The main advantage of web apps is discoverability. They are easy to search and share, so they are the most accessible way to present their product or service. This simplicity makes Web sites fundamental to all businesses, so Web technology is usually part of any software solution.
The front end is the visual aspect of the website that users interact with. It runs on any device, operating system, or Internet connection, but it has many limitations compared to the native world. However, because of the importance of the frontend, web APIs are constantly evolving, becoming more robust, and providing more features.
This brings us to the definition of the “best” frontend framework. Over the past decade, we’ve looked many times for an answer to this question. Thanks to the progress of the entire web community, there are many great alternatives to choose from. Our conclusion is this: it doesn’t matter what you desire. Or rather, it shouldn’t be your goal. What matters is this: What will the result be?
FIVE MAIN POINTS
The quality result of a web application can be defined by five categories, each of which works together to create a precious result. These categories are:
- Great UX/UI.
- Stability
- Performance
- Accessibility
- Security
If done right, more can be accomplished than meets the eye. So it’s important to understand the business impact of these focus points and why investing in improving their means investing in long-term success.
Great UX/UI
First impressions matter. A perfectly tuned UX/UI helps increase conversions, and automated end-to-end testing with visual regression ensures that you’re not disrupting your UI with new changes.
Stability
A dysfunctional app can be detrimental to a business. It is a must to use automated tests and monitoring services to identify any problems before they hit production and cause real damage.
Security
Project security used to be considered the responsibility of the backend. Today, we know that the number of vulnerabilities on the frontend side is just as high, especially in single-page applications where sensitive data often has to be dealt with. The bare minimum is to run on a secure HTTPS protocol, but a strong frontend engineer will find many more ways to ensure security.
Performance
Get ahead of your competitors by having your web application load faster. There is a lot of research on how page load time affects conversion rates. Around 2014, mobile usage surpassed desktop usage; since then, we should be primarily focused on mobile devices. And cell phones, unfortunately, tend to be slow online.
Accessibility
The Internet can and should be accessible to anyone, despite any limitations. Unfortunately, such optimization is not very common, but it can make a big difference for your business. It’s simple: the more users feel served by your site, the more of them will become loyal customers who will spread good word of mouth.
TOOLS AND TIPS
To further understand what the abovementioned focus points mean, it’s essential to measure them. After all, if a problem suddenly arises, you simply can’t fix what you don’t count. We recommend using the following tools:
Lighthouse – A great built-in tool in Chrome that focuses on performance, accessibility, best practices and security.
Chrome User Experience Report – provides user experience metrics that show how real Chrome users are doing with popular destinations on the web.
WebPageTest – Runs a speed test from multiple locations with real browsers.
Analytics – always have these in place to better understand your users’ behavior.
WAVE and/or Accessibility Insights for Web – used to evaluate opportunities to improve accessibility.
As for recommendations, this is an extensive topic. A solid foundation and strong development code are the alpha omega of quality software development. Make the most of your project setup. Choose your project starter wisely, consider using static type checking, install code quality tools, implement good practices, write tests, coordinate code version flow, establish continuous integration and delivery, and consider developing isolated components.