A pretty suggestive analogy, isn't it?
With all those voices, getting more and more strident, claiming that “SEO is dead” and with the major “seismic waves” shaking the digital world (that the rise of the social media optimization trends have caused), you might ask yourself: what's the importance of SEO nowadays?
Well, allow us to:
assure you that SEO is far from being dead
inform you that SEO is in fact evolving into its better version, adapting itself to all the new challenges of the digital world
Here are just some of the arguments that we've put together to help you "stengthen your faith" in SEO:
IT'S YOUR ONLINE STORE/WEBSITE THAT YOUR CUSTUMOERS WILL STEP IN FIRST
Before welcoming your potential customer into your physical store, you need to welcome him/her into your online store.
It's here that he'll be looking for reviews that would eventually influence his final decision, it's here that he/she will make first contact with your products (with their more or less eye-pleasing photos and with their more or less relevant and creatively-written, engaging descriptions, too).
OK, so you can't actually welcome your online customer with a smile on your face (you can't be online 24/7 and you might just overwork a face muscle if you stuck a warm, welcoming smile on your face for too long), but you can make him/her at least sense it. How?
A user-friendly, easy to navigate-through website is key (eye-pleasing colors, easy to read content.)
A quickly loading website
A lack of annoying pop-ups and ads
An amazing user experience, overall, is the key to success
Needless to add that all these common sense SEO-specific techniques will rank your website higher in search engines results.
For your customer it will be pretty much like in this analogy that we've come up with: shopping in a store placed close to the main entrance of a shopping mall, compared to “enjoying” a shopping experience in a store as hard to find as a clue in a hidden object game.
BOOST YOUR BUSINESS CREDIBILITY
Although almighty Facebook might have, in your opinion, eroded some of almighty Google's authority, the later still remains The One who bestows authority upon websites (and therefore businesses).
So, if, due to your SEO endeavors, your website shows up in top 3 websites that your future visitor sees the moment he/she types his specific words into the search box and, moreover, if it keeps getting listed in that top each time each he types in other words related to his searches, as well, than he'll (even if many times unconsciously) draw the conclusion that: if Google picked your website and granted it the honor of being listed among the first ones in his search list... well... then it must be worth it.
Take the search engines as the ultimate warrant with an authoritarian voice that can empower your business with credibility before your future visitors/potential customers.
ENHANCE YOUR BUSINESS BRAND VISIBILITY
Here's a short definition of the “new” type of SEO: “it’s changed so drastically that people really need to learn to think of it as less of a marketing tactic, and more of a branding play.” (Sam McRoberts, CEO of VUDU Marketing)
So, if nowadays SEO it's less about striving to stuff your website with keywords and irrelevant backlinks, so that Google should push you ahead of your competition's website, but about brand visibility, about a far more refined and nonetheless challenging version of SEO, it's more than obvious that: if your target users keep reading your brand's name, over and over again, as they search for their needed services or products online, automatically brand awareness is being build thanks to SEO.
It's the whole SEO strategy, integrated into the bigger picture of your online marketing plan, that actually makes this “miracle” possible: that your customer keeps bumping into your website each time they look for their desired products/services.
ATTRACT TRAFFIC
So, the “new SEO” is all about user-experience, about branding, about engaging content, but even so it still revolves around the same mighty goal: attracting traffic to your website.
The more visitors come in, the more chances you get to actually turn their visits into sales/subscriptions.
And yet, the real beauty of SEO is not even mere traffic at all, but the qualified leads that this traffic is made of.
Just think about it:
you're not annoying your customers off by interrupting their favorite TV shows with your TV commercial
you're not distracting (and annoying them again) your target clients with a flashy newspaper ad as they're trying to read a piece of news
Your visitors already have a certain need/interest (“sort of interest” is gold, compared to none) in the services/product that your provide so convincing them that you're the best provider is already a half-won battle.
GAIN PRICELESS INSIGHT INTO YOUR CUSTOMER'S PROFILE
This is gold!
Just think about it: you don't (again”) have to annoy your customer with phone or face to face surveys for collecting valuable data regarding him/her.
Upgrade your website with Google Analytics and then you can just “dive” into a “sea” of highly valuable data helping you put together your users' profile: where are they located, at what time of the day do they access your website, what devices do they use, what products to they prefer, how much time do they spend on specific pages on your site etc.
Then, it's totally up to you how you turn all that data into fuel for your website.
IN CONCLUSION
The importance of SEO hasn't been undermined by the rise of the social media optimization, it has simply adapted to the new challenges that social media faced it with:
it's quality content-focused
it's user experience-determined
it's brand awareness-driven
Good old SEO practices (such as non-overloading your websites with keywords and backlinks, having authoritative voices in your field linking to your website, owing a website that doesn't take ages to load and which is both easy to navigate through etc.) are more relevant than ever.
People will keep going online to book/buy/subscribe to certain services/products whether they'll be using their PCs or their mobile devices.
Wouldn't you want to be there, in the first row, greeting and welcoming them to your website rather than throwing all your hard work to trash (by focusing exclusively on social media marketing) and so giving the chance to your competitors to welcome them to their own websites?
Adrian Ababei / Nov 15'2016
There’s an age-old battle going on between the best platforms to build your website: Wordpress vs Drupal vs Joomla. Today we’ll tackle just the first two and compare some of their features in order to help you with your decision. Remember, picking the right platform for your website is essential since you’re likely to invest a lot of time and effort into it. If you already picked a platform, you can also read more about our top 8 Drupal web development tools.
In the late 2000s Wordpress was the preferred choice for most online projects, e-commerce websites, personal blogs and the preferred platform for web development companies. Back then websites featured minimal content types and most pages featured just a content block with a few buttons. Nowadays, times have changed and web development is becoming more and more focused on user experience than simplicity – this means more content types, more features and plenty of attention to the user interface.
These needs made Drupal so popular in recent years – here are a few things that need to be mentioned in the Wordpress vs Drupal battle.
Wordpress vs Drupal – Security concerns
The biggest difference in the Wordpress vs Drupal analysis is security. Plenty of government websites are built in Drupal simply because it offers site scale and enterprise-level security. Even Whitehouse.gov is built with Drupal.
On the other hand, Wordpress offers limited security as hackers can use vulnerabilities from plugins to crack their way through and wipe your website – most vulnerabilities take place at the server level. Drupal features a few notable hosting applications that help manage any security risks, Pantheon and Acquia.
Wordpress vs Drupal – Responsive development & design
The first thing you need to figure out when it comes to responsive development and responsive design is how your images are managed – your images won’t necessarily scale perfectly when viewed on different screen sizes. Both Drupal and Wordpress offer solutions to making images responsive but the solutions are different.
When working with Drupal, you can set your images sizes from the admin panel with the use of the Image Style module. The advantage here is that you don’t have to modify your PHP files to set your sizes. Both Wordpress and Drupal are designed agnostic which means you’ll pretty much build your themes however you want. You can try a starter responsive theme which can help speed up your workflow.
Wordpress vs Drupal – Mobile development and mobile themes
If you plan on having a dedicated mobile theme for your website, both platform offer starter themes to help you along. There are plenty of Drupal mobile themes available on drupal.org and as for WordPress, WPTouch is the norm.
Now, the biggest difference between Wordpress vs Drupal is how the content is handled on mobile devices – When using Drupal you can create other content fields for a page that will simply display when viewed from a mobile device.
It’s also worth stating that you should place your Drupal mobile theme in a sub-domain such as m.drupaldomain.com - Wordpress mobile themes can run on the same subdomain.
Content editing on mobile is rather easier with Wordpress, making it an excellent choice for blogs and other personal websites.
Wordpress vs Drupal – SEO concerns
Neither platform has a definite advantage when the website is built following the SEO best practices. Here are a few aspects you should keep in mind with regards to SEO:
Content Delivery Networks can be used for both platforms
Schemas can be added to Wordpress and Drupal as well
Page loading time – Drupal’s default caching feature is very powerful and it doesn’t require any additional alterations – Wordpress needs to use caching plugins.
Wordpress vs Drupal – Upgrading
With WordPress, your database will require an upgrade which can be done in the background. Your code is upgradable as well. A new version of Wordpress is released every couple of months but that’s not the problem – your plugins may not be upgraded that often which in turn can lead to security risks or lack of functionality in your website.
With Drupal the code is not upgradable but the database is – upgrading from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8, for example, may require a re-design. Your database content can be migrated to a newer version but the code will most likely need to be rewritten.
Conclusions
In the end, the Wordpress vs Drupal argument ends with the customer’s demands – your demands. Do you need different content types and different page templates? Do you need enterprise-level security? Do you need a small website or a larger, robust site with plenty of security and different user permissions?
Given these aspects, Wordpress is more suited to small websites and blogging websites while Drupal is recommended for larger projects with multiple authors and a need for tight security.
Adrian Ababei / Oct 04'2016
Mobile apps for business purposes are not just for huge companies such as Wal-Mart. Actually, more and more small and mid sized businesses are turning to mobile apps in order to grow their business and gain new clients. Here are a few reasons why you should get in touch with a mobile app development company:
Increase your visibility through a mobile app
Mobile app development can be a real advantage when considering the fact that your average US citizen spends more than two hours a day on their mobile phone. By turning to a mobile app development company, you’ll be able to tap into those long hours spent on mobile devices – this can only lead to more conversions and more sales.
A mobile app is a direct marketing channel
Mobile app development can offer many benefits such as providing your customers or potential customers with prices, general information, news, messages, user accounts and search features but one of the biggest benefits of having a company mobile app is being able to create a direct marketing channel which you can use to provide your customers with special information such as promotions or special sales. Since mobile devices now play such a big role in our lives your conversion rates are sure to skyrocket each time you offer a special promotion.
Your mobile app provides value to customers
Mobile app development allows your company to provide customers with valuable information and in the same time loyalty programs can be implemented with ease – think about allowing your customers to collect certain discounts or rewards through the mobile app. This is a great way to get more return customers and more downloads for your mobile app.
Mobile apps equal brand recognition
Mobile apps for companies can contribute a great deal to brand awareness. You’ll have a direct way to target your customers in any way you please – you can make your app informative, functional, stylish or fun. It all depends on what your ultimate goals are but all in all you should create an app that your customers will love. Mobile app development companies usually create mock-ups and do plenty of research before delivering the finished product – this is an essential part of mobile app development.
Another benefit of mobile apps you should keep in mind is the fact that if you can get your customers to interact with your app or your company, they’ll likely buy your service or product as well – this is referred to as „effective frequency”.
Mobile apps increase customer engagement
No matter what product or service you’re selling, your customers need a quick and sure way to reach you in their time of need. By having a messaging system built within your app you’ll gain a new and different way to communicate with your customers. Restaurants are the best examples – instead of calling the restaurant in order to book a table, your customers can do it with just a few clicks.
A mobile app will help you stand out from competitors
Although hugely popular, not all small businesses have mobile apps – this is your chance to shine. By being one of the first or even the first to get a mobile app going you’re sure to gain some attention from customers and partners alike.
Customer loyalty
One of the biggest reasons why you should get a mobile app for your company is improving your customer loyalty. Mobile app development allows your company to be at your customer’s fingertips all the time which in turn can turn your brand into something your customers will respect, rely on and even love.
These are just a few ways in which a company can benefit from having their own application – improving customer loyalty, customer engagement, brand awareness and visibility.
Adrian Ababei / Oct 03'2016
There’s an age-old question that once in a while pops in a manager’s mind:
Should we hire a freelancer or go with a specialized agency?
Here are six reasons why it’s better to go with an agency instead of a freelancer.
Number one: you save money in the long run
Freelancers are quite popular nowadays simply because they tend to charge less than a full agency but as the old saying goes, “you get what you paid for”. Unfortunately, the price factor is often decisive in the freelancer vs. agency battle, leaving some customers unsatisfied with the work they receive. This is not necessarily the fault of the freelancer or the manager; it’s a combination of factors that can lead to dissatisfaction, such as quality of work, time necessary to complete the tasks, dependability and general return of investment. One of the most important aspects to consider is the project itself: Is it a big project? Does it require multiple skills? How fast do you want it to be implemented? Pound for pound, you get a bigger ROI by working with an agency than working with a freelancer when tackling bigger projects. For example, small changes to a website can be done by a freelancer but if you want to build a website, it’s always better to go with an agency.
To sum it up: Go with a freelancer if you have smaller tasks like a simple logo change, go with an agency if you need multiple specialized services
Number two: you save time
Working with an agency instead of a freelancer can save you valuable time, simply because agencies tend to have 5 or more employees working together to achieve a common goal. Most freelancers have regular 9 to 5 jobs and freelance on the side during the weekends. Agencies can ensure that different portions of your project are tackled simultaneously by different employees with appropriate skill sets.
To sum it up: If you have a time-sensitive project, it’s a good idea to work with an agency. If time’s not an issue, you can hire a freelancer.
Number three: You can expect better results
All agencies, big or small have a reputation to live up to. A freelancer doesn’t need that because he can jump from one project to another without any loss of image. That being said, you can expect better results from an agency than from a freelancer. Another aspect you need to keep in mind when getting a price quote from an agency is that you’re being offered talent from multiple experts in one place. Sure, you can hire multiple freelancers as well but in 90% of the cases it’s better to work with an agency with integrated IT services and their own project management.
To sum it up: If you don’t want to become a project manager for three or more freelancers, it’s better to let the agency handle the extra work in managing teams so you can simply sit back and enjoy the results.
Number four: Delays are rare when working with an agency
Most agencies have five or more employees and use clever management to ensure they respect deadlines. On the other hand, freelancers work only when they are able to – this can often lead to hiccups along the way and as we all know the speed of delivery can either make or break a project.
To sum it up: Agencies always respect deadlines; freelancers are not always able to.
Number five: You get more talent for your buck
At a glance your average website will require multiple talent or multiple experts from different fields of work: you’ll need a programmer, a graphics artist, a copywriter, a content writer, a SEO expert and a marketing expert. You want to get the most out of your investment and as such you want to hire people that are talented and dedicated to their work. Of course, you can find freelancers which are talented in one or two fields but in the end this will leave wide gaps in your project – a graphics artist may not be a great SEO expert and a marketing expert may not be a very good programmer. If you’re thinking of hiring all these separate experts for a project then you’re in for a surprise: digital project management is difficult and time consuming.
To sum it up: As a rule of thumb, it’s better to work with specialized individuals. If you don’t have ample time to spare on project management, it’s better to let the agency handle it for you.
Number six: You are a client, not a side job
As mentioned before, most freelancers have regular nine to five jobs and do other projects on the side or in the weekends. Sometimes they will be unavailable to answer your calls or e-mails, sometimes delays can happen due to their regular job. A freelancer will never abandon his or her regular job for your project; you won’t be a priority to them. On the other hand, for an agency you will always be a priority, from quote to completion.
To sum it up: If you want priority and quick delivery, talk to an agency.
Both agencies and freelancers have their advantages and disadvantages when it comes to online projects but in the end it all depends on what your ultimate goals are and the size of the project.
Adrian Ababei / Aug 16'2016
Dynatrace, a leading company in the application performance management field states that the average loading site for a website has increased over the years instead of decreasing, as previously expected.
Websites are getting slower, not faster
On average, websites are 7% slower than last year and this figure is growing fast. This phenomenon is especially prevalent in developed countries and it’s currently driving conversion rates down by up to 22%.
The reasons behind this phenomenon seems to be complex design trends implemented by both agencies and freelancers in the developed world. Dynatrace tested over 300 leading websites based in the USA, Australia, Spain, France, Germany and in the UK for the past 12 months. These response tests were done every 10 minutes for the past year and the figures are staggering.
Slower websites, lower sales
Other research related to website loading time states that 90% of users expect their website to load in three seconds or less. A whopping 46% of these users will abandon their page if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. As such, it’s extremely important to have a fast-loading web page as this can also have an impact on your revenues.
Dave Anderson from Dynatrace states: “While lags in performance are concerning, they also present a big opportunity to measure response times more closely and link it back to revenue. Take a leaf out of Nordstrom’s book – it has measured that a mere 0.5 second slow-down in site load time equates to an 11% reduction in site conversion. This is precisely where retailers need to focus internal conversations: looking at site performance and how it impacts revenue.”
And the opposite is true as well – increase your website speed by just one second and your conversion rate will get a 22% boost!
Websites from the Scandinavian countries and from China made improvements over the past year but they are still far from countries such as the US or UK. France had a 20% speed increase over the last year, moving to the second place in the world, close behind Spain.
Last year, the UK boasted the world’s fastest websites but in 2016 moved into third place. Australia currently has the slowest websites in the western world with an average of 8.2 seconds loading time. It remains to be seen if this shift will have repercussions on their economy overall.
Country
2015 response times
2016 response times
% change in homepage response times (2015 – 2016)
% change in average no. of third party hosts (2015 – 2016)
% change in average no. objects (2015 – 2016)
% change in average page size (2015 – 2016)
Global
4.2 secs
4.5 secs
+7.14%
+18%
+7%
+8%
Spain
3.1secs
3.3 secs
+6.45%
-5%
+5%
-13%
France
4.4 secs
3.5 secs
-20.45%
+20%
+15%
+25%
United Kingdom
2.9 secs
3.7 secs
+27.59%
+22%
+15%
+18%
United States
3.4 secs
3.9 secs
+14.70%
+12%
+7%
+5%
Germany
3.7 secs
4.3 secs
+16.21%
+5%
+8%
+18%
Norden
5.2 secs
4.4 secs
-15.38%
+16%
-17%
+5%
China
5.8 secs
4.9 secs
-15.52%
+15%
+7%
+18%
Australia
5.4 secs
8.2 secs
+51.85%
+27%
+13%
+6%
In 2016 most designers integrated complex design schemes into their projects. Most of these included a large number of interactive objects, bigger images and video. Dynatrace uses Apple’s website as a best-practice example. Apple’s websites are some of the fastest in the world without limiting user experience in any way or form.
Keeping it simple works
When it comes to websites, the old saying „less is more” applies perfectly and bigger isn’t always better. A smaller number of objects, smaller pages and optimized images can not only improve your overall user experience, but your revenue as well. Considering these factors, optimizing your website’s speed is well worth the investment.
Adrian Ababei / Jul 01'2016
HTML5 is a technology for the next generation web applications and has come with a lot of new features to the web. In the mobile app world HTML5 applications are widely used. Besides a lot of features, HTML5 has brought to the table various attack vectors. Before talking about security concepts of cross domaing messaging, we need to understand the basics of the HTML implementation of cross domaing messaging.
Cross domain messaging
Because of the same origin policy restrictions before HTML5, sending messages between Windows was only possible if both Windows used the same protocol, port, and host. With the introduction of HTML5, all those restrictions are gone and we can now pass messages across domains without having to worry about Same Origin Policy restrictions. HTML5 has a new method called postMessage(). Using this, we can pass messages between windows regardless of their origin. Below is the syntax of postMessage().
Sending window
otherWindow.postMessage(message, targetOrigin, [transfer]); ‘otherWindow’ is a reference to another window. ‘Message’ is the message to be passed to the receiving window. ‘targetOrigin’ refers tothe URL of the receiving window. If we don’t have any specific preference, we can specify it as “*”. Specifying “*” as ‘targetOrigin’ has some security implications we will discuss in later sections of this article. ‘Transfer’ is optional.
Receiving window
When otherWindow.postMessage() is executed, a messageEvent will be dispatched at the receiver window. We can receive the message dispatched by the sender using the following code snippet. window.addEventListener("message",receiveMessage, false); function receiveMessage(event){ if (event.origin !== "https://goo.gl/Brmfny") return; // ... } From the above code snippet, we can access the data and origin of this message as shown below. ‘event.origin’ gives the origin of the message (the URI from which we are receiving this message). ‘event.data’ gives the actual message being sent. Now, we have got some basic knowledge of what cross domain messaging in HTML5 is and how it is implemented in the applications. Let us now see the security implications of cross domain messaging. For demonstration purposes, we have set up the following lab. A: https://goo.gl/SN1Ow B: https://goo.gl/MTtd As we can see, we have two different ports on the above two URLs. The first URL is running on port 8387 and the second URL is on the default port 80. So, it is obvious that they have two different origins, since the port numbers are different. In our lab setup, A is the message sender and B is the receiving window. We are going to load the second URL https://goo.gl/MTtd as an iframe in the first URL. I can send messages from the domain https://goo.gl/SN1Ow to the domain https://goo.gl/MTtd using the postMessage method. We can check it by clicking the “Send Message” button as shown below. The iframe which is loaded into the first URL is from a different origin, but we are able to send a message to it using HTML5’s postMessage() method. Now, let us look at some scenarios where this postMessage() implementation can introduce vulnerabilities into our applications.
Case one
Code at sender:
receiver.postMessage('Hi There..!', '*');< When the sender has the above code where he specifies the target origin with a wildcard “*”, an unintended recipient (window) can receive this message from the sender. Since the receiving window is listening for incoming messages, anyone can load it into an iframe and can listen for the messages coming to it. So, it is a bad idea to give a wildcard when passing sensitive data to the receiving windows.
How to fix this:
It is possible to fix this just by adding the specific target in the target field. So, in this case https://goo.gl/MTtd is the only origin that can receive this message. This is as shown below. receiver.postMessage('Hi There..!', ' two
Code at receiving window:
function receiveMessage(e) { do something..! } In the above code, we are receiving the message from the sender and directly processing it without checking who sent this message. It is always important to check the origin of the message to prevent receiving messages from unauthorised senders.
How to fix this:
function receiveMessage(e) { if (e.origin !== "") return; do something..! } Always validate the origin from which you want to receive the messages. In our case, we want to receive messages only from . So, we are making a simple check to see if the message is coming from using the property event.origin. If this is not matching, we won’t receive the message.
Case three
The next attack vector is the infamous cross site scripting. Both the sender as well as receiver should always validate the messages being passed. If the data is inserted into HTML DOM without proper validation, then the application becomes vulnerable to DOM based cross site scripting. The following code snippet shows how an application may become vulnerable when a malicious message is received from the attacker and it is inserted into the receiver’s HTML DOM using innerHTML property.
Sender
receiver.postMessage("< img src='x' onerror=alert(1); >", ' receiveMessage(e) { if (e.origin !== "") return; messageEle.innerHTML = "Message from localhost:8387: " + e.data; } When the above code is executed, it causes an XSS in the receiving window as shown in the figure below.
How to fix this:
The easiest way to fix this issue is to assign the data value to an element using textContent rather than using innerHTML. This is done as shown below.
Sender:
receiver.postMessage("< img src='x' onerror=alert(1); >", ' receiveMessage(e) { if ( e.origin !== "") return; element.textContent = " Message from localhost:8387: " + e.data; } When the above code is executed, we should see the text displayed in the receiving frame as “data” rather than code.
Source: http://www.developer-tech.com
Adrian Ababei / Jun 29'2016
Angular 2 is becoming more popular worldwide and because of that, people are starting to learn how to use it. It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or an advanced coder, there are some practices you should follow when using Angular 2.
CLI/Boilerplate
If you’re just starting with Angular 2, use angular-cli (npm i angular-cli -g). It’s based on ember-cli. You can generate a good example with ng init project-name. This command will initialize a new Angular 2 application. This application should already be following all the best practices from the official Angular 2 style guide. Besides that, it installs the required npm dependencies. It also creates unit testing and e2e testing scripts. Long story short, it does everything that is required to start a new Angular 2 application. If you don’t like the directory structure or system.js you can use the best starter kit angular2-webpack-starter or other boilerplates.
Build the app
Angular2 uses Rollup to build bundle there is next-generation ES6 module bundler. A good example is browserify or webpack, because there are more loaders and plugins available for support Rollup feature set eg: rollup-loader and rollupify. Rollup can make smaller code however webpack and browserify have rollup-loader or browserify rollupify transformer which you can use to shrink your bundle. In the near future, it is going to be recommended to use @angular/compiler(-cli) and @angular/platform-browser which was made with template compiler, precompiled templates, and styles. Follow this example to speed up your bundle by more than nine times!
Server side (universal) rendering
Universal means rendering pages on both the server and client side. It usually implies the use of frontend JavaScript and Node.js because they allow for the re-usage of libraries, allowing browser JavaScript code to be run in the Node.js environment with very little modification. As a result of this interchangeability. If you want to use Typescript in Nodejs, we don’t suggest using ts-node or any node module which hacks the require.extension. Use “browserify – node” or webpack with the right configuration to generate server side build.
IDE/Editor
We use Sublime and official Microsoft plugin but we think atom and vscode (unofficial editor of Angular 2) is also ideal for development, but much slower than Sublime. If you prefer complex IDE then use webstorm which has Angular 2 Support.
Linting
We suggest using tslint, it’s the best when using typescript with codelyzer and ng2lint. Valor-software has a very useful lint project, tslint-config-valor contains all rules explicitly.
Documentation
We use typedoc for generating the documentation, there’s a great little tool that allows us to generate HTML documentation based in our TypeScript files similar to what JavaDoc does. This will compile all the documentation (classes, namespaces, functions, etc.), it will be put under the doc folder in the current directory where that command is ran.
Testing
Karma has an over complicated architecture. We suggest using only jasmine (mocha isn’t working yet). Never run tests on ts files, first you need to compile. Unfortunately ts-node is really slow, even with the newest versions. Our tests run with ts-node 10s long and with compiles js only 1s.
TypeScript vs ES6
We use typescript in an Angular 2 based application, and we usually use rxjs too (it is also written by typescript). When you write code, which most often depends on node modules: express, node libs and middlewares use ES6, a lot of packages don’t have typing definition (d.ts). Typescript compiler (tsc) compile the fastest code, but sometimes not the standard way.
Naming Conventions
Naming standards help developers to understand each other’s code better and keep everything tidy. There are naming conventions for file and folder names as well as for class names and selectors. Some examples: – File and folder names should use dash-case and have a suffix which refers to their functionality, like: *.component.ts, *.service.ts *.interface.ts – Selectors should also use dash-case and have a prefix, which functions as a namespace. – Classes (components, services, directives, etc.) and interfaces should use camelCase and have a suffix which refers to the type of the class, like: *Component, *Service, etc.
Directory and File Structure
Directory and file structures are really difficult to keep standardized. The demands always change project by project. In the official style guide you use shared folder (for common components, styles etc.).
Redux
Someday your application will grow up so you have to make a good architecture not only for a big set of components and services. You must handle the states and actions. I think redux is the best container for your app, because all frontend developers know it.
Performance
It is important to know that if you have a component that only expects immutable data to be passed in via a property, you can further optimize rendering speed by adding changeDetection: ChangeDetectionStrategy.OnPush to the component.
Reactivity
Rxjs is a great library and it is much better to depend on library, than a framework. Frameworks change very often, but libraries have a more stable API. Use @ngrx extension like @ngrx/store and@ngrx/router to make a better use of reactivity.
Router
Don’t use the deprecated router (@angular/router-deprecated), Angular 2 is in release candidate status but also has a deprecated router too. We suggest the use of the new router (@angular/router) or @ngrx/router reactive solution, which is the greatest yet. Angular 2 is in release candidate status, but this practice will be useful in the future.
Adrian Ababei / Jun 27'2016
In today’s day and age having a colour blind accessible website is not optional, it’s a must. Colour Blind Awareness statistics state that up to 4.5% of the population suffer from colour blindness, which may not seem a high number but here are the facts:
Why build a colour blind accessible website?
At the moment there are around 3.435.598.500 internet users in the world and this figure is growing rapidly. If we do the math, around 154.601.932 internet users are colour blind – this means they might have a hard time viewing and using your website. That’s a huge chunk of the population!
Before you start thinking about costs and figures, let me lay it out for you: designing colour blind accessible websites doesn’t make it more expensive, on the contrary: considering the fact that you cater to ~155 million people will pay out big time in the long run.
What is color blindness?
Colour blindness comes in all shapes and sizes. Some individuals may have trouble differentiating between certain colour combinations, some may not see certain colours clearly and some users can get different colours mixed up.
Other factors such as glare, screen size, lighting or the quality of the screen can also influence user experience which can ultimately reduce your sales or bounce rate.
As mentioned before, designing colour blind accessible websites won’t be more expensive or take ample amounts of time. Here are 13 tips on how to design or change your website in order to improve user experience:
1. Text readability
Text size, background colour and text colour are factors which ultimately influence text readability. When designing a colour blind accessible website programmers need to follow specific accessibility guidelines in order to ensure user experience for individuals with colour vision deficiency.
2. Text & Background images
Trying to place text over images can be difficult at times simply because the image can lack contrast with the text. A good idea is to reduce the image’s opacity which in turn can make the text easier to read by increasing the contrast. If meddling with the image is not an option, you can change the contrast of your text to achieve the desired effect.
3. Colour swatches, pickers or filters
A great and simple solution to this problem is to add text labels next to the colours themselves. This little trick can also help users which don’t suffer from colour blindness as well.
4. Add descriptions to your pictures
Adding descriptions to your pictures removes any guesswork for colour blind individuals. It can also help people with other eye problems.
5. Recognizing links
In order for a website to be colour blind friendly, links need to be easily spottable without using any text colour. Users suffering from achromatopsia can’t see colour so it’s a good idea to add some specific text before placing a link – eg. “Click here to learn more.”
6. Colour combos
Colour blind individuals see the world differently. They also see websites differently. Certain colour combinations should be avoided in order to improve user experience: • Green-black • Green-grey • Blue-grey • Light green-yellow • Green-blue • Blue-purple • Green-brown • Green-red
7. Colour-blind friendly forms
Using placeholders without labels can also be problematic for some users as most colour blind individuals will not be able to see the text due to its low contrast. It’s a good idea to have forms with labels for each input line.
8. Primary buttons
Designers often use colours to differentiate primary buttons. This is not necessarily a bad idea but in order to improve user experience other things such as icons, borders, size, placement and contrast can be changed in order to make them more noticeable.
9. Alerts and messaging
Error messages are usually coloured red and success messages are usually coloured in green. Although most people won’t have any trouble in seeing these messages correctly, it’s a good idea to add prefix texts such as “Operation failed” or “Task failed” to your messages and alerts - It’s a whole lot easier to read and understand.
10. Required form fields
Obligatory form fields should be differentiated through other means than colour alone: • Removal of optional fields • Marking certain fields with text – “required” • Marking certain fields with an asterisk
11. Colour blind friendly graphs
Graphs are usually made up of different segments of colour. Placing text within each segment can make your website more colour blind friendly. On the other hand, if the segments are too small or narrow for text, you can just use a key to denote different segments.
12. Zooming is a very helpful feature when building a colour blind accessible website
Zooming can improve readability for most users, not just colour blind individuals. While some designers choose to disable zooming on their websites, it’s a good idea to leave this essential accessibility feature on.
13. Relative font sizes
Browsers can increase text size in order to improve readability but this is not always the case. This function can be disabled if the font size is measured in pixels for example. The key to building a colour blind accessible website is using a relative font size unit such as ems – this will help users avoid headaches caused by tiny text.
It’s time for testing!
How can you see if your modifications are done properly? Here’s a small list of tools which you can use: 1. Check My Colours – Simply enter your website’s URL and get some feedback 2. Colour Contrast Checker by Web Aim – Enter two colours and see if they can work together 3. I Want To See Like The Colour Blind – Name says it all. Also my personal favourite. 4. Colour Oracle – colour blindness simulator which can work on Linux, Mac and Windows.
Conclusion
Always remember that between looking good and functionality, most visitors would prefer the latter.
Adrian Ababei / Jun 24'2016
Website loading speed is closely related to user experience, and for good reasons – time is also more valuable than ever. Why would anyone want to waste time on a slow loading website when they can just jump ships and go to a different website? Users generally want a site that loads in 2 seconds max and a mobile website that loads in 3 seconds max, any longer than that and they will jump ships. Designers are taking more and more steps in order to ensure faster loading time but how can you create a fast loading website without removing any of its flashy features? Here are four tips on designing a website without any loading issues.
Minimalistic design still works
Fewer elements means less loading times and ultimately better user experience on your website. It’s a good idea to integrate a minimalistic design to your project thus making it easier and more pleasurable to use. If you’re building a website from scratch it’s a good idea to use smart design from the get-go, as it will save you a lot of time and effort in the future. It’s actually easier to build a fast website from scratch than modifying a website to become faster. Minimalistic features which reduce loading time include but are not limited to: • Using just one type of font on your website • Smaller or optimized images • Shorter web forms • More negative space • Use of hamburger menus instead of navigation bars Probably the best example of minimalism design work is Wikipedia. No wonder it’s so popular! Most searches on Wikipedia take under a second to complete and present results.
The perception of performance is also important in design work
The idea behind this is that you don’t necessarily need to build an extremely fast website; you just need to create a website that’s perceived to be fast in order to keep your users happy. If you are trying to optimize a website’s loading time, you don’t need to implement complex tech solutions in order to do it – you can just change the design in order to make the interface seem faster to the end-user.
Google actually wants your website to be fast
One of Google’s missions is to make the Internet faster – and your website is a part of that! As such, Google offers ample support to developers in building faster websites. You can go and check Google Devs’ „Make the Web Faster” page. This page will be the backbone of your optimization efforts as you can get multiple tools and tricks to help you on your way. One interesting tool and my personal favourite is the Page Speed Insights – here you can actually see what’s making your site slower than the competition and how to fix it. Detail reports, recommendations, tips & tricks – it’s all there. Simply put your URL into the required field and you’ll get a list of things to fix in order to improve your website speed as well as user experience. The more issues you fix, the faster and better your website will be! Simple enough? Let’s move on.
Lazy loading is a thing
Lazy loading means that your website’s objects are not rendered until it’s necessary to render them. Basically, objects will begin to load when users are on that specific part of the page. By using this technique your website will require fewer resources to function properly, thus making it much faster than a regular website which loads all objects at once. This technique is a must for long scrolling pages but it also works for regular pages as well.
By implementing all these tips and techniques you can ensure a fully functional website with a great user experience to boot.
Adrian Ababei / Jun 22'2016