Category: Product Engineering

You‘re done with the various stages of development of your app and now are getting ready for deployment and a flashy launch. While you are overburdened with numerous issues that crop up in the testing and deployment phase, you must give due diligence to the pre-launch. 

From building dedicated websites for your application to search optimization to email campaigns, the pre-launch phase is all about presenting your fruits of labor to the right audience in the way it’s intended. 

Here are the 8 pre-launch commandments that you should staunchly follow.

1. Design a Dedicated Website

Your user should be able to access and/or interact with a website if they need more information about your application. A dedicated website/ landing page provides information and an overview of what you offer. It also acts as a gateway to your App Store page. The page should be neatly designed and highlight the main features and the value that the app provides. 

You should also have a signup form on this website, cleverly placed, always visible but shouldn’t distract the user. This is crucial because all the social media efforts and other marketing campaigns will be directing the traffic to this website. 

Here’s a website checklist to ensure you don’t miss any imperative information:  

• App logo and tagline
• A brief overview of the app
• Social Media buttons
• A Launch Notification Sign Up
• Details highlighting main features and USP of your app
• HQ screenshots and Videos of the App
• Reviews section highlighting reviews by media and influencers(Hidden until post-launch if not applicable)
• About us page along with contact us form.

If you don’t have time to develop a dedicated website, then don’t. Hastily designing a website and getting it ready for launch in a time crunch can have a bad impact on your overall promotion. It is highly advised that you partner with a website design and development agency to build this. Talk to us here.

Post-launch changes

Here are some website changes you may have to make after the launch:

• Make Reviews section visible if it wasn’t earlier
• Links redirecting to all the app stores where the app is available
• Launch notification sign up changed to a newsletter subscription for important updates

2. Publicize through different channels

Reach out to your industry-specific media outlets and influencers to get your app reviewed or feature a press release. Posts, releases, and reviews from authoritative figures can help generate an initial user base. Don’t forget to use the omnipresent social media channels to create some buzz around your app.  

3. Create a Press Kit 

Your Press Kit will have detailed information about the app which is essential for proper press coverage. This will make the promotions easier for media, bloggers, and influencers. 

Just like a dedicated website here’s your Press Kit checklist of must-haves:

• App logo and icons
• App description
• App Screenshots and video
• Links to your website and social media
• Your contact information

4. Open your app to Beta Testing

Most of the successful applications opt for beta testing when they introduce new features. While it is not mandatory, we would highly recommend it. In the Beta testing environment, the user cohort gets exclusive access to the app before it goes completely public. The user cohort is required to report bugs, inconsistencies in the UX, logic gaps, or any general feedback about the app. 

There are plenty of tools like TestFlight to host a beta test. You can choose the one that fits your needs and the scope of your app. There is one major advantage of opening your app to Beta Testing. The testing group reviews your app for the first time, and therefore, can point out issues that you may have missed in the first release. This can help you identify potential problem areas that you can address. 

5. Email Campaign

A well-written and beautifully designed email campaign can have a big impact on your launch. You can include early-bird discounts and bonuses in your emails which can, in turn, boost your downloads. 

Here are best practices for creating an impactful email campaign

• Personalize subject and greeting 
• Create a value proposition
• Place a strong CTA in the launch email
• Showcase your app through high-quality images or video

6. App Store Optimization (ASO)

The visibility of your app is crucial to its success and it can be ensured via App Store optimization. Optimization helps your app to be recommended to people who are not exactly searching for your app. To accomplish this, you’ll have to do your research about your competition and target market. This will help you identify the keywords people are searching for and which designs yield better results in terms of traffic. 

App Store Optimization includes: 

• App name with keywords
• Descriptions that attract users
• Focus Keywords for rankings
• Eye-catching app icon
• Screenshots of the five most important, unique, or interesting features of your app, with accompanying descriptive text
• Video of the app in use to show UI and UX (optional but highly recommended)

7. Integrate Analytics

We recommend that you integrate analytics in the pre-launch phase. Likely, this integration would not be an easy feat after the launch. 

8. Choosing the Launch Date

It might not seem that important at first but the difference between a well-timed launch and a badly-timed one is of day and night. You’d want to avoid times when big sharks like Apple, Google, and Facebook are making their announcements or launching their apps. Apart from that, you will also need to factor in the time for approval from the App Store. Your launch date and campaigns won’t make sense if it isn’t approved by the App Store. 

Lastly, we would like to close this informative piece with a stat that might help you with your launch date, a 2015 Sensor tower research concluded that weekends are the best time to launch an app. 

We know that in the pursuit of designing and developing the perfect app, the launch efforts might take a backseat, but with these prerequisites and some help from experts you can get the best possible jump-start for your app. Feel free to talk to us if you have any queries related design, development, and deployment of an app.

About Galaxy

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

2021 also turned out to be a year of virtual events and product releases. Apple has been dominating the scene lately after the virtual launch of the iPhone 12. The ‘Spring Loaded’ event on April 20th had some exciting and colorful announcements for Apple aficionados. 

AirTag was announced in Apple’s tight-knit ecosystem to keep track of things utilizing Apple’s large network of devices. AirTag will enable users to locate lost or stolen items through the Find My app on their iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.

In contrast to their rival Tiles; AirTag is circular. Tiles and AirTag offer similar features. However, AirTag is backed up by a colossal existing network of millions of Apple devices. It also comes equipped with ultra-wideband tech, the same as iPhone 12 and other recent devices. 

Read on to find out all there’s to know about these exciting little circular trackers.

Apple AirTag Pricing

• $29/£29 for one AirTag
• $99/£99 for four AirTags

The Apple AirTag will cost $29 in the US or $99 for four in the US. It’s Apple so there are add-ons to buy along with AirTag like Hermes key ring, bag charm, and luggage tag. 

AirTag Specifications

• 31.9 mm (1.26 in) Thickness : 8 mm (0.31 in)
• 11 g (0.39 oz)
• IP67 protection
• User-removable CR2032 battery(Claimed to last about a year)
• Personalization available

With personalization, you can customize your AirTag with an emoji or a name. 

AirTag Features

• Find My app tracking
• Precision Finding
• Ask Siri to find
• Seamless setup
• Built-in speaker
• IP67 Water and Dust resistance(up to 1-meter for 30 minutes)

You can easily attach AirTag to your everyday items to keep track of it. Its integration with iOS allows you to find things via the ‘Find My’ app instantly and with ease. 

How does it work?

The “U” in U1 stands for “ultra-wideband” (UWB). It’s a low-energy, short-range radio technology used for wireless data transmission. It’s more precise than Bluetooth. The distance measured between two UWB devices is more reliable as it is measured by calculating the time it takes for radio waves to pass to and fro between said devices, hence providing pinpoint precision to find things attached to the device. 

For the older devices that don’t have a U1 chip, AirTag also supports Bluetooth.

Finding with ‘Find My’

The easiest and the most Apple way to find your device would be by asking Siri when you misplace it. You can also use the ‘Find My’ app to ping the tag and quickly find something like keys via sound inside your home. 

What about when things get lost outside your home?

You can use your phone to see AirTag’s last seen location in the ‘Find My’ app. This is for more favorable scenarios like forgetting something at your friend’s place or office. AirTag is a game-changer when you misplace something or when something gets stolen. In that case, you can put the AirTag in the Lost mode and the device will utilize the wider network of other Apple devices to find your device.

This is a passive process that happens in the background; securely and privately. And when the device is found the owner gets an alert regarding the whereabouts. Everything is encrypted and happens passively, so people won’t be able to detect and steal others’ AirTags, not even Apple can’t see what’s happening.

What if someone finds my AirTag?

When someone finds your lost item with an AirTag, they can tap it via NFC and the Tag will show the owner’s contact info. They don’t necessarily have to possess an Apple device to interact with it and report it. It can be any NFC device.

What If someone involuntarily slips an AirTag to track me?

Apple has also thought of the downsides of this as well. It was one of our concerns too, what if someone misuses AirTag to track someone without their consent? Fortunately, Apple has designed AirTag with that possibility in mind. Your app will alert you in case an unknown AirTag is detected with you. You can disable them for your safety. 

We are always excited to see what Apple is going to do next. AirTag is a convenient piece of technology but the extent of its application is yet to be explored. We are also looking forward to developing iOS applications that utilize this advanced tech. Introductions such as AirTags present refreshing and creative opportunities for us to explore.   

Feel free to get in touch with us for any iOS development-related queries. We will be happy to partner with you.

Every business owner wants to increase traffic on their ecommerce website. Because more traffic translates to greater conversions. However, getting more traffic is not as easy as just saying that you need more traffic. 

It’s crucial for growth and survival when you’re starting and it’s essential to sustain when you’re mainstream. In this blog, we’ll discover 5 high-impact ways to drive consistent traffic to your business.

1. Paid Social Media Ad Campaigns

The world is on Social media and there is no better way to reach your potential customers than social media platforms. On average people spend 5 hours/day on social media of their preference. With the help of paid social media ads, you can deliver highly targeted ads to the customers who are most likely to convert. 

• Facebook ads

Tactic type: Short-term

Effort: Low

Impact: High

FB’s robust advertising platform lets you target users based on their interests, behavior, location, and more. 

• Instagram ads

Tactic type: Short-term

Effort: Low

Impact: High

Instagram has more than one billion active users worldwide, with 90% of accounts following a business according to Instagram.

• Pinterest ads

Tactic type: Short-term

Effort: Low

Impact: High

According to Pinterest, 72% of active users say they use it to find new brands and services, and, in another study, 90% of respondents said Pinterest gives them ideas about which products to purchase.

• Google Ads

Tactic type: Short-term

Effort: High

Impact: Very High

Google is different from others as it lets you advertise your products and services directly to people actively searching for them. 

2. Engage and be a part of a community

Engagement as a strategy is way more complex than it might look at first; like commenting on posts. To get people to visit your website you need to have an impact on them via a thoughtful dialogue, share and talk about things that drive emotion, and get people pumped. 

• Get friends and family to share

Tactic type: Short-term

Effort: Medium

Impact: Moderate

It might not look as impactful at first but it’s essential to drive that initial momentum, traffic, awareness, and sales.

• Drive excitement with contests and giveaways

Tactic type: Short-term

Effort: High

Impact: Very High

Everybody likes freebies. Contests and giveaways are a great way to get more followers on Instagram, increase social media engagement, and drive traffic to your website. 

3. Influencer marketing is well… Influential

Influencer marketing is building relationships with influencers with a huge following and getting them to talk and promote your product or service. You need to ensure that if the influencer’s content and reach are relevant to your industry, otherwise it’s futile.  

• Send free samples to Instagram influencers

Tactic type: Short-term

Effort: High

Impact: Very High

4. Content Marketing is a necessity

Content Marketing is one of the most organic and very reliable ways to get loyal visitors to your website. It typically includes the creation of interesting, informative, and engaging content. Blogs, podcasts, videos, guides, and ebooks are some of the popular mediums to engage your target customers with. 

Content marketing is also considered a best practice as far as search engine rankings are concerned. You can use free tools like Google Keyword Planner and Keyword.io to identify relevant content that matches customer’s intent and be visible in front of a larger audience in the process. 

• Write blogs to provide information or solve problems

Tactic type: Long-term

Effort: High

Impact: Very High

According to WordPress, the world’s largest blogging platform, each month 409 million people view more than 20 billion blog pages. If blogging is a part of your strategy, then you’d need WordPress experts to get the most of your potential traffic. We can help.

5. SEO will help amplify your visibility

If your customers can’t find your store online then all the efforts will go in vain. When people search for your products your store should be amongst the top results to appear. A solid SEO strategy and consistent efforts to apply that strategy will ensure that you appear in those top searches. 

SEO or Search Engine Optimization tweaks your website to increase its chances of ranking highly in search results for relevant keywords.

• Write titles that match search intent

Tactic type: Long-term

Effort: Low

Impact: High

Google explains, “Titles are critical to giving users a quick insight into the content of a result and why it’s relevant to their query. It’s often the primary piece of information used to decide which result to click on, so it’s important to use high-quality titles on your web pages.”

Pro-tips for efficient SEO:

• Create unique titles for each page.
• Keep page titles to less than 55 characters.
• Keep writing style consistent with the use of title or sentence case across all your pages.
• Include your target keyword.
• Ensure you match the search intent of the query.

All the tactics we’ve covered in this blog are tried and proven to be very effective. Moreover, the tactics will help you optimize your website for conversions and increase high-quality traffic. An increase in high-quality traffic could mean more customers and more sales; which is our ultimate goal. 

About Galaxy

Our team at Galaxy prides itself in designing some of the best Ecommerce solutions for businesses globally. Contact Us right away for a free consultation!

Web applications are everywhere on the internet! Every time you send a mail, do online shopping, or browse your social media accounts, you are using a web application. They usually work on all the browsers and can be easily accessed on mobile and tablet computers, while providing a seamless experience as the native application.

Web application development involves client-side and server-side programming to develop an application accessible over a web browser. We have identified 5 problem areas that you would need to address to build a successful and high-performing web application.

Speed and Performance

Getting a user on a website is a big challenge in itself. You wouldn’t want to increase the bounce rate just because your web application did not load in time. Un-optimized database, unexpected traffic spikes, troublesome third-party integrations, poorly written code are all recipes for slow websites.

Deploying CDN (content distribution network) to ensure that the server requests get balanced in one good solution. Also, make it a point that your developers should be aware of the amount of media on the webpages, any plugins, configurations, etc in the planning stage itself. This way they can make provisions from the beginning instead of optimizing codes till the last minute.

UI/UX

A good chunk of your users will be visiting your websites via smartphones. The UI must be simple, intuitive, and accessible. This includes:

• Predictable navigation
• Clear and simple copy
• Engaging visuals
• Easy to understand typography

Make sure that designers don’t get carried away with the aesthetic aspects that they miss out on the usability, accessibility, and intuitive factors. The end goal is to give users an experience that will increase your recall value and make them visit your website again and again.

Security Threats

Web security is a vital task that needs to be done right. SSL encryption is one such standard practice that enables encrypted communication between web browsers and servers. The most common threats are:

• Cross-site scripting
• Cross-Site Request Forgery
• SQL Injection
• Phishing
• Shell Injection
• Buffer Overflow
• Session hijacking

Developers should implement the security measures right from the start and keep updating as your application grows. Your user data needs to be protected at all costs, as even a small vulnerability can be exploited by hackers in any way. Thus, the right coding with encryption should be done to protect you and your website from cyberattacks.

Tech stack

Your tech sack should include the right combination of servers, frameworks, programming language, and tools. The right tech stack will do wonders for your present and plans. Your project size, its anticipated growth, your team’s expertise, competitors’ tech stack, etc. will help you decide upon your tech stack.

You can also look for tools and software that have a huge community so that any queries that your teams may have are resolved quickly. Look for the documentation available as well so that it becomes easier for your team to have reliable information at their disposal.

Scalability

Scalability is essentially believed to be about load balancing between servers at peak traffic times. You need to consider the following points:

• Develop software that runs smoothly on clusters of servers
• Implementing cloud computing from a future point of view
• Implementing Service orientation architecture (SOA)

Keeping your website future proof ensures that as you grow, your website does as well without troubling your users. This again needs to be considered from the start and assessed as to your customer base increases.

Working on creating the best web app for you and your users can be a daunting task but you don’t have to shoulder the burden all by yourself. We at Galaxy Weblinks believe in giving the best to our clients, get in touch with us here and see for yourself how we can make things less troublesome for you.

A majority of people conduct their business on their smartphones. Moving to mobile is thus a smart way to reach your target audience. However, you must ensure that your application will be beneficial to both your customer and your brand. 

How would you know if an app is right for your company? And once you’ve made that decision, how do you decide what to include in the app? Here are the 7 signs that should tell you that your business needs a mobile app.

#1 Increase clients’ access to your brand

An app is created with the goal to increase the number of ways for clients to access the portal from any location and at any time. Furthermore, it translates into improved customer communication. Having a mobile app also covers increased attention and brand strengthening.

#2 Increasing number of e-commerce shoppers

Most businesses would benefit from developing a mobile app for their customers. People shop online all the time and more often than not using their smartphones. If you are an e-commerce business, you need to get a mobile app developed, pronto! Not having an application would result in lost sales. We recommend gathering information from your customers and competitors to determine what your mobile app requires to succeed.

#3 An app could improve your product

If you have a specific digital product offering or a physical product that can be enhanced with an app, create an app. For example, if you sell any type of recurring subscription product, an app may be useful in assisting customers in tracking orders and purchasing additional items.

#4 Grow your business with a mobile app

Businesses should consider offering an app, but only if it has the potential to help them grow their business. Your app should be linked to your business plan, and businesses should not just get one for the sake of having one. Businesses should also consider how their online audience interacts with them. What is it that is causing them to make a purchase? What role would an app play in that strategy and how would it lead to sales? 

#5 An app to complement your website

A website provides all the functionalities required for a typical small business. Many times, small businesses decide to develop a mobile app that users will not download. It is not worth the investment because the app’s functionality is already available on the website.

#6 Your competitors have mobile apps

Simply looking at the competition will reveal that all of your competitors most likely have a mobile app. Consumers and even ordinary people are increasingly connected to their phones, emphasizing the importance of an app. It would require a link to your website, push notifications, and contact and support information.

#7 Your customers are requesting one

Listening to your customers is the best way to determine whether you need a mobile app. Consumers today are very vocal about their expectations of businesses. If you’re curious, you could create a survey and post it on social media or your website. Ask users if they want a mobile app, and if they do, come up with some feature ideas for the app. Post a second survey and use the most popular responses.

How To Get A Mobile App For Your Business?

After determining whether or not your company requires a mobile application, the next step is to develop one. Developing a successful app is a journey, not a one-step process. You must understand what goes into creating a mobile app and devote time to making it better in meeting the needs of your customers. That being said, the following are the keys to developing a successful mobile application.

#1 Have a problem

The goal of any invention is to solve a pre-existing problem. Therefore, if you want your app to have an impact, make sure it solves a problem. You can consider the issues that your customers are facing and then create an app that addresses those issues.

#2 Determine a requirement

Always keep an eye out for what your customers are looking for. This way, you can be certain that you are creating an app for which there is a market. Validation can be accomplished with the help of essential tools such as the Google Keyword Planner. Alternatively, you can create a landing page where you can describe your app idea and allow your users to provide feedback.

#3 Outline the key features

You will be able to determine what your users want once you have validated your app idea. Determine which features are most important to your target audience and avoid those that aren’t. It also aids in resource conservation. You can continue to add features in later updated versions of the app. 

#4 Everything revolves around design

The UX/UI of your app is included in the design. Ensure that your app’s User Experience (UX) is satisfactory and that the app’s appearance is appealing to your potential users. These are important features that can make your app more appealing to your customers. As a result, you should understand the significance of UI UX when developing your mobile app.

#5 Seek the assistance of a developer

You can now hire an app development company to assist you in creating an app that meets your business needs. Check out their website’s reviews as well as their portfolio. This way, you can be certain that you are hiring a reputable app developer. And that they will provide you with an app that is appropriate for your needs.

#6 Create apps for Android and iOS

Android and iOS are the most popular app platforms. Developing an app that caters to both platforms is critical to ensuring that all customers can use your app comfortably. Using the cross-platform app development framework is a low-cost way to create an app for Android and iPhone users.

#7 Perform app testing

There is a chance that users will use your app in ways you never imagined. As a result, it is critical to test your app before releasing it. Allowing real users to use your app allows you to detect any flaws in the app. You can use feedback from app testing to improve your app and make necessary changes. Users can also provide insights that can help you understand your customers’ expectations.

Conclusion

Almost any business can benefit from mobile apps for business. If you’re still undecided about whether you need a mobile app, we hope the arguments in this article will help you make the right choice.

The most important thing to remember is that any product or tool must solve specific problems while also contributing to the company’s growth. With this in mind, it is necessary to plan the work and create a list of the functions that will be required for a future app.

About Galaxy Weblinks

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

Did you know that a well-designed user interface could raise a website’s conversion rate by up to 200%, and a better UX design could yield conversion rates up to 400%? This isn’t just a statistic; it’s a wake-up call for businesses to recognize the immense potential of a robust UX strategy. 

In the digital world, users have grown accustomed to seamless, intuitive, and enjoyable digital interactions, making UX a critical factor for businesses. A UX Audit, therefore, is the compass that guides businesses through the intricate journey of creating a user experience that not only delights but also delivers measurable business outcomes.This comprehensive analysis isn’t just about improving the visual appeal; it delves deeper into how a product resonates with its users, aligning business goals with user needs.

The Essence of a UX Audit

A UX Audit involves a methodical evaluation of a product’s user interface (UI) and user experience. It’s like a health check-up for a website or an app, diagnosing problems and prescribing solutions. Why is it crucial? Because it identifies usability issues that hinder user satisfaction and conversion rates, impacting the bottom line directly.

The Critical Role of UX Audit in Business

A UX audit is crucial for businesses to optimize their digital storefront, ensuring every element is optimized to meet user expectations and drive business goals. A Forrester Research report shows that every dollar invested in UX brings $100 in return, highlighting the direct correlation between effective UX and enhanced business performance. For example, ESPN.com saw a 35% increase in revenue after incorporating community suggestions into their homepage redesign.

Integrating UX Strategy with Business Vision

UX Strategy is about creating a vision for a product that aligns with the business goals. It’s crucial for Product Managers and Business Executives to understand that UX is not just a phase in development; it’s an ongoing process of learning and improving. 

A well-crafted UX strategy bridges the gap between user needs and business goals, fostering customer loyalty and enhanced user experience . For example, by understanding and addressing the needs of users, Slack grew rapidly, attributing its success to its obsession with customer experience and feedback.

Actionable Insights: Elevating Business through UX

The following are some specific measures that businesses can take:

1. Conduct Regular User Research:

• Why It’s Crucial: User research is the backbone of any successful UX strategy. It provides insights into your users’ behaviors, needs, and expectations.
• How to Implement: Engage with your audience through surveys, interviews, and usability tests. To better understand your target audience, create user personas.
• Real-World Impact: Companies like Airbnb have consistently used user research to understand their customers, leading to redesigns that significantly increased bookings.

2. Implement A/B Testing to Refine User Interfaces:

• Why It’s Crucial: A/B testing allows you to compare different versions of your website or app to see which performs better. It’s a data-driven approach to improve UX.
• How to Implement: Test elements like CTA buttons, page layouts, and content placement. Use tools like Optimizely or Google Optimize for streamlined testing.
• Real-World Impact: E-commerce giants like Amazon use A/B testing extensively to refine user experiences, resulting in higher engagement and sales.

3. Track User Behavior and Find Pain Points using Analytics:

• Why It’s Crucial: Analytics offer a window into how users interact with your product. When determining where improvements are needed, this data is essential.
• How to Implement: Utilize tools like Google Analytics to track metrics such as bounce rates, page views, and user pathways. Analyze these metrics to understand user behavior patterns.
• Real-World Impact: Companies like Netflix leverage analytics to tailor their user experiences, leading to increased viewer engagement and subscription rates.

4. Regularly Update Your UX to Align with Evolving User Needs and Technological Advancements:

• Why It’s Crucial: The digital landscape is ever-changing, and so are user expectations. Regular updates ensure your UX keeps pace with these changes.
• How to Implement: Stay abreast of the latest UX trends and technological advancements. Periodically revisit and revise your UX to ensure it remains relevant and effective.
• Real-World Impact: Tech leaders like Apple consistently update their UX, contributing to their reputation for innovation and customer satisfaction.

A Lesson from Dropbox

Dropbox’s success story is a great example of the power of user-centric design. By simplifying its design and focusing on usability, Dropbox increased its conversion rates and user engagement, leading to significant business growth.

Conversion Optimization: A UX Driven Approach

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is a critical outcome of effective UX. By enhancing the usability and user journey on a website or application, businesses can significantly increase the likelihood of converting visitors into customers. Moreover, a focus on simplifying navigation, improving page load times, and creating intuitive user journeys can lead to remarkable improvements in conversion rates, as evidenced by Walmart’s online sales boost by 1% for every 100ms improvement in load time.

UX for Business Growth

UX is way beyond just the aesthetics; it’s a strategic tool for business growth. Several companies have leveraged UX for substantial business growth. Effective UX can lead to increased customer loyalty, higher customer retention rates, and more effective customer acquisition. 

For instance, Airbnb redesigned their website and improved the user interface, they doubled their bookings. This is a testament to how impactful UX can be in scaling a business.

UX and ROI: Measuring and Maximizing Impact

Measuring the ROI of UX is about understanding its impact on user behavior and business metrics. Enhanced user satisfaction, reduced customer support costs, and increased sales are tangible indicators of a successful UX strategy. These help businesses understand the value derived from their UX investments.

Crafting Digital Excellence with Galaxy Weblinks

In today’s business ecosystem, where user experience is the battlefield, a UX Audit is your strategic advantage. At Galaxy Weblinks, we don’t just design; we innovate and create experiences that translate into measurable business success. Our approach is rooted in a deep understanding of both user needs and business goals, ensuring that every project we undertake maximizes both user satisfaction and business growth. Let Galaxy Weblinks be your partner in navigating the complex world of UX, helping you turn user experiences into a powerful engine for business growth.

Although CMS products are all designed to produce similar results, they all do not offer the same features. It is critical to ensure that the product you select will work for your organization. There are numerous CMS available for you to choose from, and therefore, the process of selecting a CMS can often take longer and more complex.

The amazing content you produce needs to be presented and managed perfectly, or you will not make the right impact. Let us ponder on the factors that should be considered while selecting a CMS? What features should you put first? 

In this blog, we’ll show you the answers to these questions.

#1 Technology integration

In an era when technology affects every aspect of your business, your CMS must integrate seamlessly with your other marketing, sales, communication, and project management initiatives.

Tip: Begin by conducting a technology audit. Make a list of the tools/technologies you use to complete the following tasks:

• Marketing automation
• Customer relationship management system
• Project management system
• Forms management
• Email/Social media marketing
• ERP
• Customer support

The majority of these tools will either feed or pull data from your CMS.

For example, your blog post could include gated content or a lead magnet. This lead magnet connects to your lead acquisition tool, which connects to your marketing automation and email marketing tools. Once a lead is marked as qualified, it should be routed to your CRM. This is then integrated into your marketing automation tool to further nurture the leads.

This creates several dependencies that influence your CMS choice. The more tightly your CMS is integrated with your other marketing and sales tools, the smoother your marketing machinery will run.

#2 Business Impact

Tip: When considering the effects of a CMS on your business, you should consider the responsibilities you accept when choosing a platform.

With a development platform, you will either require internal resources to manage them or outsource the services required. When you build your website on these platforms, you have to go through a lot more steps in terms of functional requirements and development cycles to get to the final product.

The majority of the development is completed with a solutions platform, and your company will need to configure the platform to meet your specific needs. Adoption is also generally faster because these systems are designed to be user-friendly.

#3 Ongoing Requirements

The process of creating a website for your company can be difficult. Managing stakeholder expectations, ensuring you deliver on business requirements, and getting your vendor to deliver on their promises are just a few of the issues that arise during the process.

The build, however, should be considered the start of your digital journey. The hard work begins the day the website is launched and you now need to validate the assumptions you made many months prior during the discovery phase.

Tip: Integrated analytics serve as a springboard for your responses, A/B testing of content, and user journeys. This then leads to website updates, content changes, and the launch of landing pages for specific campaigns. Understanding how the CMS platform behaves when there is a need for continuous change should be part of the decision-making process.

#4 Security

Security is a major consideration. You need a CMS that will protect your content and customer data from current and future threats.

There are four things to think about here:

Security features: Does the CMS include built-in security features (for example, two-factor authentication)? If not, does it have security plugins and third-party integrations?
Infrastructure requirements include: Is the CMS in favor of infrastructure-level security upgrades?

Environment for plugins/modules: Are your most frequently used plugins/modules secure? Do their developers check for updates regularly?
Development speed: How quickly do developers release updates and security fixes? This is especially problematic with open-source software.

#5 WYSIWYG content creation

WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) user interfaces have become a standard feature of CMS platforms ranging from the most basic to the most sophisticated.

A WYSIWYG content authoring environment, as the name implies, allows marketers and non-technical users to create content using familiar formatting tools (such as those found in Microsoft Word).

Consider the following:

• Can marketers use the editor to easily change the look and feel of content?
• Does the editor support multiple delivery channels with previews of content?
• Is the editor responsive and quick, or is it slow and difficult to use?
• Does the editor allow you to embed video on product pages and other web pages to support your video content?

How to make the best choice 

Choosing a CMS is a difficult task. You must balance multiple requirements from various departments, evaluate dozens of options, and choose something that falls into the Goldilocks zone of cost, complexity, and ease of use.

Hopefully, this blog will assist you in making a more informed CMS decision.

Here are your next three actions to take before you leave:

• Inquire with your marketing, editorial, sales, and IT departments about their CMS requirements.
• Examine your current technology stack and skills concerning all stakeholders.
• Estimate a budget and take into account the cost of implementation for both open and closed source solutions.

The flexibility and features they offer are out of the box, along with their content-first approach they are not too high up on the learning curve. All these features combined, make them our go-to for nearly every custom web project.

It is an essential component of our web design and development capabilities. Are you interested? Contact us, and we’ll be happy to discuss how they can improve your site.

About Galaxy Weblinks

We are your offshore CMS development partner and have state-of-art infrastructure and development expertise on the latest CMS technology trends. We have hands-on experience in end-to-end WordPress CMS development solutions catering to different business needs. We offer assistance from building custom CMS websites to website migration and maintenance processes.

When you’re planning a redesign of your website, there can be a lot of factors that led to this decision. It could be the need for additional features or utilities, performance, enhanced user experience, and so on. The changes in the user interface can be perhaps managed using your current CMS solutions. However, to integrate more features and functionalities, you may need to contemplate switching your CMS. 

For example, if you’re an Ecommerce portal and wish to incorporate additional graphical elements, your current CMS may be unable to accommodate this additional feature. Alternatively, you are updating the data on your portal manually and need to automate this process. The decision to redesign is a difficult one. You will encounter pretty many roadblocks while trying to update your current CMS. 

We have listed 3 points that you need to ponder on before you decide to go ahead and make a switch. 

1. Do you have a valid reason to switch?

Switching to a different CMS will bring in its own set of challenges. You will need to create the entire CMS from scratch, including the designs. You need to be sure when you’re switching systems. Here are some sustainable reasons why you would consider switching:

• Current CMS won’t support the desired redesign
• Current CMS has limitations that would or do require extensive custom development
• Current CMS is too expensive, too slow, or suffers from other problems
• Want to move from hosted platform to self-hosted
• No CMS in use

If you don’t resonate with either of the reasons, we suggest you stick to your existing CMS and opt for superficial changes instead. On the other hand, if you did find yourself saying yay to almost each one of the reasons then follow us along. 

2. What are your options?

Now that you’ve made up your mind that you need to change systems, it’s time to find the right one for you. What are the options you ask? Let’s see:

Self-hosted

You can purchase or download self-hosted CMS and install it on a server you own or rent. Although complicated and steeper in the learning curve for beginners, self-hosted CMS is highly flexible and functional. Some of the popular choices are Magento, Drupal, Joomla, and Sitecore. 

Hosted

Typically, this kind of CMS is owned and hosted by the same company. These are very common for ecommerce platforms as these are simple to use and are essentially ready to plug and play.  Some popular choices for hosted CMSs are Shopify, BigCommerce, Volusion, and 3dcart. There is only one limitation with these hosted systems is that they are pretty difficult to modify according to your specifications.

WordPress

WordPress is like a household name. Initially introduced as blogging software, it now functions as a much more powerful system that enables users to host a blog, e-commerce, or a business website. With all the libraries of themes and plugins, the flexibility it provides is unmatched.

If you’re not sure which one fits your needs best you can outsource the WordPress development to CMS experts like us.

3. The process for switching to a new CMS

Now that you’ve selected your CMS, you will have to retain the data from the existing site, set up the server, and take care of the new design. Sounds like a lot, right? It’s a lot. Here is what you need to do: 

Exporting your data

You’ll have to backup your existing site data. You will have to work with databases, which is not easy, since it has user accounts, purchase history, report data, etc. Missing data can cost you dearly. 

Staging server

You’ll have to set up a test server so that you can ensure that nothing breaks in the live environment. 

New Design

Once the servers are ready and data is imported, the design will begin. Getting validation on design can take days, weeks, or even months. 

Review

This is the stage when you go through the final iterations of changes and see if you’re happy with the design and everything. Testing for different devices, browsers, and responsive will happen in this stage. 

Pro Tip: Take care of the redirects once the redesign is complete. You wouldn’t want your users lost in the web of 404s if your URLs are changed. You can find helpful information on creating 301 redirects in your .htaccess file on this Google Help page.

We know there’s a lot to do and there are so many things that can go wrong. Our experts can take care of the unknown for you and move your website to a new system without any downtime and other hassles. You can get in touch with us here.

“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’

When you enter your destination into a rideshare app or check your social media notifications, you’re interacting with a screen — but also, with user experience designers. 

Better known as UX designers, these technology professionals map out your experience long before you had it, structuring it to feel as natural and intuitive as possible. That’s their job: to craft easily navigable digital interfaces.

UX design roles vary greatly, and there are numerous UX design specializations available, such as information architecture and communication design. Every designer, especially on the smaller UX design teams, does a little bit of everything.

We have broken down UX design roles into roughly four components:

• Researching
• Ideating
• Designing
• Communicating

With this blog, we hope to make you understand how a UX designer can contribute to your business. Below are the ways UX designers can help your business, and how to spot a real one:

…

#1 Researching

A UX designer’s goal as a researcher is to truly understand a user’s needs, motivations, and empathize with them to improve or create a new product. The research responsibilities included everything from reviewing quantitative and qualitative survey results to conducting user testing.

User testing, also known as usability testing, entails learning about the user experience by simply observing how users complete key tasks within an app or platform. The process can reveal points of confusion in a more granular way than the interview. User testing frequently begins with defining testing objectives, identifying the key interfaces to investigate.

For example, a homepage or a profile page – and the key learning objectives for each interface. They then create the script. This is the standardized monologue that UX designers read before starting a user test to lay out the ground rules and introduce the task.

User interviews can also be used in user research. Aside from asking “What do you like about this product?”, they also ask users about their industry experiences to know what they want, which are not related to the products they’re researching.

How do they help your products with research?

-They make your product better by identifying problems you didn’t think existed by interviewing users and understanding their pain points when using your product, building a loyal user base and better product.

-They assist in visualizing how your product would solve niche problems before it is even launched, allowing you to pitch your story to investors more effectively by using storyboards to demonstrate how it would work and how it would solve core market problems.

#2 Ideating

Scheduling time for ideation is essential to the UX designer’s process — and the creative process in general. This is how the research findings are transformed into design concepts.

There are two stages to brainstorming. The first step is research analysis, during which designers zero in on specific user problems. This can be as simple as data science.

In some cases, UX designers divide a sample of users into categories or types and storyboard the typical user experience for each. Along the way, they identify common “pain points” for each type, such as a final “purchase” button that one type consistently misses.

After a UX designer has decided on a problem to tackle, the second stage of ideation begins – brainstorming. What are all of the possible solutions? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

This isn’t exactly “pulling ideas out of thin air.” To ensure consistency of user encounters, UX designers draw inspiration from wireframes for their brand’s other features. They also integrate UI/UX trends.

How do they help your products with ideating?

-They can suggest new features that generate revenue or solve problems, thereby increasing sales and users.

-They eliminate guesswork by appropriately grouping products or features using card sorting, reducing the need for users to search or believe that you do not offer that service, resulting in sales loss.

#3 Designing

A UX designer creates a rough draft of a concept during this phase. The level of fidelity, or faithfulness, with which they have been tasked determines their current state. A low-fidelity design is known as a wireframe, and a high-fidelity design is called a prototype. The former is more akin to a blueprint or outline of “the site’s structure.” The latter has some interactive features and fleshed-out visuals and is close to completion.

Typically, UX designers concentrate on wireframes. Designers typically employ software such as Axure, Invision, and Sketch. Wireframing is essentially the process of positioning logos, menus, and buttons on high-trafficked pages. In this stage, actual imagery is kept to a minimum.

Designers frequently look into the internal style guide while prototyping. This document specifies a brand’s appearance in terms of colors, spacing, and font, and its specifications can be quite detailed.

How do they help your products with designing?

-They ensure that your customers are not confused and leave your website by ensuring that layouts and interactions are consistent across other market websites or apps, thereby maintaining user familiarity with the product even if they switch from a competitor.

-They help in speed up signups and checkouts, resulting in lower user abandonment, while also making things intuitive, so people don’t have to think about what to do.

#4 Communicating

Wireframes and prototypes are frequently presented to key stakeholders, which can include internal teams and external clients.

Presentations are typically used to demonstrate how a new product will work and to justify changes. UX designers should ideally be able to trace features and formatting back to research and analysis.

Specifically for UX designers, “There is a lot of interaction with developers to ensure that your ideas can be implemented within their timeframe. They have a completely different set of priorities and obligations.”

UX designers sit down with the developers to give each other updates on their development progress and to provide each other feedback. One of the main purposes is also to make sure they’ve exported all their SVG’s properly into Zeplin, which is a tool UI/UX designers use to communicate with developers.

There they can fetch all the assets they need, from spacing to UI components, which makes me accountable for all the design decisions, and forces them to think as a pixel-perfect designer.

During these touchpoints, UX designers communicate their design decisions and the rationale behind it all.  Nothing is arbitrary in design. If your users understand the choices you’ve presented to them, your mapping of elements, and your interactions; then you are successful.

How do they help your products with communication/collaboration?

-They select the best approach by using wire-frames and prototyping to quickly test different decisions, avoiding the need to launch a product only to discover it’s a nightmare for you and your users, saving you a lot of money.

-They validate your product or their own decisions, by having actual data that shows why they did this and why it’s better, thus eliminating guesswork or any preconceived ideas.

Hopefully, you now have a good idea of what a UX designer has to deliver or communicate with stakeholders.

If you’re thinking ‘we do not have enough experience to deal with this or “what if I don’t have enough time”, contact us to get in touch with our UI/UX experts.

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.

Once you have decided to develop your idea into a mobile application, you need to make a few important decisions. These include-

• Who will be the right mobile app development partner?
• What would be the cost of building the app? 
• How much time will it take to launch your app?
• Whether to opt for native mobile application development or cross-platform?

Identifying the development approach to choose for building your app – the native or the hybrid route is among the most important considerations. Which approach is better? What are the advantages of each? How do I choose which type of app to develop?

So, if you are wondering whether you should take the native or hybrid approach for creating your mobile app, we will try to help you get answers to these questions in this article. Let’s first understand the meaning of native and hybrid apps. 

What is a native app?

A native mobile application is a smartphone program, written specifically to operate on a specific mobile device and its operating system platforms (mainly Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android). 

It is developed considering the technical and user-related guidelines of the operating system. This type of digital solution offers a higher level of performance and reliability and hence makes it more user-friendly. However, they are developed specifically for each platform, which means that it is expensive and needs more team expertise to launch applications on multiple platforms. Native Android mobile apps are commonly developed using Java or Kotlin, while Native iOS apps are developed using Swift or Objective-C. Facebook, Twitter, Gmail are a few examples of native apps.

What is a hybrid application?

A hybrid mobile application is a software program that combines the elements of both native and website applications. Hybrid applications have been growing in popularity as they can be built and released across multiple different platforms using the same user interface. The development and maintenance of hybrid apps are faster and is cost-effective as it takes less time to develop and needs fewer developers given the need to create only one codebase. Hybrid mobile apps are developed using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which are then condensed in a native application using a wrapper like Xamarin or Apache Cordova, or React Native. Hybrid apps then use third-party plug-ins and APIs to retain complete access to the mobile device’s features. Amazon, Instagram, Uber are a few examples of hybrid apps.

Comparing native and hybrid applications

To help you native and hybrid apps better, we have listed below a few key differences.

• Codebase

Native mobile apps have different codebases for each operating system. However, hybrid apps are developed using a single codebase and then can be run on all devices regardless of the operating system.  As a result, native app development requires separate development teams with expertise for each platform that leads to higher development costs. 

• Performance

Native mobile apps are designed specifically for an operating system and device. Native apps use the visual elements, structure, and contents that are already on the device, hence, they are faster for instant loading, more reliable, and thereby providing a seamless user experience. On the other hand, hybrid apps are slower than native apps as they have only a wrapper that is downloaded to the user’s phone (which may or may not contain all the navigational elements) with most of the data being loaded from the server. 

• User experience (UX)

UX is a crucial component in the success of any app, both app types address this. Native apps however offer the best UX in comparison to hybrid apps. To offer a good UX with a hybrid app, a good user experience architect/developer is needed so that he can integrate the different style guidelines across different platforms. 

• Development cost and time

A native app takes more cost and time to develop as it requires different codebases to be written for each platform. Additionally, developing native apps requires bigger team sizes with expertise across each platform. On the other hand, developing a hybrid app is less time-consuming and needs less effort. 

• Security

Enhanced security is one of the key benefits of native mobile apps in comparison to hybrid apps. Native apps enable developers to integrate various functions such as two-factor authentication that help ensure data safety and privacy. On the other hand, hybrid apps always have some Native code (for instance to start a Web container like a WebView), which makes them susceptible to vulnerabilities that affect web browsers. Essentially, there is more work involved in securing your hybrid apps versus native apps.

Native vs Hybrid apps – key differences

Parameters	Native app	Hybrid app
Cross-platform deployment	No	Yes
Code reusability	No	Yes
Performance	High	Slower than native apps
Design	Great user interface	Good user interface
Development	Needs skilled developers with expertise across platforms	Skilled developers are still needed but do not require platform-specific expertise
Development time	Time consuming	Faster development time
Budget	Higher than hybrid apps	Lower than native apps
Offline access	Yes	No
Security	Enhanced	Good

Factors determining the selection of Native or Hybrid

Having gone through the definitions and comparisons between native and hybrid apps, we have now listed the key factors that should determine which app would be the right selection for your business. Both native and hybrid apps have benefits and limitations, and the right selection will be determined based on answers to these questions.

• What is the objective of building your app?
• What are the key features to be included in your app?
• What is your budget to develop the app?
• How quickly do you want to develop the app? 
• Are you more interested in building an MVP across different platforms?
• Do you want to build it in-house or outsource? 

Conclusion

The debate around hybrid and native apps will continue to exist because there’s a place and need for both. Ultimately, the right app type would depend on your business needs. 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.