What’s the future of website scrolling?

It’s hard to create the illusion of a 3 dimensional object from a 2 dimensional image and I’m not talking about the recent craze of 3-D TV’s, mobile gaming consuls and computers. There is a way to do it though. Parallax scrolling. Parallax scrolling was first used for video games and it gave the illusion of 3-D from a 2-D image.

How does this work though? When scrolling the background images move slower than different foreground images, which creates an illusion of depth to the viewer. You will notice this type of scrolling on old video games like Moon Patrol (the first game this technique was used on) or more popular games like Sonic the Hedgehog I & II and Street Fighter II.

Recently some websites have been receiving a face-lift using parallax scrolling, truly transforming the look and feel of the site, like the Nike website. The background and various images move at different speeds allowing for the 3-D illusion. The best part about this is, it is not with old 80’s video game graphics, but can be seen on Full HD display’s. This rather old technology can is being applied in a new ways and makes for a very exciting web experience.

Road to your company’s success: Develop Website

Anyone who has ever been involved in running a business knows that an effective product or service does not guarantee success. When your potential customers are unaware of your company’s existence, or they don’t understand how you can benefit their lives, they won’t buy your product.

That’s why strong website development is so important.  When designed by talented website developers who approach each project individually, websites can be an extremely powerful method of lead generation. The following are just a few of the ways your web presence can help you achieve success:

GETTING CUSTOMER ATTENTION

In most cases, potential customers do not stumble across websites unprompted. It’s much more likely that they’ll find your website as a result of an internet search.

By incorporating keywords into your website’s content, you’ll boost your chances of appearing in a relevant Google search, helping you achieve that critical first step: getting potential customers to know you exist.

To increase your visibility on the web, you should not only feature the keywords prominently on the homepage, but also host a blog that shares relevant information with users. Doing so gives you even more opportunities to reach the kind of people most likely to be interested in your service or product.

DEMONSTRATING YOUR PRODUCT

An intuitive website could be designed to show off to customers what exactly your product or service can do for them. For example, if you’re selling a new tool or promoting an app, a quick video embedded on the homepage to demonstrate it is an excellent visual element to include.

That said, you don’t need to rely on video. Many great websites make effective use of clean and simple graphic design to explain how a service benefits customers in easy-to-digest visual language (e.g. infographics). Whatever route you choose, if your website is organized around explaining what your product does in a concise and engaging manner, you’ll have made your way through another major hurdle on the path to success.

MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES

Although a great website can often convince someone to buy your product right away, it’s true that even your target user will not necessarily click through and convert to a paying customer. Luckily, you can build your website to clearly direct viewers towards additional marketing campaigns, such as an email newsletter. As such, marketing experts often suggest that companies include numerous lead generation forms throughout their sites.

Do you offer free estimates for your service? Include a form for that. Are you currently offering a free promotion? Make sure potential customers can easily spot the form to sign up for it on the relevant portion of your site.

ESTABLISHING CREDIBILITY

While you may be fully aware of the fact that your past clients have been thrilled with your service, it is safe to assume new customers are unaware of this fact. Fortunately, a great website easily solves this problem for you: All you need is a page which features testimonials.

Your homepage should be the main feature that grabs the attention of a customer and explains to them how you can address a need in their own life. Testimonials from previous clients help to establish your credibility because consumers are more likely to trust their peers than just the brand speaking for itself. This can be a critical ingredient in your recipe to success, getting previously skeptical people to make a purchase.

CREATING A BRAND

There is a universally accepted fact in the business world: Proper branding is key to success. Your company should have a fully-realized identity that customers recognize in the form of visual imagery, language use, and overall attitude.

The right website may be the most powerful tool you have for establishing your brand early, because it allows you to include all of the elements of effective branding. The images you display on the screen, the tone of your content, and the user experience itself will all come together to reflect the values of your company.

Your website is a representation of your unique brand, and as such it is essential to hire experts who work hard to understand what makes your business stand out. They’ll translate what they learn into a website that will set you on the course to success.

Where “WEB vs MOBILE WEB DIVISION” stands now?

The demarcations between app and Web are shifting. Notice we didn’t specify mobile Web: that’s another sign that the paradigm of screen and display types isn’t as clearly structured as it might have seemed, say, last year. What this means is that Web and mobile Web shouldn’t be such different animals. In fact, they shouldn’t be different at all anymore.

A well designed website should be responsive — i.e., it should be visible on, and optimized for, both desktop and mobile screens of all sizes and resolutions. (We practice what we preach here at Fueled: try looking at our site on your laptop and your iPhone or Android.) Responsive design is an especially effective way to deal with the ever-increasing number of devices coming onto the market; it would be unrealistic — impossible, really — to create a version of your site for every phone and browser that might access it.

In the back-end, this is done using HTML/CSS and media queries, which can determine the conditions of certain media features, like width or height. This solution to the Web vs. mobile issue has been around for years, but it’s now essentially a requirement. Take a look at the newest themes and templates available for, for example, WordPress (a platform even the not-quite-programming-literate can use!), and you’ll see that most list “responsive” as a primary feature.

There’s no longer a real divide, then, between “Web” and “mobile Web,” as Say Daily notes in their recent piece on the “golden moment” of digital media (that moment is now, by the way, if you didn’t guess). “There’s only one Web,” as they say, and we should take advantage of its increased availability and flexibility.

Some of those new capabilities that make responsive websites so powerful are breaking down further barriers — namely, those between mobile app and mobile Web. This is due in large part to the rise of HTML5, which can handle interactive, rich-media features. Now, mobile websites, too, can have the kind of interactivity that previously was only available within apps.

ReadWriteWeb proposes that this might be the “death” of the app, or at least the return of the browser: some mobile apps, especially media apps like magazines, are choosing to discontinue their apps and instead build a responsive, HTML5 website that can be viewed with equal design quality — and high interactivity — on all devices.

Of course, for the time being, Fueled certainly feels that apps will always offer benefits that websites can’t — but we’re enthusiastic about the potential of HTML5 and of fully responsive sites. What do you think? Do you prefer interactive features on the Web, or in native apps? Let us know in the comments.

AI in Web Development: Python’s the best

May it be an MNC or a new startup, Python has a lot of benefits to offer everybody. It is the most renowned and efficient high-level programming language which has got largely famous in the past few years. It’s growing fame has enabled it to come out of the web development sphere and dive into some of the most popular and multifaceted processes like Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Machine Learning, etc.

With its steady rise in fame, the demand for Artificial Intelligence is at a boom as it has become an integral part of various industries like Health Care, Education, Banking, Food & Beverage Industry, E-commerce, Agriculture, Marketing, Automation, etc.

Python Is Best Fit For Artificial Intelligence in Web Development

There is no denying the fact that python plays a very significant part in the sky-rocketing of AI in the market. There are numerous reasons to opt Python for Artificial Intelligence in Web Development a few of which are listed below.

1. Simple and Consistent

CONSISTENT Text, Written On Black Simple Circle Rubber Vintage.. Stock Photo, Picture And Royalty Free Image. Image 90321332.

Python is well-known for its brief and easily readable code and is totally unparalleled when it comes to the ease of use, especially for budding developers. While Artificial Intelligence is based on complex algorithms and vivid workflows, Python allows developers to create dependable systems. Due to this simplicity provided by Python, the developers get to focus primarily on solving AI problems rather than wasting their time on tech-nuance of the programming languages.

Also, Python is the first choice of many developers as it is very easy to learn. The code written in Python is easily comprehensible by humans, which makes working with it very swift. Python is also more intuitive than other programming languages and is very beneficial when multiple programmers collaborate on the same code. The simplicity of the Python syntax allows quick development along with very prompt testing (without having a need for implementation). Python uses approximately a fifth if the code that might be needed to do the same task in any other language based on OOPS.  The ease of code and the simplicity involved in it makes easier for a developer to work on it thereby also reducing the time to complete a job.

2. An extensive selection of libraries and frameworks.

Framework7 - Full Featured Framework For Building iOS, Android & Desktop Apps

A major facet that makes Python a leading choice for Artificial Intelligence in Web Development is the richness of its libraries and frameworks that makes coding easier and saves a lot of effort and time. Python has numerous libraries specifically built for Artificial Intelligence like NumPy, Pytorch, TensorFlow, Theano, Keras, Scikit-learn, Pandas and the list is endless.  Therefore, whenever you have to run an algorithm, all you need to do is to install and load one of these libraries (as per your requirement) with a single command and your work is done in a snap. These solutions help you to develop your product faster and better. With these libraries and frameworks, you need not start from scratch every time and can just use one of these and implement the required features.

TensorFlow, Scikit-learn, Keras Machine Learning
SciPy Advanced Computing
NumPy Data Analysis & Scientific Computing
Pandas Data Analysis
Seaborn Data visualization
PyTorch Natural Language Processing
Theano Evaluating Mathematical Expressions

3. Platform Independence

 

The Platform Independence of Python is one of the major reasons for it being on the high tide. Platform Independence implies that a python program can be made or executed on any framework or platform and afterward can without much of a stretch be utilized on the other. Python is compatible with many major platforms like Windows, Linux, macOS, etc. It can very well be utilized to make independent applications on a vast majority of the platforms, which implies that these applications or software can be effectively appropriated and utilized on different frameworks without having a requirement for a Python translator. There exist libraries like PyInstaller to help developers prepare their codes to run on various platforms. Yet again, this makes the process convenient and simple by saving time, money and effort required to run and test a single program on multiple platforms.

4. Abundance of Support

According to a survey conducted by StackOverflow in 2018, Python was one of the top 10 most popular languages. Also, according to ecomnist.com, Python is Googled more than any other programming language.

This ultimately means that with such a large community of Python Enthusiasts all over the world, there is great community support so you are likely to find answers to all your problems over the internet. It boasts a large number of active users who are more than happy to help the ones learning or stuck in the development life cycle.

5. Flexibility

Being a dynamically typed language gives python a great advantage of being immensely flexible. That being said, there are no rigid rules as to how a feature must be built. It also offers flexibility to choose between the OOPS approach or the scripting approach making it suitable for every purpose altogether. Also, it the most appropriate choice for combining various data structures and also supports as a great background language. It also offers immense flexibility when it comes to solving problems, which is a huge add-on for both beginners as well as professionals.

6. Minimal Coding Requirement

There are numerous calculations associated with AI (Artificial Intelligence). The simplicity of testing offered by Python makes it one of the most straightforward programming language among contenders. Python can execute a similar rationale with just 20% of the code in contrast to the other programming languages which are based on OOPS.

7. Popularity

Due to its ease of use and vast versatility, Python has emerged as the most preferred programming language among developers. The ease of learning and the developer-friendliness of the language has attracted developers to opt for it for their projects. Undoubtedly, Artificial Intelligence-based projects do require veteran developers, but the simplicity of python eases the process of learning it for new developers.

8. Superior Visualization

Python gives an assortment of libraries and a couple of them are exceptionally amazing choices for visualization. For the Al engineers, it is imperative to emphasize that in the Al, ML, and deep learning it is crucial to have the option to present to the information in an intelligible configuration that can be easily read by humans. Libraries like Matplotlib lets the data scientists assemble histograms, graphs, and plots for better information perception, representation, and viable demonstration. Besides, the different APIs disentangle the visualization procedure and this makes it simpler to make clear reports.

9. Compatibility

Python web development gives the designer the adaptability to offer an API from the current programming language, which, in reality, is amazingly adaptable for new Python developers. With just a few nominal changes in the source codes, you can make your assignment or application work in various OSs. This spares developers a great deal of time to test distinctive working frameworks and move source codes. Along these lines, in the event that you need your AI task to be the best, you should the best web app development company that has experience with AI-based undertakings with Python.

Summary

Artificial Intelligence is emerging as the need of the hour and has been showing a thoughtful effect on the society we live in. Developers are opting for Python as their language of choice for the numerous benefits that it provides particularly for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.  Python’s specific libraries for AI increases developers’ efficiency and cuts short in the time required for the development. The simplicity of Python promotes fast testing as well as execution thereby making the language accessible for beginners as well as non-programmers. With all this being stated, there is definitely no reason left as to why one might not consider Python as the best fit for Artificial Intelligence in Web Development.

6 Indicators that It’s Time to Switch WordPress Web Hosting

Here are the Attributes of Fully Managed WordPress Hosting You Ought to Know - blog-guru

Hosting is integral to the success of your WordPress website and something you should never be complacent about. A poor hosting provider or a wrongly chosen hosting plan can impact the performance of your site and the customer experience of your visitors. What’s more, they can result in lower search engine rankings and make it more difficult to manage your website. In this post, we’ll look at six signs that indicate it’s time to upgrade to a more powerful package or move to a better web host.

1. Your website keeps going offline

7 Ways Your Website Can Go Offline - VPS.NET Cloud Server Blog | VPS.NET

In a 24/7 marketplace, you need your WordPress website to be constantly online and available for your visitors. If it isn’t and your site goes down, even for short periods, visitors will become frustrated, damaging your reputation. What’s more, when search engines see your site’s availability decline, they’ll downrank it in their search results. Combine these and you’ll end up losing business and long term customers. If this is happening to your website, it’s a clear signal that you can no longer rely on your hosting solution to keep your site online.

To discover if your site is frequently going offline, you should monitor its uptime. As a WordPress user, you’ll find several plugins to do this which you can install directly from your admin panel. Recommended plugins include WP Umbrella and Site Uptime Monitoring, both freely available from the WordPress Repository.

Ideally, you should look for a host whose WordPress hosting packages guarantee a minimum uptime of 99.5%.

2. Your WordPress hosting lacks the features you need

Best WordPress hosting 2021 – Helpful comparison guide – Travelpayouts Blog – Travel affiliate network

WordPress hosting has moved on considerably over the last few years in order to meet the demands of today’s websites and the needs of their owners. If your hosting plan lacks these new features, it might mean you’re having to spend more time and effort than necessary managing your website.

At Anteelo, for example, you’ll find WordPress pre-installed and ready to go, you’ll get a free domain on annual accounts and free SSL certificates for your sites. You’ll even have use of our specially developed WordPress Toolkit that lets you install, secure, update and manage your WordPress sites all from a single, easy to use interface.

What’s more, we provide the advanced security that WordPress sites demand with our application firewall protecting you from hackers and bots and our daily backups ensuring that you can rest easy should you ever need to recover your data. There’s also 1-click website hardening, automatic WordPress patching and more.

3. Your website is slow

9 Ways on How to Improve Your Website's Loading Speed

Visitors and search engines expect websites to load quickly and respond swiftly to interactions, like clicks and data inputs. When they don’t, customers abandon the site and search engines downrank it. Ensuring the site performs well, therefore, is critical to its success.

WordPress does have some speed issues, often caused by the number of plugins working in the background and the size of the images used in a site’s content. While there are well-known actions you can take to speed up a site, such as caching, compression, image optimisation and content delivery networks, these only go so far.

By far the most important factor in driving the speed of a website is the performance of the server on which it is hosted. If you find your site sluggish, even when you have optimised its performance, it’s another sign you need to upgrade to a more powerful solution.

The WordPress hosting at Anteelo is built from the bottom up to provide enhanced WordPress performance. We use the latest Xeon processors and super-fast SSD hard drives in our servers and then configure them to provide optimal performance for WordPress using Apache + NGINX, PHP7.x + OPcache and HTTP/2. We even provide an in-built caching engine, so you don’t need to install a separate caching plugin.

4. Your host suspended your website

How to Fix “Your Account Has Been Suspended” Message on Your Website

There are only a few genuine reasons why a web host would take a site offline or suspend a user account, for example, if the site was infected with malware, if it was being used to carry out illegal activities or if the hosting bill hadn’t been paid.

Some hosts, however, will take a site down and even suspend an account if the host’s usage limits have been exceeded, such as reaching a maximum bandwidth allocation. Meeting a maximum bandwidth allocation is a sign that your website is doing well in terms of the visitors it receives. It’s a time when the company should be reaping the benefits of its success, not getting punished by finding its site offline.

If your hosting has bandwidth restrictions, it’s time to move to a solution where this isn’t an issue. At Anteelo, our WordPress hosting plans have unmetered bandwidth – in other words, there is no data transfer limit, just a simple, fair use policy.

5. You have outgrown your WordPress hosting package

Signs Your WordPress Website Has Outgrown Its Hosting

Over time, you’ll want your online venture to grow. This could mean having a bigger website, multiple websites, dealing with far more visitors or even running other applications on your server besides your websites. When this happens, there may come a time when the hosting plan you currently have lacks the resources (storage, CPU, RAM and bandwidth) or the features (number of websites, email addresses, databases, etc.) that you need.

This is one of the most obvious signs that you need to upgrade. And while there are bigger WordPress hosting packages you can upgrade to; at some point you’ll need to move on from shared hosting to a larger solution, like VPS. The issue for many WordPress owners is that dedicated WordPress VPS hosting is something of a rarity. This is not the case at Anteelo.

At Anteelo, we offer WordPress Starter and WordPress Standard shared hosting plans. However, for those making the move upwards, we also have a WordPress Pro-Server plan hosted on your own VPS. Unlike a standard VPS, this has been optimised for WordPress in the same way as our shared hosting solutions but with the added advantages of 50GB of storage, 4vCPU core processors, 4GB of dedicated RAM and unlimited websites and mailboxes.

6. Poor technical support

7 Examples of Bad Customer Service Experience (And How to Fix Them)

Who do you turn to when something goes wrong with your website or hosting? While there is a monumental amount of WordPress help available online, when the need is urgent you want a WordPress expert that can help you sort out issues quickly so that your site remains online and working as it should.

A key requirement of a good web host is providing technical support to its customers. At Anteelo, we go above and beyond. Our technical support is free with all accounts and our technical experts (not merely customer support) are available 24/7, 365 days a year. What’s more, you can contact them via online chat, phone, email or ticket – and about any problem you have with your site or hosting.

If you find your host lacking in the technical support department, then it’s another sign that you need to move on before you find yourself in a tricky situation with no one to help.

Conclusion

WordPress hosting is specially designed to improve the hosting of WordPress websites. However, not all plans or vendors are the same. Hopefully, the information given here will help you know when it’s time to make the move.

Time feasibility of Setting-Up a Website

How Long Does it Take to Build a Website?

Having a website has emerged as the need of the hour. Every business wants to establish their online presence and there no solution better than having a website for the same. However, one of the most common queries that pops-up in the mid of anybody dreaming of having an impactful online presence by building a top-notch website is ”How long does it take to build a website?”., which is reasonable enough. Each company has its timeline and budget and therefore, an idea of how long would it take to bring their idea into a highly functional website is very crucial.

Be that as it may, the straight answer is that It will take longer than you would anticipate that it should. However, you ought not to surge it. Building a custom site without any preparation requires some serious energy. In case you’re contemplating a substantial undertaking with a real spending plan, you may be taking a gander at a course of events of weeks or months. That is ordinary, yet it is likewise conceivable to get an astounding site off the ground a lot quicker, contingent upon what you need.

There are three primary factors in a website’s development timeline that affect the duration of the project:

  • How soon do you start?

Top-notch designers are typically reserved, so can’t begin your work right away. Therefore, they might take some time to begin working on your project, which might cause a delay.

  • Time is taken for the review

Most web engineers have a reasonable procedure for building a site and can generally depict how long will take to get a site in your grasp.

  • How long does it take to launch?

This last factor is the most significant variable and relies to a great extent upon you, the customer. It includes investigating the site, making change demands, and concluding substance.

Let us assume that you plan to hire someone to build your website for you. Whether it’s an individual or an agency, the advice still applies, although lengths of time can vary depending on the scope of your website. Before knowing how long it takes, you should be thorough with the procedure that goes around while building a website.

1. Know your requirements: No matter what project you are working on, you know that knowing your needs is the first step towards beginning the venture. The same goes for building a website.  You must discuss with your team and jot down the aspirations that you have from your website. Having a clear picture of your needs will enable you to explain what you are expecting from your website clearly and simplify your planning process. This process generally does not takes more than one week.

Communicating Your Requirements: Step 3 to a New Intranet

2. Drafting a plan: Realizing what you plan on doing with your site is a significant initial step since it will direct you on the best way to create it along the way. A well-thought plan will boost up the chances of you building a successful and efficient small business website. However, strategising and planning is easier said than done. A good website work-plan must comprise of finding your target userbase, the primary objective of your website, the functionality of it, its significance to the visitors, along with your web analytics to measure your success. This process generally does not takes more than one week.

Eight Steps to a Great Business Plan - My Own Business Institute - Learn How To Start a Business

3. Finalising the Design: From variable text styles to moderate formats, web design is very crucial, and it additionally requires some serious energy as well as time. Discuss with your web designers what you have in mind and ask them for suggestions. Experiment with your web composition, and test out which patterns work best for your website. Before putting anything on the web, think about all possible devices and screen resolutions. Having a webpage that isn’t streamlined for smartphones and other gadgets can drive away clients, hurt your SEO, and look amateurish. Therefore, you mustn’t rush through this process and give it a decent time of around 3-4 weeks.

Mobile App Development: Finalising the Minimalistic UI Design | Vinova

4. Development Phase: This stage is the place where the foundation of your website is laid. Your engineer will take the data you’ve given them, and transform it into a completely working site that (ideally) resembles the prototypes that you have affirmed. This part may take some time, somewhat in light of the fact that there are consistently some inevitable errors in each undertaking. You might want to have some modifications a part of the website once you see it in real life, or in case of any other inevitable errors. In any case, it will take at approximately a month or two to build up an independent website for business ultimately. It’s imperative to keep in contact with your designers during this stage. Great engineers will keep you on top of it and let you know how things are advancing; however, you too, ought to be proactive about reaching them.

Demystifying Machine Learning for Global Development

5. Final Review: Before you can say that your site is completed and ready to launch, it needs to experience rounds of reviews and testing. You would need to analyse how all aspects of the website look, work, and feel and decide whether or not does it meets the plan you and your developer followed out together at the underlying degree of the development procedure. There are consistently revisions that should be made, especially in the event that you are focusing on a fault-less and highly-functional site. In a perfect world, you’ll rectify all the major issues during modifications for the prior steps during the review and testing. Now, there should only be minor fixes left to be made; however, your mileage may shift. Regardless, if nothing significant is broken, anticipate that this procedure should take somewhere in the range of about 1-14 days.

2021 CPA Exam Final Review Strategy [Don't Miss Out on Exclusive Tips!]

 

CONCLUSIONHow to Write a Conclusion: 9 Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow

Indeed, even sites that look minimal from the start can take a lot of effort to fabricate. Most websites nowadays offer a lot of cutting edge usefulness and that implies additional time must be spent on creating them. Likewise you can also have a brief idea about how long does it your website take to design out and structure. So since you have prior info of what variables go into the planning of a website, you might be asking yourself what you can do to guarantee your undertaking moves as fast as possible. Undoubtedly, time is one of the concealed expenses to value your site. With regards to completing your site rapidly, the most significant thing to concentrate on first is your sitemap. The sitemap is the engineering of the considerable number of pages of the site and how they relate together. Getting completely clear on the sitemap, characterizing the number of pages, which of them will be particularly planned and how they will all identify with one another will go far in adequately describing the extent of your site venture and guaranteeing that it is conveyed quickly.

Here’s why to Design Responsive Web Apps using Angular JS

Getting started with Angular 5. Hi, are you a beginner in Web… | by Onejohi | Medium

The decision of which tools or tech stack you should use to get optimum value of your investment is nothing but a conundrum. From a business point of view, you couldn’t risk going wrong here since these risks can cash-on in any minute. So, what tools are capable of giving you the most bang for your buck?  – Well, off the top of my head – Angular framework.

Here comes the most expected question – But why?

The fact that there are various reasons for using Angular framework is why it is deemed one of the most recommended for businesses and enterprises.

For one, the current update Angular version 9 fixes all the bugs that created problems in Angular 8. The framework is not just better than most of the frameworks out there, but is a constant improvement on its previous versions as well.

For instance, Angular 9 comes with Ivy as standard renderer. Meaning, developers can ship less code as fewer instructions are required now. This ripples down to other advantages which previous versions were lacking.

So, let’s move on to the reasons validating why one should build Angular applications.

Benefits of using Angular for business

1.  Functionality

Functionality vs Aesthetics in Web Design : Krome: Web Design Singapore | Web Design Company

When it comes to facilitating the development process, Angular is the one framework developers look up to. It won’t be overstating to say it offers out-of-the-box functionality. Not only it provides tools for routing (in order for you to fetch the data you plan to add into your app), but it’s preconfigured environment also takes care of development and testing.

With Angular, you don’t have to incorporate third-party libraries in your tech-stack for creating basic functionality for your digital product. It all can be done via its official library provided by the team of Angular, assuring you of its security and impeccable quality of code. All this reduces the app development cost and time, an advantage of Angular that businesses investing in mobile app development always look forward to.

2.  Clear code with TypeScript 

TypeScript tutorial with Visual Studio Code

One of the Angular framework advantages is that it is built with Typescript. But what does this signify for a business?

Well, this means since Typescript is a strongly-typed and the base language for Angular, it allows developers to keep the code clean and neat. And the cleaner the code, the better your app will perform.

This ripples down to making bug-fixing easier. The developers can spot and then eradicate these errors as they are being typed. It’s basically like Grammarly for your code, cool right? Moreover, it also helps in managing and maintaining large codebase (beneficial for enterprise-scale projects).

Moreover, Angular 8 uses Typescript version 3.4 offering type inferring, reduced build time, and syntax changes and has exceptional navigation, autocompletion, and refactoring services.

3. Consistency with reusability

Making Requirements Reusable

Let me put it out there straight – inconsistent coding not only increases the risk of delayed time-to-market but also escalates development cost while reducing the efficiency of the digital product. And that is not something you, as an entrepreneur, would want.

This is where developing mobile & web apps with Angular would play to your benefit. Angular offers consistent code, which has its own benefits such as it makes using websites easier while allowing the use of templates or even predefined snippets of code.

Notably, upon comparing Angular vs React, I found that Angular is more of a fully-responsive web design framework. To enhance consistency,  the team has developed and optimized Angular CLI tools used for making specific repeatable blocks of code from the command line.

4. Productivity

Why Is Technology Important for Productivity? | Paldesk

Since the code is consistent, its positives also produce increased productivity. developers no longer have to invest their time in figuring out what utility, function, or a component does because it’s all taken care of by Angular.

Also, the readability of the code makes it all the more easy for developers to slot into an ongoing app project.

Moreover, Angular organizes codes into buckets (modules). These modules make app functionality organization facile by dividing it into features and reusable chunks while allowing for lazy loading that enables feature loading in the background or on-demand.

This JavaScript framework for building web apps makes it an achievable goal to dissect and segregate the labor across different team members while ensuring organized code, which improves productivity with appropriate modules built.

5.  Maintainability

Why it's important to develop maintainable softwares

Speaking of the benefits of Angular, it addresses the concern of maintainability in two ways – by using Typescript and focusing on testability.

Almost all established mobile app development companies use Typescript that allows developers to find bugs as they type the code. Moreover, TypeScript also enables developers who are unfamiliar with the codebase to quickly get acquainted with it since they can see the types of data moving through the application.

As for the testability front, dependency injection is a crucial aspect of Angular which contributes to making test writing easier. In fact, the framework also includes support Protractor for end-to-end testing.

Additionally, when upgrading current Angular to its latest version, all packages related to it are also updated at the same time. This signifies that HTTP, Routing, and Angular Material are also included. And updating can also be done by one single command “ng update” and it would do the trick without wasting any time.

6.  Angular material

GitHub - angular-material-extensions/pages: Open source library for angular apps to illustrate custom material pages content with steps (ideal for tutorials and explanations purposes)

One of the Angular framework advantages is Angular material. In brief, Angular Material is a set of UI modules and components that are well-tested and hence ready-to-use. It follows Material Design principles by Google and possesses a wide range of UI components like navigation patterns, buttons, indicators, and form controls. The components here are modified to match better with browsers.

What these modules do is make the design workflow easy, which as a result, enables developers to add new elements and create digital products in an expedited manner while hindering the app performance to a minimum.

{Also give our article a read on “Flat Design or Material Design- Which One to Prefer?”}

7.  Declarative UI

Flutter - a modern declarative UI toolkit

HTML is used here to define the UI of the mobile app. It is believed that HTML is one of the less convoluted, declarative, and intuitive programming languages as compared to JavaScript.

Now, if you are wondering how this helps you as a business, then let me tell you that due to this functionality, developers won’t have to invest unnecessary time in program flows and deciding what should load first. All you have to do is define what you require and Angular can do it.

8.  Simplified MVC architecture

MVC in an Angular World ― Scotch.io

On top of other benefits of Angular, this one really is a gem. This framework is fundamentally embedded with the original Model-View-Controller software architecture setup, though it might not be as per established standards.

Moreover, the Angular framework doesn’t ask developers to dissect the app into separate MVC components and create a code that could combine them. Instead of this, it only needs developers to divide the app and that’s it. In short, it facilitates less coding enabling apps to perform faster.

9.  Easier Unit-testing

c# Archives - ROXL

Because the components are independent of each other, it makes the unit testing process easier. As for the benefits of Angular, one of them that is highly appreciated is that it supports the development of highly testable websites and applications.

In fact, it is generally believed that this framework was fundamentally designed keeping the ease of testing in mind, something which renders impeccable digital products which is what any business expects from the development.

Type of applications and websites built with Angular

1. Netflix

Netflix 'Shuffle Play' Feature Randomly Streams Selected Titles - Variety

Probably the most hyped and popular streaming entertainment application Netflix is a classic use case of Angular. More specifically, the team at netflix used AngularJS as the frontend tool and while the backend needs were satisfied by Python and Flask.

It is also apparent after what we have read above that the cost of developing an app like Netflix can be minimized with the benefits and attributes that Angular offers.

2. Upwork

Upwork - Wikipedia

A rather insanely popular platform for freelancers Upwork also incorporated the Angular framework for its website and mobile application to render the application impeccable performance.

3. Youtube TV

Roku YouTube TV app pulled amid dispute - 9to5Google

Youtube TV is Google’s alternative service to Hulu + Live TV. This platform was developed with the help of Angular 2 which launched in the market in 2017.

4. Gmail

Gmail has a new logo that's a lot more Google - The Verge

Gmail, the mailing service in the form of both mobile apps and websites also employs the goodness of Angular framework. In fact, other products by Google are also developed using Angular, which serves as a reason why many enterprises and mobile app development companies alike trust it with their digital products.

To conclude – Although, contenders like React might have more searches online, the majority of developers show more interest in Angular because of the availability of ready-made solutions. As for the business front, Angular definitely outshines React on the grounds of development speed and productivity – an attribute that is a ‘deal-sealer’ for enterprises, isn’t it?

10 eCommerce Website Security Tips

How Much an eCommerce Website Costs in 2021 | eDesk

While all websites need to protect themselves from hacking and infection, eCommerce website that carry out online transactions and collect customers’ financial and personal details need to take extra special care. In this post, we’ll show you some essential tips to keep your online store safe.

1. Use a secure eCommerce platform

15 top tips for shopping safely online

All website platforms have their strengths and weaknesses but some are more secure than others or have security plugins that can make them more robust. Magento is a CMS specially designed for eCommerce website and with security features built around the needs of online stores. WordPress, the world’s leading CMS, has numerous plugins you can use to keep the site secure, including the well-established and respected Wordfence and Sucuri.

These defences can protect your site against a range of threats including malware infection, SQL injections, Denial of Service attacks, cross-site scripting and zero-day exploits.

2. Make sure you scan for malware

How to Remove Malware From Your PC | PCMag

Most web hosts offer a malware scanning service that detects and prevents the various types of malware infecting your files. Using such services can prevent these stealthy programs carrying out their malicious activities, such as ransoming your site, stealing your data, infecting your users’ computers and so forth. Ideally, choose a service that will notify you immediately if an infection has been found.

3. Install SSL certificates

How to Install SSL Certificate on Your WordPress Site

SSL is essential to online stores, as most payment gateways won’t allow you to undertake financial transactions on your site without it. Essentially, installing an SSL certificate enables the encryption of financial data as it is sent from the customer’s browser to your server, thus preventing it being stolen during the checkout process.

With an SSL certificate installed, your web address changes from ‘HTTP’ to ‘HTTPS’ (S standing for Secure) and this enables search engines to put a green padlock icon in your visitors’ browser, increasing the likelihood that they will trust and buy from you. It also increases your chances of ranking higher.

4. Better management of customer data

Marketing through Big Data Analytics! | People Counter | Footfall Counter | Retail Analytics

Customer data is valuable to hackers as they use it to steal from people or sell it on the dark web to other criminals. If you collect customer data, this means you are a target for hackers. That said, a criminal can’t take information if you haven’t got it. The first rule of managing customer data, therefore, is to only collect the information you actually need. If that information can be taken anonymously, so it cannot be linked to individual users, even better. Encrypting data, such as with the SSL certificates mentioned above, also makes it more secure. Finally, consider where you store your personal data. If it is stored along with your website files it is more vulnerable than being stored remotely, perhaps in the same place where you would keep your remote backups.

5. Enforce strong passwords or use 2-step authentication

Why you need both Two-factor Authentication & strong passwords on WordPress sites - Security Boulevard

While strong passwords can be a pain to use and two step-authentication makes signing in take longer to do, both of them massively reduce the chances that you, your employees or your customers will fall foul of a brute-force attack.

As modern computers and phones securely store strong passwords for you, so that people don’t even have to know what they are, there is really no excuse for not using these measures.

6. Train your employees in security

Cyber Security Training for Employees | Travelers Insurance

Unwittingly, employees are a major cause of cybersecurity breaches. Using weak passwords, clicking on links in infected emails and sending valuable information to fake emails that pretend to come from their bosses are all common ways for eCommerce website to get caught out.

One simple solution is to train your employees so they know what the threats are and how to stop them. You can also put essential good practice into your IT policy to ensure that your staff know they are obliged to follow the rules you set.

7. Use authentic plugins and themes

Why You Need To Discontinue Using Nulled WordPress Plugins On Your Site - weDevs

There are tens of thousands of themes and plugins available for the various CMS platforms and these can be obtained from a variety of online sources. Not all of them, however, are guaranteed to be secure. It wouldn’t take very long for a criminal organisation to develop a theme or plugin with a built-in virus or spyware and make it available on a third-party website as a legitimate piece of software. Indeed, such a theme or plugin could function perfectly without you knowing it was infected.

To protect yourself, always use software from reputable sources and from a verified developer. The safest place is from the website of the actual CMS, such as installing a theme directly from the WordPress Repository. That’s not to say that there aren’t any reputable third-party developers, there are. You just need to be careful.

8. Monitor website activity for threats

Five Tools for User Activity Monitoring | Logz.io

Website monitoring can spot risks and help you to stop attacks. It can, for example, tell you if someone is making too many failed login attempts, a clear sign that there may be a brute force attack taking place. It can indicate if people are trying to log in from countries that you wouldn’t expect your visitors to come from or if they are using usernames which they shouldn’t be using, such as ‘Admin’. Monitoring can also discover the initial signs of a DDoS attack and put a stop to it before it takes your site offline.

9. Ensure software is updated as soon as possible

Cybercriminals intentionally search the internet looking for eCommerce website that run vulnerable software. Luckily, most developers will issue an update or a patch to fix a vulnerability as soon as it is discovered. Any website that uses automatic updates or which manually updates as soon as a patch is released is immediately protected once the new version is installed. It is those websites that delay updating that leave themselves wide open to attack. In essence, its no different to leaving a shop unlocked overnight when you know there’s a burglar working in the area.

10. Use remote backups

Remote Backup Solutions for Small Business in UK ?

60% of companies that experience a cyberattack go bust within 6 months. For many, the reason for going under is that it takes too long to recover. Losing their website files, content, customer data and sales orders means it would take months of work to get back online, by which point, the company is no longer viable.

Quite simply, by taking regular, up-to-date backups and storing them remotely, such disasters don’t need to happen. If your site goes down, whether from a cyberattack or any other reason, a backup means it can be restored very quickly and your business can be back online in no time.

Conclusion

As an eCommerce website , it is crucial that you keep your website as secure as a traditional retailer would their bricks and mortar store. Hopefully, the ten tips we have raised here will provide comprehensive guidance on how to prevent your online store suffering from a cyberattack and, should the worst happen, show you how to recover quickly enough to keep your business from going under.

Web Accessibility

Web Accessibility refers to websites, browsers, and web technologies that are designed and developed with a focus on inclusivity. The web was originally conceived for conventionally abled individuals, whereas Web Accessibility ensures that navigating and interacting with the web is not only viable for all, but comfortable for those who may be differently-abled.

As the World Health Organization (WHO) notes, however, “disabilities is an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions, ” whereas the goal of web accessibility is primarily concerned with auditory and visual impairments.

While there are many ways to implement web accessibility solutions, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the global standards organization for today’s web.  W3C has published the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) that sets the industry standard, acting as a guide to modern web accessibility.

WHY IS WEB ACCESSIBILITY IMPORTANT? 

Bigger Addressable Market

The internet is the world’s primary source of information; it is of the utmost importance that everybody is able to access it. There are over 4.5 billion users on the web, while, according to WHO, about 15% of the world’s population live with some sort of disability. These numbers imply a plethora of users who may struggle with various aspects of internet use. Disabilities can be permanent (such as certain birth defects,) temporary (for example, a broken finger,) or situational (not hearing your phone ring in a crowded concert). Ignoring web accessibility could mean cutting access to many potential users and paying customers. If we pay attention to inclusive design and development for the web, we can bridge an important gap, making sure all potential users have access.

Legal Liability

Beyond being the right thing to do and increasing your addressable market, there’s a legal reason to have an accessible website. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law in 1990. While ADA did not specifically mention the internet, numerous legal interpretations and court rulings indicate at least some ADA requirements apply to the virtual world.

Title III of the ADA, for example, requires that public accommodation be provided to disabled persons in a manner that allows for the “full and equal enjoyment” of the privileges, goods, services, advantages and accommodations as those provided to able-bodied persons. Businesses are responsible for making sure those accommodations are made with “reasonable modification.” Any business not providing for that accommodation may committing a form of unlawful discrimination, as stated in 42 U.S.C. section 12182(b)(2)(A)(iii).

A recent example of a business being sued over an inaccessible website is Robles v. Domino’s Pizza, Inc.. The US 9th Circuit court reaffirmed a ruling that Domino’s could be held liable for violating the ADA by not having an accessible website.

THE CURB-CUT EFFECT

Accessibility-oriented enhancements frequently turn out to be useful for all users, whether or not the users are conventionally abled. The curb-cut effect describes this phenomenon. The phrase was popularized when designers noticed pedestrians using a sidewalk feature originally created for wheelchair bound pedestrians. In this instance, conventionally abled pedestrians opted to use sidewalk ramps (i.e. curb-cuts) when they had bikes, strollers, heavy grocery carts, or were otherwise encumbered.

In “The Best iOS Accessibility Features Everyone Should Use,” power-user Lifehacker blogs about multiple features Apple specifically developed in order to enhance iPhone usability for disabled individuals. Lifehacker shows how these features are helpful to all users, regardless of ability, outlining several digital examples of the curb-cut effect.

SEO Benefits

Improving your ranking in Google is yet another reason to focus on web accessibility. While Google’s ranking algorithm is often perceived as unknowable and complex, the primary factors that control search results are in fact simple: authority and relevance. Authority is mostly determined by how many popular, relevant sites link to the site in question. Relevance refers to queues Google uses to determine if site content would be meaningful as a search result for a given query. In judging relevance, Google needs to know what a site is about. While Google’s web crawlers can read a site’s text with relative accuracy, they can’t yet reliably understand the content of images. Accessibility features designed to help the visibly impaired are simultaneously very useful to Google’s crawlers, helping them better understand a page, which ensures the best possible ranking.

WHERE DO I BEGIN?

Web accessibility shouldn’t just be a priority for developers, but for designers, QA, backend engineers, and product managers as well. Since websites usually start with a wireframe design, it is most effective to lay the groundwork for an inclusive website at this initial design stage. This way, it is easier to catch early biases and immediately set up your website for inclusivity and success.

Microsoft offers a handy inclusiveness design portal with a variety of resources for those looking to expand their knowledge on accessible design.  This Cards for Humanity tool is a great way to start thinking about various types of limitations you might want your site to account for.

STEPS FOR DEVELOPERS

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, which set the industry standard for web accessibility, hold four main principles. These principles are referred to as POUR: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust.

  • Perceivable: How users process information on a website
    • e.g. Can those who are visually impaired perceive the content of an image?
  • Operable: How users navigate the website and its functionality
    • e.g. Can a user who struggles with a mouse pause a video with their keyboard?
  • Understandable: How simple it is for a user to operate the website and intuit the flow
    • e.g. Will a form easily indicate if the user missed filling out a field?
  • Robust: Can the user experience the website through a variety of mediums, including assistive technologies, without having to compromise?
    • e.g. Can a user with a screen reading Chrome add-on access the same content a conventional visitor can?

Other guidelines to take into account as a developer include keyboard controls, color contrast, semantic HTML for correctly intentional element tags, and ARIA labels for describing an element with no text.

Final Thoughts

Since the web is integral for accessing information, as well as heavily relied on for connection and community, Web Accessibility should take priority with each iteration of web development. Accessibility should be constantly reworked and improved to provide access to everyone who needs it. We believe that accessibility will soon be considered a must-have for every minimum viable product (MVP,) rather than seen as an optional upgrade.

Creating an accessible web is the right thing to do, and improves the cyberspace experience for all users.

DESIGN THAT DREAM DASHBOARD

Our world is driven by big-data and in this world, dashboards are of utmost significance for providing users with information in just one glance.

Like the dashboard in a car, businesses also employ and utilize dashboards to summarize large chunks of real-time data in a limited space. The information is broken down in a way such that it doesn’t become visually pressurising. This representation of information allows you to measure your data and pick out the areas with scope for improvement. If done right, dashboard designs can bring about a visible difference in the business’ performance. 

Although designing is fun, but, designing a dashboard is not a piece of cake. Rather, it is a quite challenging task. Despite having those inner-creative desires, it is best not to unleash all of your creative streak whilst designing a dashboard. It’s better to keep it in control before it goes out of hands.

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

Dashboard is assumed to be allabout data, but that’s not true. It is about information and enabling the users to make smart business decisions. The sole aim of designers is to create a dashboard that makes the users feel powerful. That is how hearts and minds are won.

And in order to do so, you have to know your users. Take a seat, find out what information do they need, what is their field of interest and what is their objective. Once you research and gather all of the required information, you can move forward to begin your work on the dashboard.

Furthermore, you should design dashboards keeping in mind only ONE user. Your dashboard should be providing information according to that single user. In case of multiple users, different dashboards should be designed for the users.

HIERARCHY

While designing a dashboard, it is best to have informational hierarchy, i.e., organising information in a way such that it makes sense to the users. Remember, information placement is not about filling up empty spaces or about aesthetic reasons. Key information should be placed such that it shines different and is easily caught by the users. 

The most significant piece of information related to the user’s primary goal should always appear first. Followed by that should be supportive material which creates context for the forthcoming main content. For the users to make right decisions, it is important that you showcase the relationships between data. This instills a lot more sense into the data than when it was placed randomly. For example, if it is a dashboard for fashion, then you should see the graphs for the hot trends along with the outgoing fashion sales.

LOGICAL DATA GROUPING

This is one obvious point. You should group the required pieces of data in a way that it is clear to the users, that it makes sense. For instance, if you’re designing a dashboard for a cosmetic brand, don’t place the allergy complaints next to the sales data. It just ruins things even further. 

It is best not to follow the usual best designing approach when it comes to dashboard designing. Generally in a website, we place the brand logo on the top-left and navigation options right below that or on the top-right. But as a fact, we humans read from left to right, top to bottom. So it is best advised to place the most crucial piece of information on the top-left corner. Decide wisely.

BE MINIMALIST

Using extra information to please your user will only turn out to be a headache for the user followed by a headache for you. It is always better to keep it minimal, crisp and to the point.

Whilst you’re planning on how to present the information to your user, ask yourself this- what will the user get out of this piece of information? It really works.

Now that you know the placing, try not to clutter too much content on the dashboard. It will only make a mess, which will be for you to clean up. Use minimal text. You would definitely want to avoid unnecessary images and graphics, especially to prevent visual noise. Even if it makes you wonder, simpler, user-friendly design can carry high functionality. And that is, only if the right approach is followed.

DATA VISUALIZATION, THE RIGHT WAY

Data visualization is not merely for the eyes, rather it is a significant part of the dashboard design. Raw data can be hard to process and can have a monotonous tone. The purpose of visualization is to refine the raw data and present the relevant information in a short span of time and at the same, allows users to gain more information, if they wish to do so. Pie-charts, graphs, plots assist users to interpret and better understand the data. However, don’t go overboard with it, you might end up terrorizing your users.

BE WISE, COLOUR-WISE

Colours are great, they make everything better. Likewise, they make data interpretation and analysis much easier for the users. You must choose your alert and button colours wisely, so that your users get notified of tasks, activities, events and features in your interface. Best way is to create a style guide on which you can base your data state.

Dashboards are there for informing righteously, not for experimenting with a colour palette. 

WHEN TO REFRESH YOUR DATA

Data refreshing is important, as it helps in prioritising and placing the elements. For instance, if a data is refreshed often, it implies that the data holds a crucial role. Hence, it is best to place that information in the beginning, at a place where the user can catch it at the earliest possible.

Simultaneously, it is important that you notify your users when the data is/was refreshed. And whether they need to refresh the data manually.

Planning data presentation, especially deciding what to exclude, is truly a SCIENCE. Data alone lacks context and meaning, that is where the designers come in. They take the responsibility of making the data understandable and representable. Dashboards are so crucial for a business, they can make or break your product/application. 

Thus, along with being creative towards the work you love, make the right choices as well.    

 

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