Category: Services

Understanding the Importance of User Experience for your Business

Posted on by galaxy-admin

“User experience is everything that touches a product …more than just an app it’s the experience of the whole system around it.” – Don Norman, who coined the term ‘User Experience’.

The success of your company is largely determined by how happy your customers are with your product offerings. User Experience (UX) has become an essential part of any online business’ success in building a connection between your users and your brand. Logos are no longer the only medium used for branding. In the highly competitive online environment, every experience created when a user interacts with the company, via website or app, is an opportunity for it to differentiate against its competitors and enhance the brand image. 

UX is a foundational pillar of all marketing efforts for any company focussing on online business. Great user experience delights your customers, creates a loyal satisfied customer base, and helps reach out to millions of users online. Even if a business spends huge amounts of money and resources on online marketing, if the user experience is poor, the entire effort will be wasted.

In this article, we have highlighted how UX designers can help enhance the experience of your users. We have also listed the key benefits that come with an effective UX design.

How do UX designers help? 

UX Development is the procedure of improving the overall experience of users to provide maximum customer satisfaction during their interaction with the company’s app or website. UX focuses on having a deep understanding of users – what they like and dislike, what they need, and what they value the most, keeping the ease of use, a key priority. 

UX designers can help you map out your users’ experience before you invest serious time and money in developing a technology solution. They craft easily navigable digital interfaces that the users will ultimately interact with. They achieve this by –

1. Researching

A UX designer strives to understand users’ needs and motivation. The research responsibilities include everything from reviewing quantitative and qualitative survey results to user testing. They keenly observe how users complete key tasks within an app or platform. 

Researching helps in making your tech solution better by 

  • Identifying problems/pain points 
  • Assisting in visualizing how your product would solve niche problems

2. Ideating

After identifying the problems, it’s now time to ideate. Designers generate ideas by various methods such as brainstorming, exploring the worst possible ideas, sketching, etc. They produce various ideas/solutions to address a problem statement and its advantages/disadvantages. Ideations help in innovating and coming up with solutions beyond the obvious. 

3. Designing

Once the ideation stage is completed, the designing phase starts where the UX designer creates a rough draft of the concept by developing an early visual or blueprint. Typically, UX designers concentrate on wireframes to layout content and functionality on a page taking into account user needs and user journeys. It is a critical part of the UX design process. 

4. Communicating

Wireframes and prototypes are presented to the various stakeholders – clients and developers. The objective is to demonstrate how the solution will work and make changes if necessary based on feedback from clients and the development team who will take these inputs in creating the solution. 

Why is UX crucial for your business? 

A good UX design enhances usability, accessibility, and pleasure the user has while interacting with your website or app and ultimately your company. UX is a foundational pillar of all marketing efforts and the key benefits that come with a good UX are – 

  • Helps you understand your target audience better

The UX design journey clarifies your vision as the entire process follows a user-centric approach focused on understanding the needs of your future customers. It helps you come with innovative solutions that would appeal to your audience and ultimately would help you achieve your business goals. 

  • Enhances customer satisfaction improves returns

The UX approach focuses on enhancing customer experience by testing out various solutions rather than assuming what the customers might like. In the highly competitive online environment, a good UX helps your marketing efforts as a great user experience delights your customers, creates a loyal satisfied customer base, and helps reach out to millions of users online quickly by referrals/recommendations. This reduces your customer acquisition and retention efforts and hence increases the return on investment for your business. 

  • Builds your brand

A good UX design helps create loyal and satisfied customers, which helps your business differentiate from competitors and enhance your company’s brand image. 

  • Saves time and money

UX design during the initial stages of product development supports creating prototypes followed by testing to check their effectiveness. If a product is built without a good UX and after spending huge amounts of time and money, the customers will not stick to the product. So a revamp after launch would be very expensive and brand-damaging in many cases. Additionally, a well-designed product will likely not require frequent updates and therefore any money saved would help you towards marketing and growing the business. 

Conclusion

Knowing your product and its users is essential for striking a balance between a usable product that users desire and a product that meets stakeholders’ business goals. Galaxy Weblinks can help you provide an enhanced user experience for your product offering. Talk to us here for a free consultation.

How to select the right WordPress developer?

Posted on by galaxy-admin

WordPress is the most popular CMS (Content Management System) that powers over 40% of the websites globally. More than 500 websites are built using WordPress daily! 

The reason is that it offers versatility, thereby allowing users (even non-developers) to create feature-rich ecommerce websites, forums, and corporate websites. WordPress websites are highly customizable, can be easily optimized for mobile, and are SEO friendly. WordPress is open-source; is completely free, redistributable, and offers unlimited validity.

However, creating a good WordPress site requires a lot of skill. You need to be well-versed with programming languages (JavaScript, PHP), HTML/CSS, databases, SEO, responsive design, etc. This makes selecting the right WordPress developer or a company crucial in achieving your end objective. 

In this article, we have highlighted a few important considerations that will help you make the right choice. We have also compiled five important questions later in this article to help you in making the right decision. 

1. Objective alignment

Once you have identified the overall goal as well the key features and functionalities of your website, finding the right WordPress developer is the next step towards achieving your goal. The developer should be aligned with your needs and should have the relevant skillset. Based on your end objective, be it a new website or a redesign, you should hire your developer. 

For a website consisting of a traditional site structure (such as a home page, about page, contact page, blog, et all), the right developer would be someone with good front-end design experience. However, if your website needs a lot of features and functionalities, a developer with more back-end technical expertise would be the right candidate. There are various marketplaces where you can find WordPress freelancers for simple websites. However, for developing a website with a lot of features and functionalities, going with a bigger company is more suited given their access to multiple resources with diverse experience. 

2. Technical skills 

A good WordPress developer should be able to understand your site’s needs and design a website that stands out. The developer should have advanced website development skills such as design understanding, page customization, plugins, site speed optimization, etc. Given that over half of the website traffic globally is via mobile devices, the developer should design a website that is compatible and responsive with all mobile devices. 

A good way to evaluate expertise is to ask about their WordPress portfolio and check out some of the websites they have developed. A few evaluation criteria could be design, compatibility across different devices, ease of navigation, etc.

3. Pricing

Pricing remains one of the important considerations in the selection process. Once you have evaluated a few developers/companies on their project understanding as well as their capabilities, understand the # of hours and project plans each is proposing. Then compare their total costs and timelines in selecting the right choice. 

Five questions to help you decide the right WordPress development partner

Based on the above considerations, here are five important questions for which you need clarity to select the right WordPress developer/company. 

  1. What expertise do they have in WordPress? Can they provide some work examples?

(Tip: Ask about a few sample projects completed. Have a Zoom/Skype call with the WordPress developer to know his experience/communication skills.) 

  1. What will be their approach towards building the website? 

(Tip: Ask them about their approach around using existing/custom themes, mobile responsiveness, SEO, security, work best practices, etc.)

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

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

  1. How much will the website development cost?

(Tip: Ask them about their pricing including the number of hours they estimate for the work. Note that website development costs vary depending on factors such as the complexity of the features/functionalities, themes, integrations, etc.)

  1. Will there be continued support after the website is developed?

(Tip: Ask them about their support and maintenance after the website is developed. These may include plugin updates, feature enhancements, etc.)

Conclusion

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

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 complete WordPress solutions.

Scaling in WooCommerce – Challenges and Solutions

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Scaling an Ecommerce website can be a challenging undertaking. You have to factor in a lot of situations like logged-in user accounts, order information, add-to-carts, coupons, pricing variables, etc. These situations need to be dealt with besides common scaling issues such as well-written code, custom database tables, and server infrastructure. 

It is important to approach this with great care because delays or breaks can have a direct financial impact. According to Kissmetrics a single-second page delay can potentially cost $2.5 million in lost sales over a year, for a website that brings in $100,000 of business every day. This proves that it’s crucial to have a highly functional and efficient Ecommerce website. 

WooCommerce is typically installed over WordPress CMS and the sites running WooCommerce are often customized to fit specific business needs. These customizations can range from something as basic as integrations with external services to custom SQL interfaces that don’t use WooCommerce or WordPress classes. As the number of these customizations increase, so does their difficulty to scale. A majority of customizations are one-off and not made to scale under load. This makes it difficult to approach scaling as a one-size-fits-all solution.

However, this doesn’t imply that scaling is impossible. Some methods work despite a website’s complexity and customizations.

Figure Out The Problem Areas

You can’t fix things you can’t see. So the first plan of action is to find out the problem areas, especially related to sales and incoming revenue. 

  • Begin with a site audit and gather information about code, the server, services, and integrations. 
  • Identify the problem areas with the help of this data you can identify the problem areas. For example, issues such as slow query logs in server information may show up. 

Run Query Monitor

We suggest you use Query Monitor to identify things that are running slowly on different pages. Notice where the slow-down is occurring. For example, is it happening when you’re adding a product to the cart or when you’re applying a coupon? A quick study of the system process and interactions in checkout can help reveal things that need fixing.

Perform Load Testing

The next step is to perform load testing. Design test cases around different sales activities with a load testing service to analyze the website’s performance when there’s a sudden spike in traffic and activity. Ensure that you’re doing these kinds of tests in staging and not in a live environment. Also perform load tests when you introduce new functionality, integrations, or other changes in your system. You’d want to be double sure as there are new variables in the system. 

Keep Databases Separate

WordPress has a single database table for all post types while it stores all post meta content in another table. This can work for small-volume websites but might pose a major problem for larger ecommerce websites. And since all the content is in only two database tables, it causes a performance bottleneck when the volume increases. In that case, user orders might fail or users might find it difficult to add or remove items from the cart. All this will eventually cause your revenue to take a hit. 

Consider creating custom database tables based on the bottlenecks you encounter. That way you will be able to store different content in their separate tables. When the post types have separate homes, you can optimize SQL queries for faster load times.

Upgrade Older Code

As WooCommerce has evolved, some older functions and processes have become completely obsolete and hence been replaced with better code. With updated core WooCommerce code Legacy custom websites might not perform as their modern counterparts. 

Identify outdated functionality and replace it with newer code from WooCommerce Core or custom code based on the latest practices and standards. To replace the legacy code you must know what it does first. This is where detailed code documentation comes in handy. The better the documentation, the easier it becomes to upgrade.

Find An Alternative To Default WordPress Search

The default search in WordPress is built on a set of queries to the database. This is bad news for complex site searches, filters, or custom content pages. Look for custom search solutions like Elastisearch or Algolia. These alternatives will perform better in complex higher-volume sites than WordPress’ default. 

Final Thoughts

A smooth and flawless user experience is key to customer retention in an Ecommerce business. Scaling the website to match rising traffic is a good problem to have. It can be easily facilitated by strategy, thought, and customization.

You can outsource this important task to an experienced WooCommerce development agency to reinforce your Ecommerce website from the inside out.

About Galaxy Weblinks 

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

Mobile Application Development – How to Choose The Right Development Partner

Posted on by galaxy-admin

So you’ve got a great mobile app idea and you’ve done your research to understand the competitive landscape. Now you are looking to transform your app idea into reality. However, you are now faced with a crucial question of “How to select the right Mobile app development company”.

With such an abundance of choice, choosing the right mobile app development company is difficult and confusing with several factors to consider such as experience, size, geography, costing, et al. 

We know how important it is for you to get things right as your business is in question. Here are a few important considerations that will help you make the right choice. We have also compiled seven important questions later in this article to help you in decision-making. 

Organizational alignment

A good app development company should act as an extension of your organization and be aligned with your business objectives. Not only should they guide you through the process of mobile app development, but they should also provide inputs based on their experience with similar apps and their understanding of what works and what doesn’t on the app store.

The mobile app development team involves several designers, programmers, and testers. Thus, organizational alignment becomes increasingly important while working with several individual freelancers across these roles. Freelancers can deliver flawlessly in the short run, but mobile app development is not a one-time activity and needs to evolve based on user feedback and requirements. As a result, a mobile app development company is more suited as a reliable partner in the long run given their access to multiple resources with diverse experience, dedicated focus, and aligned business priorities. 

Expertise 

Mobile app development is specific and requires skilled developers with the knowledge of required programming languages, software development kits (SDKs), and the ability to take advantage of unique features of various mobile devices (i.e., iOS or Android). The right company should be able to understand your project and overall objective. 

A good way to evaluate expertise is to ask about their project portfolio across different platforms and check out some of the apps they have developed. A few evaluation criteria could be the app’s interface, its ease of use, and reviews on the app store. A good development company will understand each platform’s guidelines and will ensure that they work within the right parameters to deliver the best for your business objectives. 

Pricing

Pricing is one of the crucial factors in the selection process. However, cheapest isn’t the best option while selecting a mobile app development vendor, so always look at the bigger picture in the long run. Never pick a company purely based on their rate. Rather look at the approach they came to the overall pricing. 

The best way is to review a few proposals with a detailed breakdown of work, and then compare the project plans and time estimates. Understand the # of hours and resources each company is proposing, and then compare their total costs. Making payments in line with delivery milestones ensures that you and the development company are aligned towards delivering the project on time and within budget. 

Best Practices

A gap in understanding of the requirements can cause the complete failure of your project. Hence, the app development company must follow best industry practices across communications, execution, documentation, budgeting, quality assurance, security, etc. Project management methods can vary greatly between companies and for a successful engagement with an app development company, it is crucial that they follow a process that is organized, consistent, and supports quality control. For offshore partners, good communication is a must to understand requirements correctly and efficiently coordinate for smooth and timely execution. 

7 questions to help you decide the right Mobile App development company

Based on the above considerations, here are seven important questions for which you need clarity to select the right mobile app developer. 

  • Who are the key management personnel behind the company and how long have they been in business?

(Tip: Ask about the top management and their vision. Also, ask them how they differentiate themselves vs competition.)

  • Do they have expertise across mobile app development – design UX/UI, SDKs, platforms, testing, security, et all? 

(Tip: Ask about a few sample projects completed. Have a call with a few technical leads to understand their backgrounds. Also, discuss the challenges faced during the execution of these projects.)

  • Can they provide some references from their earlier clients as they can provide valuable inputs about the team, technical expertise as well as project handling capabilities?

(Tip: Check clutch.co or Have a Zoom/Skype call with the references.)

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

(Tip: Ask them about a few clients that they worked with who were in the same timezone as you. It will help you understand issues such as time differences, cultural and linguistic barriers.)

  • What industry best practices do they follow?

(Tip: Ask them about their best practices around the app development process, documentation, security, quality assurance, communications, execution, etc.)

  • Do they provide code ownership of the app?

(Tip: Ask them about their policies around copyright. You must have ownership of the code.)

  • Will there be continued support after the app is released?

(Tip: Ask them about their support and maintenance offerings after the app is live.)

Conclusion

A careful selection of the mobile app development company can transform your app idea into reality. We know how important it is for you to get things right as your business is in question. 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.

A Guide To Choose The Best Software Development Partner

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Having a good product idea for building a custom application or software is the first step towards achieving your organization’s desired business goals. However, the path to success will be determined by the skill and experience of your software company that develops the application. 

You will have several software development companies to select from. You can decide based on cost, size, experience, location, and several other parameters. Hence, choosing the right company is difficult and confusing. 

How to identify the best-suited software development vendor is an important question. Here are a few important considerations that will help you make the right choice. We have also compiled ten important questions later in this article to help you make the right decision. 

1. Alignment

The software development vendor is an extension of your organization, not only for your current needs but also for future requirements. They need to act like a long-term partner and be aligned with your objectives. Your vendor should understand your business requirements, help focus on priorities, advise from a technical perspective, and execute work efficiently. Selection of the vendor should be done keeping in mind both organizational alignment and project alignment. Additionally, alignment is the most crucial factor to consider while going forward with a software development company or with freelancers. 

2. Expertise 

While the software development company specializing in a certain domain and technology is crucial, it should also have expertise across the wider technology spectrum – front-end, UI/UX design, back-end, server, security, et al. For complex and bigger projects, having a team with diverse understanding and experience across technologies allows the vendor to understand the functional requirements holistically and to come up with cost-effective solutions. 

For offshore partners, leveraging the knowledge of your vendor is more cost-effective than developing all technology expertise in-house. This is because developing all technology expertise in-house is expensive, as it would involve hiring several employees with specialized technology expertise, training them, and making sure that they are utilized efficiently for the long term even after the project is completed.  

3. Best Practices

A gap in understanding of the requirements can cause the complete failure of your project. Hence, the software development company must follow best industry practices across communications, execution, documentation, budgeting, quality assurance, security, etc. Project management methods can vary greatly between companies and for a successful engagement with a software development company, it is crucial that they follow a process that is organized, consistent, and supports quality control. For offshore partners, good communication is a must to understand requirements correctly and efficiently coordinate for smooth and timely execution. 

4. Pricing

Cheapest isn’t the best option while selecting a software development vendor, so always look at the bigger picture. Typically, the hourly rates are very standard based on regions – 

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

We recommend that you do not choose a vendor purely based on their rate. Rather look at the approach they came to the pricing. 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.

Additionally, 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. Usually, it’s a good idea to pick a lower-cost vendor for support for smaller enhancements.

10 questions to help you decide the right vendor

Based on the above considerations, here are ten important questions for which you need clarity to select the right software development company. 

  • Who are the key management personnel behind the software company and how long have they been in business?

(Tip: Ask about the top management and their vision. Also, ask them how they differentiate themselves vs competition.)

  • Do they have expertise across the technology spectrum – front-end, back-end, server, security, etc? 

(Tip: Ask about the projects completed across the spectrum. Also, have a Zoom/Skype with a few tech leads to understand their backgrounds.)

  • Do they have experience with similar projects?

(Tip: Ask about a few sample project overviews including the broad scope of work. Also, discuss the challenges faced during the execution of these projects.)

  • Can they provide some references from their earlier clients as they can provide valuable inputs about the team, technical expertise as well as project handling capabilities?

(Tip: Check clutch.co or Have a Zoom/Skype call with the references.)

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

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

  • What communications processes do they follow to efficiently coordinate with you for smooth and timely execution?

(Tip: Ask about their external and internal communications processes for project tracking, feedback, and coordination.)

  • What industry best practices do they follow?

(Tip: Ask them about their best practices around documentation, security, quality assurance, budgeting, communications, execution, etc.)

  • What kind of security measures will be used during communication and development, including the safeguarding of the data and intellectual property?

(Tip: Ask them about their NDA and Confidentiality policies. Also, try to understand how the multiple team members coordinate across a single project.)

  • Do they provide software ownership to you, so that the same application cannot be used by any other organizations?

(Tip: Ask them about their policies around copyright and whether code ownership is mentioned in their contracts.)

  • Will there be continued support after the project is complete?

(Tip: Ask them about their support and maintenance offerings post project completion.)

infographic

A careful selection of the software development company is crucial for realizing your company’s vision and we know how important it is for you to get things right 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.

About Galaxy Weblinks

We specialize in delivering end-to-end software design & development services and have hands-on experience with software development tools. We have expertise in developing custom software and system applications for multiple business requirements, be it IoT, enterprise application, or a customized machine learning platform. Contact us for your project discussion today.

User Experience Design – Benefits Offshoring Can Bring To Your Business

Posted on by galaxy-admin

UI/UX is the backbone of any online business product. It is the first thing that helps you build a connection between your users and your brand. A good design enhances usability, accessibility, and users’ delight while interacting with your website or app.  

Technology is taking over all the aspects of our lives and this leads to an increase in the demands from consumers. Interfaces must be able to compete with the increasing expectations. Even before writing the code and starting the build of your application, laying out a detailed UI/UX strategy is a must.

Even if you haven’t needed a UX designer in the past, there’s a good chance you will in the future. Many businesses outsource UI/UX services, and if you are looking for the same, we have listed down why offshore UX is a good business decision for your current or future UX designer needs.

Local talent can be hard to find

Effective UX design requires a lot of specialization in a lot of different areas. Hiring talent for all the different areas of UX design would not only be very expensive, it can be hard to find local talent that is also available for full-time work given the high demand for UX designers. This is especially true if you want to hire top talent, which will command a higher price and be harder to keep on staff without some other company coming along with a better offer.

Thankfully, a remote team of designers can provide you with the same skills as having an in-house team of designers. For both, you want someone who is a self-starter and will get the work done on time and as per specifications with minimal oversight on your part. As the top UX designers realize, they can make more work for themselves and take on multiple jobs at multiple firms throughout the year, it becomes easier to find a qualified person for the job without having to commit to a full year’s salary and associated perks.

The economics of developing nations

In the countries where the cost of living is low, the highest-paid professions may receive a little more than you would pay a UX designer. This means that UX designers in those nations can price themselves very competitively compared to western nations and still live a very comfortable life relative to their peers.

Of course, you’ll have to put some effort into finding the right candidate when you look outside English-speaking countries. Residents of most countries learn English as a second language, but you want to make sure that they speak it well enough that no language barriers exist. With offshoring, you’ll save money and provide someone with a better income than they could get in their economy alone.

Technology breaks down boundaries

Because it is such a visual art, there was a time in the past when doing UX work remotely would have been extremely difficult. This may be why there is still a reluctance on the part of many to embrace outsourced UX designers.

We now have technology that allows us to video conference and share our screens easily. There are cloud-based solutions, such as Miro, Figma and Invision, that allow for collaboration on even the most advanced projects so you’ll be able to give feedback to designers in a professional manner and ensure that nothing gets lost in the translation.

Combine that with the fact that all but the poorest of countries have access to high-speed internet, it is now possible to engage in real-time feedback even for visual projects like UI and UX. The boundaries that once stood in the way of taking UX design off-premise have now been torn down by technological advances.

Keeping up with trends 

The world of UI/UX is changing rapidly with new trends emerging constantly. Outsourced companies have a pool of resources with varied experience that interact frequently with multiple companies globally. This allows the team to adapt to emerging trends and come up with new and innovative ideas/solutions. Keeping up with these trends is time-consuming, laborious, and demanding. If UX design isn’t the bread and butter of your business, it makes business and economic sense to outsource UX/UX aspects.

Offshoring is flexible

If you’re a large business, you already have a design department with competent directors and senior designers. In that case, it will be the additional workers that take the vision of the senior members and help implement it that would make prime candidates for offshore workers.

For small businesses, it is impossible to hire a full-time staff to do your design work. Offshoring makes finding someone for a one-off job even more affordable.

Better cost control

Working with an agency allows you to control costs in a way that hiring someone in-house does not. After signing a statement of work (SOW), agencies are required to follow the scope of work outlined in the contract.

This specific type of agreement gives you more control over when work begins and ends, as well as how much money you commit to the project.

Faster go-to-market

Agency design teams must meet tight deadlines and adhere to strict, time-tested procedures. Whereas an in-house hire may take some time to settle in and understand the company, and project requirements, a good agency would begin delivering prototypes within two to three weeks.

Agencies simply do the work faster. For example, our UX team at Galaxy has been able to completely redesign relatively complex SaaS applications in less than three months, whereas an in-house team would typically take at least twice as long. Agencies can move your project more quickly to the point where your investment begins to pay off.

Conclusion

UX design has become a requirement in today’s competitive landscape. Knowing your product and its users is essential for striking a balance between a usable product that users desire and a product that meets stakeholders’ business goals. Offshoring is a viable option that many agency owners are leveraging while they channelize their energies in building their business. Galaxy’s approach to UI/UX outsourcing, strategy, research, and design is a homogenized effort that focuses on merging the desired outcomes for end-users and your company. There is no universal solution that fits all, and we understand that every project is different. This is why we match your needs with the right team of performant designers and engineers. Our team works with you towards a common goal of deploying robust and scalable UI/UX solutions that yield great business results. If you’ve any doubts related to UX/UI and if you need assistance, then feel free to talk to us here.

When to Outsource User Experience Design?

Posted on by galaxy-admin

You will witness how comfortable toddlers and preschoolers are in operating smartphones and tablets.  While it is true that these new-age kids are super smart and quite capable of comfortably learning to play games and run apps on their devices, a lot of credit also goes to the ingenious way the applications have been designed. 

The User Experience designers and developers make complex applications exceptionally simple, appealing, and intuitive. We are living in times where the demand for mobile apps, websites, and other digital products is on the constant rise. People are constantly demanding easy-to-use and effective applications with immaculate User Experience. 

That said, while digital products are becoming a necessity and IT companies are making innumerable applications, there is still a lot left to desire in terms of appealing and responsive UX design. 

Businesses have found that outsourcing the User Experience design and development is an ideal way to get beautiful designs, seamless navigation, and uninterrupted flow. It is also more cost-effective vis-a-vis in-house development. 

A large number of companies entrust professional outsourcing teams with the complete IT development process. This is to reduce cost, minimize risks, and achieve higher efficiency. 

Likewise, UX design tasks also have the scope to be outsourced separately. The process for the same is simple. The company just has to work out a blueprint of the product design and hand it over to the designing firm, which then creates the final product. 

Who should hire outsource UX design teams?

Outsourcing is expensive and it is hard to trust vendors! This was the argument that we used to hear a lot when we started our business over two decades ago. Our transparent processes and open communication channels have helped in addressing these reservations of our clients. 

There are many instances where it makes a lot of sense to opt for outsourcing the UX development. 

If you own a startup, you are probably tight on budget and would not want to invest in a full-fledged team for a one-time task. Along with the designer and developers’ salaries, add the time invested, the supporting manpower required for testing, implementation, etc. Outsourcing designing tasks makes more sense here. 

A similar case goes for Ecommerce enterprises. They work in and around IT but do not specifically have design and development teams for their niche is online selling, not IT development. 

An Ecommerce website design must facilitate a great user experience, making the buying process a breeze for customers. The design of the Ecommerce website is perhaps the most important element. It cannot be neglected, but at the same time, it is an expensive task. Thus, outsourcing Ecommerce design services to a third-party service provider like Galaxy Weblinks serves a great deal of convenience. 

The world of digital UX frameworks changes fast with new trends emerging regularly. Keeping up with everything is a full-time job. At the same time, different industries go through constant shuffles and developments. 

For instance, a B2B company, if opting for in-house designing, must be aware of frameworks like Angular, Vue, and React and their updates. How to use them and what technology fits where. This is an additional burden. When UX design isn’t the bread and butter of your business, keeping up with design and development trends becomes time-consuming, laborious, and inefficient. Instead, the focus should be on things happening in the B2B market.

UI/UX design outsourcing is a good idea as it is an investment, not an expense. The product company can reduce costs and concentrate on the core competencies, enabling rapid business change. 

More advantages – 

  • An outsourced team is a combination of an art director, designer, manager, and graphic designer all in one package. 
  • Design teams come in with the experience and skills needed to build great user experiences. You can expect them to be more progressive and smart with an added advantage of the ideas garnered by their collective minds.
  • You are assured that no matter what, the project delivery will happen on time and within budget. 
  • In the role of a client, you would receive 24/7 service and support. You can even ask for a customized workflow.

When to opt for in-house design teams?

Companies having complicated IT products requiring to be designed sprint by sprint, analyzed, and then designed again can save a lot of money by having an in-house design team. (But, that is not the case with most companies.)

Have an in-house design team instead of outsourcing if:

  • You have an art director, controlling the quality of the design. PMs or team leads can’t handle this. 
  • You have a lot of designing tasks in-house such as creating ad designs, platform designs, making new landing pages. And, these tasks are regular. 
  • You have a strict company policy of working with in-door specialists only. But, even if one department operates on an outsource model, having an in-door designer doesn’t make sense.

You need to pick the best solutions suited for your business. It can be an in-house team or outsource. If you are looking for a reliable partner to outsource the UX/UI design work, Galaxy Weblinks is here for you. Know more about us and our UI/UX design services here

5 Tips to Protect Your WordPress Site Against DDoS Attacks

Posted on by galaxy-admin

We all have been on the internet long enough to know that while it brings the world in our palms, it is also vulnerable to theft and attacks. When your website grows, it also gets vulnerable to security threats like DDoS attacks, phishing attacks, SQL injection attacks, cross-site scripting(XSS), password thefts, and more.

In this blog, we are going to talk about the most common threat – a DDoS attack. A DDoS or Distributed Denial of Service, dramatically slows down your website and renders it inaccessible to users. This may directly impact your conversions and business revenue, as it causes an unsatisfactory user experience.

Understanding DDoS

Distributed Denial of Service attack is essentially a process of swarming the server or a network with bot traffic, to overwhelm the system and ultimately cripple the website for real users. With the help of multiple computers, the attackers send thousands of requests to the target server, typically more requests than the server were built to support at a time.  

Here are some tips to keep your WordPress website safe from DDoS attacks: 

1. Get your Hosting right

There are plenty of options when it comes to web hosting. But choosing the right one can be a deciding factor in keeping your website safe. 

Not all web hosts are created equal! Some may kneel under even a moderate strain. Ensure that your host is capable of handling DDoS attacks and your website remains functional and accessible to users under worst-case scenarios. 

2.  Setup a Website Application Firewall (WAF)

Another way of securing your WordPress website is to set up a Website Application Firewall (WAF). It protects your website by adding a layer of protection between your site and web traffic. It also utilizes an intelligent algorithm that automatically blocks incoming malicious traffic. 

3. Disable XML-RPC

XML-RPC is a WordPress feature that allows you to connect your site with any 3rd party application. It comes enabled by default and you may find it difficult to disable it. The ability to connect with 3rd party applications is a great thing but it comes at a cost. It leaves your website vulnerable to security threats such as DDoS. 

Although it’s absent from the dashboard, there is a way to disable XML-RPC. You can do so by accessing your .htaccess file through your host’s cPanel account. Just copy-paste the code mentioned below at the end of the file.

# Block XML-RPC

<Files xmlrpc.php>

order deny,allow

deny from all

allow from // IP

</Files> 

Save and exit.

4. Disable REST API

Just like the XML-RPC, REST API also allows 3rd party applications to access your WordPress site. It allows the plugins to send/receive data or delete content. However, it also leaves your website vulnerable to attacks.

Unlike XML-RPC, disabling REST API is not a chore. It’s pretty straightforward. This plugin will disable it for you. 

5. CDN to the rescue

CDN or Content Delivery Network utilizes multiple servers spread across the world to reduce loading time and increase the speed of your website.

What CDN does is that it stores your website’s files in caches residing in their data centers. Now whenever a visitor requests your website the CDN immediately loads it through their caches without having to approach your host server. While the CDN is increasing the speed of your, it’s also filtering out malicious traffic to prevent DDoS at the same time. 

Related blogs:

9 steps to ensure high speed of WordPress website

What makes a great WordPress plugin

Final Thoughts

As you expand your business and more and more users start to show up to your website, the potential impact of a threat such as a DDoS also grows. So do what all is necessary and secure your WordPress website today. Our tips will help you along the way and if you’re looking for WordPress experts to fortify your website then give us a call.

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.

Top Python Frameworks for Web Development in 2022

Posted on by galaxy-admin

What does a Python programmer need to make their life a little bit easier for themselves? Using frameworks is the answer. This allows developers to focus on application logic rather than routine elements because frameworks automate the implementation of redundant tasks.

Python is one of the most popular programming languages, and there is no dearth of available frameworks. These Python frameworks have their own set of pros and cons and therefore, their selection must be based on project requirements as well as developer preferences.

When it comes to implementation, the Python programming language has a wide range of applications. In this blog, we will learn about the top Python frameworks. 

We will cover – 

  • Why Python for Web Development
  • Why Use A Framework?
  • What Are Popular Frameworks In Python?
  • Top Python Uses In The Real World
  • Conclusion
  • Useful Resources

Why Python for Web Development

Quicker prototyping: Python takes comparatively lesser time to finish your projects vis-a-vis other programming languages. Therefore, it takes lesser time to structure your ideas. This is the reason Python is the programming language of choice for startups.  

Large user base: Python is one of the most widely used languages in the world, with users from all over the globe. On account of its popularity, Python continues to add new features and libraries, as well as providing excellent documentation and community assistance. When it comes to support and framework for new developers, Python excels.

Libraries and ecosystem: Python offers a wide range of library tools and packages, which allows you to access much pre-written code, reducing the time it takes to develop applications. You can use Numpy and Pandas for mathematical analysis, Pygal for charting, and SQLALchemy for composing queries, for example. You can use web frameworks in Python such as Django and Flask, which we’ll talk about further down in this article.

Why Use a Framework?

A toolbox would be a good metaphor for what we are trying to achieve. It consists of pre-written, standardized packages and modules that make the development of web applications faster and easier, as well as more reliable and scalable. Instead of having to do all of the grunt work yourself, frameworks come with built-in components that “set up” your project from the ground up. 

As a server-side technology, Python web frameworks are primarily used to aid URL routing, HTTP requests and responses, accessing databases, and web security. When developing web applications, a web framework can help you develop complex applications in a fraction of the time.

What Are Popular Frameworks In Python?

In order to make their lives easier, Python programmers require frameworks. Frameworks reduce development time by automating the implementation of redundant tasks, allowing developers to focus on application logic rather than routine elements.

The fact that Python is one of the most popular programming languages means that there is no shortage of frameworks. There are advantages and disadvantages to using different frameworks. As a result, the selection should be based on the project’s requirements and developer preferences. Here is a list of some best python frameworks:

1. Bottle

Bottle generates a single source file for each application created with it. It is one of the most effective Python web frameworks. Python’s microframework was originally designed to help developers create APIs. One of the most significant benefits of using this framework is that it allows developers to work more closely with the hardware. 

The Bottle is an excellent choice for learning the organization of web frameworks and prototyping, in addition to creating simple personal-use apps.

 2. CubicWeb

This Full-Stack framework CubicWeb is a free, semantic, open-source, Python-based web framework developed and maintained by Logilab. CubicWeb requires a data model to be defined to develop a functional application.

Unlike other popular Python frameworks that use separate views and models, CubicWeb makes use of the cube. Then, using a database, a web server, and some configuration files, multiple cubes are joined together to form an instance.

3. AIOHTTP

This framework is asynchronous. AIOHTTP is a Python framework that heavily relies on Python 3.5+ features like async and await. The Python framework is asynchronous because it makes use of Python’s asyncio library. AIOHTTP, in addition to being a server web framework, can also be used as a client framework. It includes a request object and a router to allow queries to be routed to functions designed to handle them.

4. Django

This framework is a full-stack framework. Django is a popular web development framework for creating Python applications. It was named one of the top python frameworks to opt for.

Django is a free and open-source full-stack Python framework. It includes a range of built-in features, unlike the frameworks that use separate libraries. Django’s ORM is used to map objects to database tables.

Python Applications

1. Web Application Development

  • Web application development is without a doubt one of the most popular practical uses of Python. In the world of web applications, Python is the language of choice. Python is widely used in the real world for web development. Because of its scalability and ease of use, it makes applications safer and more convenient.
  • Python has numerous frameworks, including Django and Flask. This makes it possible to create apps very quickly. For web applications, Python has become more useful thanks to Django’s dynamic development capabilities. As a result of the framework’s inclusion of standard libraries, development time is reduced and the web application can be launched faster.

2. Internet of Things

  • Python can also be used in the internet of things, which is another real-world application. Using the Raspberry Pi and Python programming language, developers can turn any object into an electronic device.
  • Because Python can be used to create embedded software, it can be applied to smaller objects that can work with the programming language at high-performancelarge-scale levels.
  • With the Raspberry Pi, developers can use Python applications to perform high-level computations. A smart object can be created by embedding a microprocessor within a normal object.
  • Industrial IoT is widely used to track inventory, move machines and track order processing along with shipment status in large scale industries.

3. Enterprise Applications

  • Unlike regular web applications, enterprise apps have a unique set of features. As opposed to individual users, they are designed to meet the needs of an organization.
  • The use of Python in enterprise applications varies from company to company. They use it because of its scalability, readability, and ability to do a lot of different things.
  • Due to the need for a large amount of security and database handling capabilities, enterprise applications can be complex. As a robust language, Python can handle multiple database requests at the same time.

Improve your productivity with a top-notch enterprise Python application. Get a Free Consultation Here.

4. AI and Machine Learning

  • Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are probably the most interesting practical applications of Python. Developing Machine Learning models requires the use of Python, which is a stable and secure language capable of handling computations.
  • A large number of Machine Learning libraries are available in Python. Included in this are SciPy and Pandas as well as TensorFlow and NumPy.
  • There are a wide variety of ways that businesses can benefit from the use of Python language in AI solutions including advanced computing, data analytics, image recognition, and much more. 

Conclusion

Python can handle almost any type of request, making it extremely useful for all types of development tasks. Python is now used in a wide range of applications, from enterprise apps to gaming.

Python is quickly becoming a popular tool for developing a wide range of applications. At Galaxy, we have an expert team of Python developers who can assist you in developing a Python app. Talk To Us Today.

Useful Resources:

Blogs:

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

Our Backend Development Technology Favorites in 2021

Choosing Django as Your Backend Framework in 2021

Choosing the best Software Architecture for your Enterprise App

Podcasts and videos:

Talk Python To Me Podcast

Python Bites

Test and Code

The Real Python Podcast

About Galaxy Weblinks

We specialize in delivering end-to-end web application design & development services and have hands-on experience with popular back-end languages and frameworks like Node.js, Python, etc. We have expertise in customizing websites for multiple business or web application development requirements, be it IoT, enterprise application, or a customized machine learning platform. Contact us for your project discussion today.

Tools and Best Practices To Speed Up The Vue.js Development Process

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Does your Vue.js application take a long time to load, navigate, submit, or perform any user actions. Your users will not appreciate this delay. According to statistics, 53 percent of users do not want to spend time on applications that take more than three seconds to load.

Building a performance-optimized application will improve the user experience and gradually increase user interactions. Unfortunately, most developers fail to recognize the significance of performance and end up creating a large application with performance issues. It is difficult to create an application, but creating a well-optimized high-speed application is even more difficult.

In this article, we’ll look at best practices to follow, pitfalls to avoid, and a closer look at some useful tools to make writing Vue.js easier. The best practices we are sharing are applicable for both Vue 2 and Vue 3, the power-packed version of Vue2.

#1 Third-Party Libraries And Optimization

We almost always avoid using third-party libraries in our apps. This can, in turn, result in increasing the bundle size and slowing down our application.

We recently used the Vuetify component library in a project and discovered that the overall bundle size after minification was 500kb. This may impact the performance of our application. You can use webpack-bundle-analyzer to determine the size of your app’s bundle. You can install it by running the following command:

npm install –save-dev webpack-bundle-analyzer

and add it in your webpack config file:

const BundleAnalyzerPlugin = require(‘webpack-bundle-analyzer’).BundleAnalyzerPlugin;

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    new BundleAnalyzerPlugin()
  ]
}

#2 Remove or Reduce Slow Components

When developing new components from scratch, but especially when importing third-party components, you must ensure that they perform well. You can estimate the rendering time of each component you’re using by using the Vue.js dev tools performance tab. When you add a new component, you can see how long it takes to render in comparison to your existing components.

If the new component takes significantly longer than your existing components, you may need to consider it, or remove it, or try to reduce its usage.

#3 Optimize Event Handling

Not all events are created equal, you must ensure that you are properly optimizing for each of them.

The @mouseover and window.scroll events are two excellent examples. Even with normal usage, these two types of events can be triggered numerous times. If your event handlers perform expensive calculations, these calculations will be repeated multiple times per second, causing lag in your application. A debounce function can be used to limit the number of times these events are processed.

Best practices for optimizing your Vue app:

  • Our main bundle should only include dependencies that are essential to our apps, such as vue and vuex. We should avoid including libraries used in specific routes in our app in the main bundle.
  • When using component libraries, you can import individual components rather than the entire library. Vuetify, for example:
<template>
  <v-app>
    <v-navigation-drawer app>
    <!– –>
  </v-navigation-drawer>
  <v-app-bar app>
    <!– –>
  </v-app-bar>
</v-app>
</template>
<script>
import { VApp, VNavigationDrawer, VAppBar } from ‘vuetify/lib’

export default {
  components: {
    VApp,
    VNavigationDrawer,
    VAppBar,
  }
}
</script>

We can reduce the bundle size and redundant code by only using the components we want to use in that specific route.

#4 The right way to use Vuex Modules

As the modules we’ve created become more complex, they also get more difficult to manually import and organize. It is recommended that your modules include an index.js file at the root of the module, bringing all the files together.

Maintainability will be improved if your store follows a consistent naming pattern. You can use camelCase to name the modules, followed by a.store.js extension. CartData.store.js is an example.

modules/
      ├── cart.js
          ├── index.js   -> auto export module      
          ├── userProduct.store.js
          ├── userData.store.js

Because of the blocking behavior of mutations, code related to business logic or async code should not be run within them. Here we recommend using actions. It is recommended that you do not directly access a state object. Instead, use the getter function, which can be mapped into any Vue component using the mapGetters function, which behaves like a computed property, with the getter’s result cached based on its dependencies. Also, ensure that each module is namespaced and that it is not accessed through the global state scope.

#5 Remove Duplicate Rendering

Rendering full lists or heavy elements more than necessary is a sneaky issue, but it’s very simple to implement.

Let’s say that you have a component with an entity property in your data object.

If you followed the previous step, you most likely have a child component that renders each entity.

<entity :entity=”entity” v-for=”entity in entities” :key=”entity.id” />

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

Tools to Make Vue Work Easier

When working with Vuejs, we may come across some features that we would like to implement but would take a long time to hard code or would be difficult to implement. As professional developers, we add tools and helper libraries to make life easier, and we’ll look at a few of them.

#1 Component Libraries 

A component library is a collection of reusable components that we can use in our application to make UI development faster and more consistent. Vue, like React and Angular, has dedicated component libraries. Among them are the following:

  • Vuetify

This is also a material design component framework with ready-made code scaffolding, a large community, and regular updates.

  • Buefy

Based on the Bulma CSS framework, this is a lightweight component library. If you’re familiar with SASS, you’ll have no trouble using it.

  • Material Kit for Vue

A “Badass” Vue.js UI kit based on the material design language. It is made up of more than 60 handcrafted components.

#2 Testing Libraries 

When developing large-scale applications, testing can be critical. It assists us in avoiding unnecessary bugs during development when working as part of a team. Let’s take a look at the three types of testing we can perform in our Vue application, as well as the frameworks that support them.

  • End-to-End Tests

Nightwatch.js, Cypress.

  • Unit testing

Jest, Mocha.

  • Component Testing

Vue Testing Library, Vue Test Utils.

Conclusion

No matter how large-scale your application is, it must be optimized. You are only one click away from onboarding a VueJS expert to optimize your Vue.js app and satisfy your end-users. Contact us to learn about our one-of-a-kind Vue.js best practices and Vue.js application development services.

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.