they see social proof. Ratings and reviews have a significant impact on purchasing decisions, but desktop sites are large enough to accommodate other types of social proof:

  • Customer-taking product photos
  • Approval badges from independent review sites 
  • Celebrity and influencer endorsements
  • Expert quotes 

Social proof aims to make shoppers feel as if they are making informed decisions that are consistent with the positive experiences of others.

Simple Checkout Pages

1. Accept Various Payment Methods

When it comes to payment gateways, shoppers’ primary concerns are convenience and security, and these are two of the leading causes of cart abandonment. Fortunately, an increasing number of online payment options alleviate security concerns while also expediting checkout. Third-party payment options supported by well-known brands (such as Amazon and Apple) may be more appealing to customers than entering credit card information.

It is also worthwhile to consider “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) options such as Paypal Credit and Klarna. BNPL is a type of point-of-sale credit that allows customers to pay for products overtime after they receive them.

2. Give a detailed order summary.

This is highly recommended. We suggest that you provide shoppers with brief order summaries that include:

  • Details and quantities of the product 
  • A breakdown of all charges
  • Details on shipping and billing

It’s also a good idea to display product images, but make sure the attributes match the attributes chosen by customers (color, size, finish, etc.).

3. Think about Guest Checkout.

Guest checkout may not be appropriate for all Ecommerce retailers, particularly those whose business strategies revolve around the creation of customer accounts. It has, however, been shown to speed up checkout, prevent account creation fatigue, and reduce cart abandonment.

An alternative is to require email confirmation for orders, then follow up with deals in shipping and delivery messages.

4. Display Shoppers Checkout Progress

Ecommerce customers spend a significant amount of time and energy searching for products online. When they’re ready to buy, they want to know that the end of the process is near. A progress bar is a simple way to show shoppers where they are in the checkout process.

We hope that this practical piece curated from our eCommerce experience will assist you in developing the best Ecommerce strategy. And if you want to interact with your customers in a completely new way and increase your conversion rate, get in touch with our experts here.

About Galaxy Weblinks

Galaxy Weblinks is a company that specializes in creating the best online experiences for your users. We have experience customizing websites on a variety of platforms, including Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento. Contact us today to discuss your Ecommerce project.

The Good and the Bad of Dark UI Designs

From mobile screens to TV sets, dark UI designs are seen far and wide and appreciated for the visual appeal that they offer. A dark theme depicts sophistication and elegance. However, dark UI designing comes with multiple challenges. If the implementation is poor, things can very well go south.

Digital products having dark UIs are perceived as powerful, elegant, and mysterious. They are a formidable trend across the digital spectrum. It’s said that dark mode can reduce eye strain, save battery life and increase accessibility. But, most of the time, dark themes are an aesthetic choice.

Over the past few years, dark themes are amongst the most requested features. Both Apple and Google have a dark theme as an essential part of their UI. Be it browsers, mobile applications of social media platforms, or VR/AI games, dark themes are everywhere as an option, if not a default feature. 

Source: Apple

Dark User Interface – The Good and the Bad

Choosing one of the two is a tricky balancing act. The dark theme is not suitable for all interfaces and neither is the light theme. Selecting the right options depends on brand fit, cultural suitability, and color psychology. Also, consider the emotional impact before asking your developer to go for either one. 

For instance – a financial app designed for millennials to take care of their credit card bill payments may look cool with a dark theme, but the same won’t work for a big bank’s website, serving the general, larger population. Too rich, too dark, and too stylish may frustrate people who just want to check their balances and transfer money.

Source: Cred

Dark UIs for B2B SaaS applications are notoriously difficult to design. Web UI components like widgets, forms, data tables, and dropdowns can look odd on a dark theme. Owing to the type, context, and environmental factors, certain brands and products are not an ideal fit and may prove an insurmountable challenge.

If your designers have not worked with dark UI design before, they might find themselves in rough, uncharted waters. In the world of dark UIs, norms are bent, pitfalls aplenty, and trends change quite often. 

Having said that, using dark UIs is a good call for a number of reasons:

  • With the minimalist design having only a few content types.
  • When there is appropriate context and use; like a nighttime entertainment app.
  • When a striking and dramatic look is needed.
  • To make a statement for the brand.

Not to forget, there are scenarios when dark UI is a bad call. When there is too much text (dark background makes reading difficult), a lot of mixed content types, or the design calls for a wide range of colors, the dark theme should be avoided. 

Impact of dark theme on UI design

As developers, we are always considerate of UI design trends and user preferences while making the best use of our time and resources. So, is adding a dark mode design a worthwhile use of the client’s budget?

We would say, this totally depends on the use case. As established earlier, the dark mode can sometimes be a hindrance to comprehension. We won’t recommend it for digital products where it could lead to big consequences. For instance, online banking services or regulatory platforms.

In other instances, we can turn to dark UI design to influence user behavior. If user engagement is an important metric for your product like Twitter, Reddit, etc, then the case for the dark theme will be stronger.

7 dark theme design tips from Galaxy

Dark theme design captivates the audience when done right. That’s what we aim for with all products that we develop. Here are seven design tips that we also practice:

  • Considering brand (identity, image, etc) 
  • Avoiding pure black
  • Avoiding heavily saturated colors
  • Ensuring enough contrast in colors
  • Softening white backgrounds
  • Matching color to the brand message
  • Communicating depth

Summing up 

It boils down to personal preference…

For most users, it all comes down to personal preference. Most of them don’t care about their eyesight or battery life, or have an aesthetic preference – they just like the way it looks and that is it. With iOS 14, Apple, who controlled their product’s design with an iron fist, allowed users to add custom icons and home screen widgets. Maybe this is not about choosing between light or dark mode, but about allowing users to configure what they like.

About Galaxy Weblinks 

Galaxy delivers end-to-end software design & development services. With a decade of experience in digital and interactive design, we create compelling and human-focused experiences. Our UI/UX designers are creative problem-solvers, delivering clean, and minimalist UI.

10 Design Principles for Exceptional User Interface

Creative visuals, attractive logo design, or intricate animations! What goes into making an exceptional user interface? A good UI includes a mix of factors that make it clear, consistent, simple, and user-oriented.

Defining the requirements of a good user interface is especially critical if you are considering outsourcing your project. Your design and development partner should understand the key principles that transform a user interface into a powerful tool for attracting new customers and retaining existing ones.

Let us go over the core principles of an effective and appealing user interface.

The 10 Fundamentals of a Good User Interface

Here is what goes into an appealing and intuitive user interface for a web or mobile application.

1. Consistency is the key

Source: Behance

In good user interface design, consistency rules the roost! Everything is affected, from the colors, icons, and fonts to the placement of menus and buttons. If changes are required and the designers who worked on the first version are no longer available, the situation becomes even more critical.

Top digital solutions do not astonish their users with radical changes. Instead, they use brand books and company style guides to maintain a consistent and unified style throughout UI design.

2. Hierarchy in screens

Source: Dribbble

Some inexperienced designers make the mistake of attempting to highlight everything on a single screen. Instead of guiding customers to a purchase or other desirable action, they bombard them with information.

That is why hierarchy is an essential component of a successful user interface.

It should be designed in such a way that users can quickly find the point of focus and understand what you’re trying to convey visually.

3. Flexibility 

Users now enjoy looking for a solution to their problems. That is why a good user interface should be supplemented with tabs, shortcuts, and hover tooltips. Such elements improve the interface’s usability and intuitiveness.

You may also like: 10 Tips to Improve Your Website Accessibility

For example, if an app allows you to upload photos, it should also allow you to crop, resize, rotate, and edit the image right next to it. The designers’ goal is to assist users in determining where such options can be found and whether such features are available at first glance.

4. Clear and intuitive user navigation

Where can I find the main menu? If you’ve ever asked yourself the same question, you’ve most likely encountered a poorly designed user interface. While visible to users, it should be “invisible” in terms of user disruption. A high-quality user interface should be well-structured and contain only the necessary elements.

For instance, a car-rental website should not be cluttered with unnecessary buttons, menus, and visual elements, but rather provide the option to rent a car right on the main screen. As a result, users will spend less time navigating your application and complete the transaction.

5. Target audience is well-defined

A digital product with a clear understanding of its target users has a better chance of retaining and engaging users. The primary goal of any web or mobile app is to alleviate the pain points of users, which is impossible to do without understanding how they interact with an application.

A good user interface is built on preliminary and in-depth market research, engagement of best practices from similar products, and evaluation of the target audience. This enables acting on a user’s needs and desires based on such an analysis and transferring the solution to the app interface’s pain points.

6. Transparency of user actions

When you click a button, you expect to see some sort of response. In UI design practices, leaving users without any feedback is considered bad etiquette. When users click on a menu, it’s a good idea to confirm the action with some sort of indication of successful operation, such as animation, color change, pop-up window, progress bar, and so on.

7. Limited number of gestures

Swiping, tapping, pressing, gesturing, or voice command are all options. All of these actions are used in the user interface to guide customers to the desired outcomes. Although it may appear to be a brilliant idea to use them all within an application, top interfaces such as WhatsApp or Facebook stick to a limited number of gestures.

When using an application, users should have a clear understanding of the actions that must be taken in order to achieve the desired result. If you tap to open a file, you should use the same gesture in all similar situations.

8. Additional tips and tricks

User retention is the primary task and, conversely, the primary challenge of any digital product. Fortunately, an effective user interface can help achieve the goal.

You may also like: 3 UX Gamification Techniques to Boost Engagement

Creating onboarding tips and showing them to customers is a good practice for very complex solutions. The UI carefully guides them through the app and helps them remember what each element is responsible for by placing small tips here and there, such as hover tooltips.

9. Attractiveness

This point is critical, despite being somewhat controversial in the eyes of some. A good user interface is one that is appealing and reflects the brand’s personality. Buttons, colors, fonts, and visual elements all contribute to a distinct brand story.

What appears appealing to one group of users may be repulsive to another. As a result, a successful user interface should be founded on extensive research. Furthermore, the visual aspect of user design should be used to reinforce functionality. Popular and well-known applications do not use colorful visuals that add no real value to the user interface.

10. Compliance with design standards

As previously stated, users must understand what to expect from a user interface.

Following Google’s and Apple’s primary and well-known design standards for Android and iOS is a good idea.

Take, for example, a search bar.

It is not a good idea to move it from the top of a page to the bottom. This way, the user interface will inadvertently make users struggle to perform actions that should be intuitive.

Conclusion

As you can see, good user interface design entails more than simply making an app or website look nice. It considers all of the users’ needs and creates an interface that reinforces consistency and assists users in completing their tasks in the most seamless manner possible. Use these tips as a guide for your next project, and you’ll be sure to deliver not only a functional product, but one that users will want to return to. 

Do you want us to get you or your company started on creating quality design components for your product? Reach out to us to get your project off the ground.

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.

Node.js vs Python | Which Backend Framework to Choose?

Choosing the right backend technology for your project is a decision that can have a long-term impact on your software. A favorable decision will be robust and easier to scale while a wrong one could send you down the path of rewriting the entire app, costing you time, money, and team morale in the process. 

Backend technologies are directly attributed to the stability, performance, and scalability of systems, hence thorough research is needed before making the decision. This blog will help you with that research. 

We’ll be comparing Node.js and Python on the following grounds:

  • Frameworks, libraries, and community
  • Use cases
  • Learning curve
  • Scalability
  • Performance

Backstory

Initially used in data sciences, Python has been ranking in web development as the most popular backend language since 2018-19.

Python is a programming language while Node.js, a runtime environment, on the other end boasts of a speedy V8 which makes it a popular choice for real-time server applications. 

So when you’re choosing either for your application take their respective ecosystems and how they fare for you into consideration.

Frameworks, Libraries, and Community

Python has Django and Flask as the most popular frameworks in its arsenal. Python also has support for rich libraries for various projects like:

  • Panda for data analysis
  • OpenCV for image processing 
  • matplotlib or Numpy for data visualization
  • TensorFlow/Scikit-Learn/PyTorch for machine learning
  • Raspberry Pi for robotic applications

When it comes to Node.js, NPM(Node Package Manager) is one of the richest libraries out there with about 1 million packages available. The most popular and dependable packages are:

  • express.js – a MEAN stack microframework
  • Nest.js – This framework is Node’s answer to Django
  • lodash for modular utilities
  • react for UI.

Takeaway

  • Both frameworks boast a rich ecosystem and libraries, which makes them a difficult choice. It comes down to your project and its inherent needs. If you think Python has the libraries that would make your life easier, then that’s the one you should go for. Same with Node.js!

Node.js vs Python use cases

Comparing Node.js and Python superficially is futile because both are robust and actively supported. To solve this mystery we have to dive into details. 

Python can be seen as a general-purpose language and hence is suitable for a vast range of applications. You can build web apps, machine learning projects, numerical computations, and even deep learning. The Banking and Insurance sector has a default inclination towards Python for the backend as it’s strong and natural at handling big data sets. 

When we talk about real-time and web-based projects that are data-intensive like chatting or streaming platforms, Node.js is the best option. Developers choose Node.js because of its asynchronous nature. It is ideal for projects that don’t require heavy processing and are good with I/O operations. Node.js is also preferred for memory-intensive applications like rendering 3D projects. 

Takeaway

  • Choose Node.js for small and extremely fast run-time apps.
  • Choose Python for large systems with huge datasets that require stability and consistency

Learning curve

Node.js is not a challenge to those who are adept at JavaScript. You can even utilize the same language to build the frontend as well as the backend of your application. Node, however, is natively asynchronous. The new developers find it hard to wrap their heads around in comparison to synchronous Python.

Python, on the other hand, is known as the easiest backend language to learn, as far as earlier phases are concerned. It is a compact and very well-documented language. 

Takeaway:

  • If your team is familiar with asynchronous code then it might be easier to go with Node.js. You’d still need to hire backend experts for complex problems. 
  • Even though introductory Python is dubbed as the easiest backend language to learn, the difficulty increases with the complexity of the problems.

Scalability

Node.js has an event-based asynchronous architecture and non-blocking I/O, which ultimately contributes to efficient scaling. As a default feature it’s great for smaller applications but not so much for the bigger systems. New developers or even intermediate ones will find it difficult to scale. 

Python is synchronous, however, it has additional tools that allow data migrations and data streaming. What works in its favor is how well it scales in code complexity.

Takeaway:

  • It’s a difficult call when it comes to scalability because both tackle scalability in their unique way, be it through architecture or tools. 

Node.js vs Python performance

We want fast apps and we want them now!  

Although it’s an unfair comparison, Node.js with its V8 engine and asynchronous architecture is one of the fastest server-side solutions among its peers. 

Python is not that far behind in terms of speed. With the latest release and speed optimizations, it has achieved up to 50% speed improvement in some cases. 

Takeaway:

  • Choose Node.js if building a real-time solution
  • In other cases where high-load is a concern, Python is recommended. 

Conclusion

When choosing the right software technology for your project, choosing between Node.js and Python can only add to your confusion as both are exceptional backend technologies. They can both be used to build robust, scalable, and performant software. 

We hope that this blog has helped you choose the appropriate backend framework for your project. If you’re still left with some unanswered questions, get in touch with our backend experts here.

Vue vs React: When and How to Make the Right Choice

Vue.js and React.js are two popular frontend JavaScript frameworks, with React tipping the scales for the last three years. Both tools provide developers with a productive approach to developing various Web applications, but each has its own best use cases and addresses different business needs. In this article, we’ll look at some of those use cases, as well as the benefits that distinguish Vue.js and React.

The Cream of the Crop

There are numerous reasons for Vue and React’s prominence on the developer landscape. Before we delve deeper into their distinguishing features, let’s take a quick look at what the two have in common that makes them so popular.

Virtual DOM  – With a regular DOM, the entire page is rendered after making changes. With both these frameworks, only the changed object is updated, thereby saving time and resources that heavy DOM manipulations would consume.

Component-based UI development – The extensive component libraries provided by Vue and React facilitate code reuse, increase developer productivity, and accelerate the development process.

Concentrate on the view library — Separate concerns for routing, state management, and so on.

Official component library for building mobile apps — Long-awaited in Vue, but now available in both tools.

React and Vue are among the two of the most popular JavaScript frameworks. According to the State of Frontend 2020, the most popular JS languages are React and Vue. 4500 professional front-end developers took part in this survey.

While both the platforms have some common advantages, let us compare how they measure up in terms of performance, scalability, security, flexibility, and other important parameters.  

Vue vs React: Performance

JavaScript utilizes two types of object models, virtual DOM and real DOM. The organization of working with the DOM is a major factor in the performance of JavaScript tools for developing interfaces.

React makes use of the virtual DOM, which is a lightweight, browser-independent system. One of the main reasons for React’s popularity is that it works very well with the DOM.

Vue also makes use of the virtual DOM, but it outperforms React in terms of performance and stability.

The performance difference between Vue and React is minor, measuring only a few milliseconds. This demonstrates that Vue and React have very similar performance.

There are some cases in which one framework outperforms the other. When you change the state of a React component, all of the components in its subtree re-render. You can prevent child component re-renders in React by using immutable data structures, ComponentUpdate, or PureComponent. However, this can add complexity and result in DOM state inconsistencies.

With Vue, the dependencies are tracked to avoid any unnecessary re-rendering. 

Vue vs React: Flexibility

React’s core provides only basic functionality. With the practical application of this library, its capabilities must be expanded. This provides the developer with a great deal of freedom when it comes to selecting additional tools.

They usually solve the following problems with the assistance of additional libraries:

  • routing, 
  • application state management, 
  • server rendering, and 
  • mobile app development

Vue, as opposed to React, provides a more comprehensive set of standard tools to developers. This enables you to use third-party libraries to solve the same problems that the React ecosystem typically solves.

Vue vs React: Security

Vue apps are slightly easier to secure than React-based apps. While automatic protections against XSS vulnerabilities are not possible, Vue developers can sanitize HTML code before implementation or use external libraries to help protect against attacks. You can explicitly render a safe HTML and protect the application. 

To protect against XSS vulnerabilities, server-side rendering attacks, SQL injections, and other threats, React security relies on the developer following security best practices.

Vue vs React: Scalability

React is at an advantage due to its ease of scalability. React apps are written entirely in JavaScript, and the developers can use traditional code organization methods for easy scaling. Reusability of components improves React’s scalability.

While Vue is also scalable, it is more commonly used in smaller applications due to its diverse set of flexible tools (although the size of the app of course depends on the architecture). Because of the dynamic architecture, you will need to use Vue’s libraries and Mixin elements to overcome scaling limitations. We believe that React is a better choice for building enterprise applications.

Vue vs React: Popularity

We can track developer interest in these two frameworks over the last two years using Google Trends statistics. It is quite obvious that React and Vue are in a race to best each other. 

Let’s look at the stack overflow 2020 stats. The survey is about popular web frameworks and shows the percentage of developers who are developing with the language or technology and are interested in continuing to develop with it. In this ranking, React is ranked second. And Vue is only a little behind. Vue has grown in popularity in a relatively short period since its initial release in 2014.

Vue vs React: Community Support

The React library is maintained and developed by Facebook. Anyone who chooses React as the foundation for their application’s frontend can be confident that it will not become an abandoned project anytime soon. Many additional tools have been created and maintained by the React developer community.

Vue, on the other hand, has grown in popularity, with many programmers contributing to its development. 

Vue vs React: Mobile Development

You can use React Native to create native iOS and Android apps. 

Vue is not as fortunate in this regard. It has announced its official support for the Weex project, a cross-platform UI framework developed by the Alibaba Group. With Weex, you can use the same Vue syntax to create browser components as well as iOS and Android apps.

Weex is still in the early stages of development and is not yet as mature or well-tested as React Native. A NativeScript plugin for creating truly native apps with Vue.js is another variant of NativeScript-Vue.

How to Make the Right Choice

Vue.js

Vue, as a progressive framework, can be incrementally integrated into an existing project based on project requirements. As an example, it could be used as a lightweight library to add interactivity to a Web application. 76 percent of developers polled for the 2019 edition of the State of Vue.js Report cite ease of integration as Vue’s most valuable asset. Whereas, 90 percent of developers in the 2021 report of State of Vue.js, claimed there is a very high probability of them using Vue.js for their next project.

Vue is ideal for delivering MVPs and startup ideas quickly, thanks to its simple learning curve and tools like Vue CLI 3 and Vue UI. Vue is also a cost-effective solution for small to medium-sized apps as a result of these factors. 

Don’t let that fool you into thinking Vue isn’t suitable for large Web apps. It has a large ecosystem of tools and companion libraries, allowing the framework to address the complex requirements of enterprise-grade applications.

React

React was designed for large-scale Web projects, therefore using it for small and simple apps may be excessive. Although it takes a lot of boilerplate code to get a working project up and running, React’s architecture pays off in the long run.

JSX gives developers access to the full power of JavaScript — flow controls and advanced IDE features like autocompletion and listing are included in component view templates.

React, unlike Vue, lacks official packages for routing and state management. To create complex apps, you must rely on third-party solutions for almost everything. However, the options are numerous. Experienced developers tasked with delivering advanced projects will understand which of the numerous libraries will be the best fit to meet the business requirements of a specific Web application.

Conclusion

Vue.js and React are both excellent frameworks for creating interactive user interfaces. You must consider several factors when deciding which one is best for your next project, including your specific use case, business needs, environment, developer availability, budget, and timeframe.

We hope this guide has helped you decide between React.js and Vue.js for your next project. If you still have questions about the technologies, or if you need a team of experienced developers to help you create your project, please contact us using the form here!

About Galaxy Weblinks

We specialize in delivering end-to-end software design & development services and have hands-on experience with popular front-end and back-end frameworks. Our back-end and front-end engineers also help in improving security, reliability, and features to make sure your business application scales and remains secure.