The last decade introduced the world to the digitization of many sectors. This helped the global trade to increase worldwide as many developing and emerging countries became important trading partners and potential sales and development markets. Digitization has helped us to be more connected and perform our daily tasks more effectively. It has made the world a global village and people global citizens.

However, the economies built in the previous decade came crashing to the ground in the last few weeks as COVID-19 pandemic hit the world. While the pandemic has had a great impact on the global economy, it taught us how to fight and improve the current condition using technology. It has laid a new pathway by disrupting our lifestyles by enabling contact-less and virtual experiences. Even though the technology cannot prevent the onset of the pandemics, it can, however, help prevent the spread, educate, empower, and warn people around. Today, these technologies are emerging more than ever – mobile, cloud, analytics, robotics, AI/ML, 4G/5G, and high-speed internet.

Let us look at three technologies that are disrupting our lifestyle each day during this pandemic:

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

From tracking the travel history of COVID-19 patents to analysing the symptoms of people exposed to the infection, the applications used by many governments do it all. These applications use chatbots to gather information from people, and the technology used in these applications is that of AI and ML. This enables the government to collect reliable information much easier and faster without any human intervention.

The advent of more such mobile applications and software will help ease the lifestyle of customers.

Extended Reality

Augmented and virtual reality is surely a boon in the world of lockdown and quarantine. This technology can be used in providing more meaningful and real experiences for people. The technology can help you see the world while you are locked in your home. This experience will change the way we travel, work, and relax. For instance: Realty brands can focus on using AR/VR videos to target their audiences by helping them take a walk-through the project while they are seated in the comfort of their home. This is an example of how a sector can use the contact-less experience to their advantage.

Cloud and Internet

The last few weeks have seen a great transition in the way the workforce can function. Companies got to believe that remote working and work from home concepts can be of their advantage. The transition to work from home and remote working has increased the dependency on cloud and internet infrastructure. The usage of this technology is set to remain the same even post lockdown and pandemic as many companies are moving towards welcoming a ‘hybrid’ way of working. This will increase the demand for teleworking applications and software for the team to be connected and interactive.

Talking about the internet, technology has changed the sector of education. It has enabled kids to learn and study from home using applications that require an active internet connection to connect with their peers and teachers. For times to come, e-learning will be an accepted norm for the parents and teachers alike.

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated to the world that importance of digital readiness. The acceptance and usage of digital technology will allow the business and individuals to continue their work and chores as usual during the pandemic. The companies at large will focus on building necessary digital infrastructure by using the latest technology to stay connected with their employees and customers. The pandemic has increased their market competition by many folds, therefore businesses will have to take an approach that is human-centred and inclusive using technology governance.

Coronavirus 2019 is surely a sour pain for all of us. Little did we know that it would take an epidemic to change our lifestyle upside-down. People locked up, offices shut, roads empty, and socialising became a nightmare. These tough times have not only affected individuals but also the companies and government, as all countries in the world have had a major hit in their economy. It would not be wrong to say that in future, the world will never be the same as it used to be. Many businesses are likely to be shut if they do not evolve and adapt during the pandemic, and many new opportunities will emerge.

Who knew that the words like social-distancing and contact-less experience would disrupt our lifestyle and be a norm someday. Well, it is now, and we can not deny that. No matter what businesses you are in, you will have to adapt to this change, sooner the better. This is the time when you need to pay closer attention to consumer demands than ever and adapt accordingly. For instance: Zomato – an online food delivery app started delivering groceries as that is the need of the hour.

Talking about the mobile application, today, many governments are using this technology to track the movement of COVID-19 infection amongst the community. Thereby enabling them to take necessary actions in respective regions. Likewise, a mobile application that will solve the current problems faced by consumers will grow and evolve. Consumers are looking for contact-less experiences and the app development domain offers the same seamlessly. Therefore, mobile application development will strengthen the new norms and trends furthermore.

Let us take a closer look at the industries that can take advantage of mobile application development during this new normal:

Education Technology 

With no clear picture on when the schools and institutes are going to be open, the demand for online and digital learning will boom the sector of education technology. Children have already started learning online – from attending a virtual lecture to submitting their assignments. What was once started as a value add for kids to upskill has today become an integral part of learning. There are quite a few education apps available, and there is a lot more scope for the new ones to make their way and gain the maximum of the situation.

E-commerce 

Even if the malls and shopping complexes open, there is going to be a fear-factor in the consumer’s mind to physically go and shop. From safely packed food/goods to contact-less delivery, many e-commerce companies are following the new norm. A ‘contact-less’ or ‘zero-contact’ delivery limits the chances of contamination. Therefore, the e-commerce mobile applications are here to stay and rule the retail sector across the globe.

Teleworking 

Working from home is no more a taboo, organisations have seen an increase in productivity during this phase and it is defiantly going to be an accepted norm. This could be possible because of few teleworking applications as they help the teams to stay connected as they were during the regular days. From online meetings to sharing the tasks, teleworking mobile applications provide it with all for end-to-end communication with your teams.

Health and Fitness 

The pandemic has taught us the importance of a healthy lifestyle more than anything else. People now are more focused to enhance their physical and mental well-being. Hence, many consumers are now investing a lot more time on their health and giving it utmost importance. Mobile applications that provide a holistic health solution for mind, body, and soul is well accepted by the consumers. In a nutshell, it cost us a pandemic to understand how important our health is. This is one of the foremost reasons for the growth of mobile applications in the health and fitness industry.

App Payments 

No cash, no cards. They can be contaminated! Consumers along businesses have become very mindful about the contact-less experience and are motivated to pay using mobile applications. Once marketed for its convenient, fast, and effortless transactions, mobile app payments today advocate safety and health factors. So much said and done about the digital transactions, it has only been possible by a pandemic to make people understand that it is ‘safe’ and ‘reliable’.

OTT

Being home locked all day, people are exploring more and more options for entertainment as they have all the time in the world. Televisions are airing old and dated content, whereas OTT platforms are bringing new-age content from their stocked library. Despite watching some dated series, audiences are more interested in consuming new and fresh content each day. Seeing the growing demand for OTT platforms, many film producers are now considering to release their movies online at OTT mobile applications. For some time consumers will avoid visiting theatres and multiplexes. Therefore, this will further spurt the OTT industry.

In the days to come consumers will choose interactive mediums and applications that are safe, reliable, and disruptive. From eduction to payments, the pandemic is truly making India digital. Should you be planning to develop a disruptive mobile application in conjunction with the latest trends, then contact us at contact@goodworklabs.com or  +91- 9863077000.

In the last decade, almost every day, we have witnessed an emerging usage of smartphones and applications that support them. The mobile application industry has reshaped the businesses, organisations, individuals, and customers. Irrespective of the domain or sector you are in, it is necessary to integrate the latest mobile application development to get more reach, conversion, and growth. Therefore, it would not be wrong to say that smartphones today are transforming business models, customer behaviour, operation models, and marketplaces.

In a report by Statista, it is clear that the mobile application industry is expected to reach $693 billion in 2021. Meaning, there is a great opportunity for the mobile app developers, and the year will generate more and more demand to create mobile applications that stand out and see the day of light.

Let us look at some of the emerging trends in the mobile application industry that can help you build a mobile application that is with and ahead of times:

AI and ML apps to make smartphones smarter 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) go hand in hand while building a mobile application. They are taking a centre stage of almost all technological advancements and innovation for they ease the life of customers, businesses, and employees. Apart from making life easy, they also contribute to saving time, effort, and money for mobile app developers and businesses.

Using AI and ML has lead businesses to understand user behaviour at a much deeper level. This indeed helps them solve complex business problems which would have been tough to gauge without interacting with users/customers. The simplest (or to say commonest) example of AI and ML apps is the usage of chatbots, Siri, and google.

Selling an experience through AR and VR

Known as extended reality, Augmented Reality(AR) and Virtual Reality(VR) is here to stay. Widely used for mobile gaming applications, this trend is slowly set to change by bringing in more meaningful experiences for the users or customers. It is predicted that this technology will be widely used on social platforms for branding and targeting potential customers through AR/VR apps. For instance: Creating an Instagram filter to promote your brand and engage the audiences.

Also, today many real estate developers are providing AR/VR videos for the audiences to experience their upcoming projects and taking informed decisions. This has helped them to set clear expectations and get faster conversions.

Talking about the worldwide market of AR and VR technology, Statista predicts that the business value will hit to $209 billion in 2022.

Wearables, the emerging fad

Expected to reach $44.2 billion by 2020, the wearable industry will change the everyday lifestyle. From healthcare to e-commerce all are banking on this trend to increase the engagement and revenue. The integration of wearables serves as a key to innovation and technological development.

Apple watches have pioneered this trend, and with their latest WatchOS update, they have made it clear that the Apple Watch apps will no longer require a companion iOS app. Meaning, the world of smart wearables will now be just as wide as that of smartphones.

On-demand apps, a change maker

Today we have an application for almost all our daily needs and chores – from delivery to travel, OTT to banking, and home-spa to healthcare. This is all possible because of the on-demand application developers. To develop an application that brings in change, you need to vision problems from the end-user point-of-view, anticipate, research, and then develop a solution.

In a report by Shamika Ravi and Niam Yaraghi, it is predicted that the on-demand application industry is expected to generate $335 billion in revenue. Therefore, most industries will make use of this successful business model by embracing on-demand application in their businesses. On-demand mobile applications will disrupt the way we life, work, travel, shop, and relax!

IoT, enabling a seamless experience

Living in a world of interconnected smart gadgets, we can see that Internet of Things (IoT) has already become an industry that is here to deliver a real-time experience which is seamless, fast, and valuable. IoT’s integration with mobile applications has brought in a change in inventory management, buying behaviour, digital marketing, etc. As the demand for IoT gadgets is increasing day by day, there is going to be increased demands of IoT-enabled applications as well.

With many applications being developed each day, the mobile application industry will continue to expand at a rapid pace. This will lead to more disruption thereby making way for newer trends that will change the way we all live, work, and play! Having said that, to stand out in the market and be alive, the businesses will have to anticipate and stay updated with the latest technological developments.

Should you be planning to develop a mobile application that will engage your customers and increase your revenue by using the latest trends, then contact us at contact@goodworklabs.com or  +91- 9863077000.

Have you have ever thought to yourself how much time do we spend using our mobile applications? A study says on an average people spend about three hours a day using their mobile applications. That is not surprising, after all, we do almost all daily tasks using these mobile applications – messaging, booking a ride, shopping online, playing games, banking, dating, etc. Smartphones and mobile applications have today become an integral part of our lives and society.

This pretty much says why a business needs to adopt mobile applications to lure and engage customers. These apps can help businesses drive more customers and already many companies are soaring high in the app store and play store.

Top app-based businesses like Swiggy, Zomato, AirBnB, Amazon, Uber, etc have adopted the mobile app trend and have become one of the largest companies in India and aboard. In India, this trend influenced many mobile app development companies in Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, and Delhi to develop advanced apps for their clients to engage their customers and increase their business revenue. Irrespective of what business you are in, you should get a mobile application to simplify or ease the business operation.

Taking so much about the importance of having a mobile application for your business, let us look at five key factors that can make or break your dream application:

Invest in research

If you want to build an application that soars high in the app skies and strikes an engaging cord with your target audiences, then you should invest a lot of time in research before you start planning. Research the current trends in the app market and study about the upcoming or expected trends in the industry. Dig deeper and gain insights into the consumer demands and preferences. With this in-depth study and research, you should be able to analytically understand what kind of apps are popular among smartphone users.

Also, spend some time understanding the applications from the user perspective. Download the most popular apps, and get a first-hand experience of them. This shall help you understand the user experience, the interface, and the functionality of the app. Yet another way to learn through user’s perspectives are the reviews left on the app store and play store. You can find more about the loopholes and the best features here. This research will enable you a great foundation to work on.

Make clear objectives

An aimless app is just like an arrow in the dark – you don’t know where you are headed. Without a definite aim or objective, your application will surely be a failure. So get it right to the T! You can not afford to miss this. You should know why are you building a mobile application? Is it to engage your audience? Is it to increase revenue? Or is it to help people?

Without understanding the aims and objectives a mobile app, it will be impossible to – zero down the features, create a platform strategy, design UX/UI and ultimately develop an app. So get the aim right as that is the soul to your app.

Know your target audience

The most crucial step, for this, decides the success or failure of your mobile application. Therefore, identifying the right target audience plays a vital role in developing a mobile application and its features expansion. Put some time in doing primary research through surveys and interviews followed by studying the online forums to understand your market and audience. As all applications are here to solve some of the other problems, the ‘target audience’ should never be a work of guess.

You know who your target audience research is ready when you can answer these questions – Where are they located? What is their age group? What is their gender? Which income level do they belong to? What interests them? What is their occupation? What smartphone do they use? etc. Answers to these will help you create audience persona to visualize the needs of your audience sets. This step further strengthens your foundation, so be clear about who your target audience is.

Choose the right platform

Currently, there are three most popular platforms for smartphone applications. They are – android, iOS, and Windows. While android is largely common and there are many users to it, it surely can help you get a large number of downloads. But do keep a note on if your TG uses an android? Yes, you got that right. The platform strategy and selection depends on where the TG lies.

The best strategy that most app developers follow is to start with one platform, wait for the results, gather insights, and then move to a different platform. Choosing the right platform completely depends on the target audience, use, features, and pricing. Once the strategy and budget are ready you can develop a native or a hybrid mobile application.

Get the features right

The feature is the only factor that can make you stand out in the crowd. The more unique, the better. Needless to say, that your mobile application should be innovative, creative, and have easily accessible features. With everyday advancements in the smartphones and mobile application industry, it is now possible to integrate the features of smartphones in mobile applications. Adding good features enhances user experience, but adding too many features can make your application complex and slow. Therefore, always keep only the necessary, leave the rest.

The above-mentioned factors are crucial in developing an app that helps your brand successfully connect with your user base. When done right, a mobile app can help you build brand presence, convert loyal customers into brand evangelists, and increase profit margins. As one of the top mobile application development companies in India, Goodworklabs boasts an enviable track record in delivering quintessential web and mobile applications. For more information, contact our technical experts today.

These key factors are crucial in developing a mobile application that helps your brand reach, grow, and connect at a deeper level. If you follow the golden rules to the T, you are bound to reinforce your brand presence and increase your ROI by adding more customers. GoodWorkLabs, is the leading mobile application developer based out of Bangalore, India, and the San Francisco Bay Area, US. Should you require any help in building a mobile application, then reach out to us at +91- 9863077000 or contact@goodworklabs.com.

IoT (Internet of Things) is the backbone of a grand technological future. It is a concept of connecting multiple devices through the internet. Today, all industries make use of this technology and therefore have revolutionised their respective business sectors.

Taking a step further, IoT in the web and app development is making path-breaking contributions towards the world of technology. It has enabled a shift in the way users interact with websites and applications. Making the lives easier and more synchronised is the major advantage of IoT in mobile app development. As IoT begins to take over the world of technology, having a functional mobile app helps users to seamlessly connect to the world via a smartphone, a tablet, or a smartwatch.

Let us take a closer look at how IoT can impact Mobile Application Development

Enrich the User Experience

Providing a seamless user experience and keeping them engaged is one of the most important aims of the businesses and developers. With the rise of IoT, and through its continued growth we have a great advancement in the concept of everything smart – smart cities, smart applications, and smart homes.

Living in a tech-enabled world, brands today focus on enhancing the user-experience using smart applications that interact with your fitness equipment, watches, lights, speakers, and so on. This is where the IoT comes into the picture. It is IoT that keeps all these connected and synchronised to deliver a great user experience.

Open Source Development, a New Norm

Since its inception in the tech world, IoT has only grown and flourished across industries and sectors. This explosion has lead IT companies and developers to share their programs or applications openly for third parties to use. This encourages new and naive developers to build applications of their own.

Having an open-source development increases the opportunity to work with varied minds by leaps and bounds. This helps more and more creative minds to enter and develop smarter mobile applications. Bringing in transparency, companies and developers collaborating has today become a norm.

Creating New Platforms

Adopting IoT and creating apps with that at its core is a bit challenging for developers. Despite their constant and multiple adaptations, they are hindered by the dearth of the platforms. But this challenge didn’t stop them from working on their mandates, as they created brand-new platforms for their applications. This leads to the development of integrated IoT platforms, thereby enabling the developers to create more and more cross-platform applications. This trend will only encourage mobile app developers to focus on developing platforms as they offer profitable returns.

Opening up more opportunities for mobile app developers, IoT is no doubt a much-needed advancement in app development. IoT and Mobile App Development, together, will change the way we live, work, and relax. If you are planning to take some advantage of IoT and Mobile App Development, then contact us at contact@goodworklabs.com or  +91- 9863077000.

Sonia Sharma, CEO, GoodWorkLabs was honoured with the esteemed ‘Suraksha Chakra’ award from Bangalore City Police on the occasion of International Women’s Day! The star-studded event was hosted to recognise 13 women from Bangalore city, who made an impact on society and broke all the gender stereotypes. Sonia was awarded for her contributions to entrepreneurship, job creation and women empowerment in Karnataka!

On the occasion, Sonia Sharma, said: “I am happy to receive this prestigious award from Bangalore City Police. It is a great honour to know that my work has encouraged budding entrepreneurs to excel and contributed towards the betterment of the workforce at large. I am thankful for the consistent effort and hard work of my dedicated, committed, and creative teams. I couldn’t have been where I am now without them. Kudos to the GoodWorkLabs and GoodWorks teams!

“Observing the exponential growth of my two ventures, I aim to expand and create more job opportunities for the young innovators out there. Looking forward to an excellent journey ahead!” she exclaims.

Here at GoodWorkLabs, we realize it can be stressful and difficult for a business to balance app development with an ordinary workflow. That’s why we’re here to help! With a core focus on Data Science, AI, and Machine Learning technologies and expertise in building B2B and B2C platforms, we have served our customers across e-commerce, retail, automobile, healthcare, real estate, NGO, and education domain. All this, and more has led us to be the industry leader that we are today! We are committed to help our customers by building custom solutions for them and optimizing their products.

In recognition of our efforts, we’ve been named one of the leading firms for app development by Clutch, a B2B market research authority. They leverage a unique ratings methodology to compare and contrast leaders across an array of service sectors.

We couldn’t have won this award without the support of our lovely customers. They took time out of their day to engage with Clutch analysts to assess our impact. We were evaluated along the lines of quality, attention to deadlines, and overall project management acumen. We’re happy to say we’ve maintained a wonderful 4.9 out of five stars! Take a look at a recent review below:

“We are extremely happy to be named as a Clutch Leader in the report on the top mobile app developers in India! We bring in digital transformation for our customers by constantly anticipating upcoming tech trends and building solutions around them.” – Sonia Sharma, CEO & Co-founder, GoodWorkLabs.

We’re proud to receive this recognition and look forward to helping even more clients reach their goals with our cutting-edge technology. Drop us a line if you’d like to work on a project with us today!

From visiting a Kirana store and waiting in lines to ordering groceries on mobile applications with just one click, all of us have come a long way. The advancement in consumer behaviour and practices have changed over the last decade and the growth in the number of online consumers is something which we have not witnessed in history. This growth and development can be credited to the e-commerce industry. But what have entrepreneurs and enterprises been using to develop these e-commerce stores?

Magento is one such reliable platform on which ecommerce businesses are built. It’s a platform designed to help small, midsize and enterprise level businesses make it big in the e-commerce industries. The Adobe owned platform powers close to 250,000 online businesses and is preferred by many entrepreneurs and businesses worldwide.

Magento is specifically designed and developed to help e-commerce platforms grow by providing useful analytics, scalable technology and optimal solutions to manage a heavy backend while fulfilling consumer needs. If you’re a dreamer who’s reading this article to build your e-commerce store, we’re here to help you and tell you why Magento is one of the best things that can happen to your business.

Giants using Magento

Magento is used worldwide and there is no doubt that it’s one of the best tools to build your e-commerce. Many of the biggest players of the industry like cocacola, Ford, Nike, Nestle Nespresso etc have relied upon magento to build their ecommerce platforms. With Magento store hosting, businesses can create a tailored shopping experience that meets their unique needs, making it an excellent choice for growing e-commerce stores.

Why use Magento?

There are many reasons why Magento is used at this scale and is the choice for every e-commerce store owner. Some of the reasons are listed below.

1) Open Source

“Good things are never free.” Well, this is not the case here. The Magento community edition is open source i.e. free to download and use. This renders the development cost of the website to a bare minimum and the owner can think of better ways to use his/her money. The free edition can be downloaded from here.

2) Scalable Tech

One of the reasons why writing code for e-commerce websites is an onerous task is that the code written should be scalable and should be optimised to handle large chunks of online traffic. Magento is designed to be scalable and hence websites deliver efficient and fast services to its users. It’s no wonder why even big companies with complex operations and high amount of traffic deploy a Magento website to sell products and services.

3) Community

Being open source is one of the strengths of Magento. People all around the globe use it and help other developers to grow in the field by developing free and cool extensions to integrate with your Magento e-commerce store.

4) e-Commerce friendly

Though WordPress might be the best content management system being offered out there, it is no Magento. Magento is specifically designed for building e-commerce platforms and hence has inbuilt features and actions that a developer can use to provide business solutions. This is why Magento is now preferred over ‘WordPress + WOO Commerce’ and ‘Drupal + Drupal Commerce’ combos. This is one of the major reasons why the number of Magento websites worldwide have doubled from 2017 and 2018.

5) Performance

A fraction of a second might be the difference between an interested lead and a converted customer. Hence, if you want to convert that doubtful lead into a happy customer, using Magento is probably a good idea. Magento with its highly optimized and scalable tech renders web pages on your device within an eye blink. This is one of the reasons for a higher conversion rates of websites developed in Magento.

6) SEO Friendly

Search engine optimization is one of the aspects of an e-commerce business that cannot be neglected while making a choice of a platform for your e-commerce store. Magento comes with inbuilt features to develop SEO friendly URL structure, sitemaps, positioning layer, URL rewrites, tags, descriptions, etc. Also, there are a multiple set of extensions to optimize your website’s rank on a search result page on Google and other search engines. We advise you to use these functionalities to the best of your capabilities to increase sales.

7) Ease of integration

Managing an e-commerce store is not an easy task and entrepreneurs depend on different specialised systems for keeping an eagle view of their website and its performance. However, Magento doesn’t fail here too and provides all specialised systems integrated on one single dashboard. Magento is compatible with a plethora of third-party services including payment gateways, transportation, database applications, shipping, order tracking etc. Also, keeping an eye on the websites performance is imperative and hence Magento offers Google tools such as Google Analytics, Google Checkout, and Google Base built into its system.

8) Billing in Multiple Currencies

Technological advancements have made the world a smaller place and businesses can now sell their products to anyone. Hence, consumers should be able to get billed in varied currencies without any hassle. Magento provides developers to integrate payment gateways which can be used to bill in multiple currencies.

9) Multi store millionaire

If you have a pipeline of ideas and products in varied fields and want to set up separate e-commerce stores, Magento is here to facilitate your dreams. With Magento’s content management system you can set up multiple stores for yourself with just one backend. This helps companies to perform enterprise level operations on different stores with utmost ease and pleasantness.

10) Size doesn’t matter

Magento websites are responsive to screen sizes and don’t lose any functionality or efficiency if your consumer operates through a desktop, laptop, tablet or even a mobile device. Also, inbuilt features help you track your consumers’ preferred devices and in turn help you optimise design and layout of your website specific to your consumer needs.

Summing it up

Magento is an Adobe owned platform that powers about 250,000 web stores worldwide. The inbuilt features along with the ease of integration provided by the platform results in a lethal combination for building a successful online store. All this being open source too, help entrepreneurs in cutting development costs and generating sales with higher conversion rates. 

If you’re a dreamer and wish to accomplish success with an e-commerce store, this is the last day of your hustle! We at GoodWorkLabs help dreamers like you to reach at the top of your e-commerce game by developing Magento websites. The team of experienced Magento professionals is equipped with decades of experience in this space helping different websites stand out in the huge crowd. So let’s build your dream with Magento!

Customized UI frameworks offer a bunch of benefits over ready-to-use frameworks, which have influenced many companies to switch to customized solutions. Both ready-to-use and customized frameworks provide their set of advantages and drawbacks, and it all boils down to your business objectives and challenges. Let’s dive into the comparison between these two types of frameworks, along with some tips to create a custom UI framework in JavaScript.

UI Frameworks: An Overview

UI framework refers to a software suite that provides the users with APIs to build new UI components or customize the existing ones. A framework, in general, is a platform for developing applications. UI framework is used to speed up the development process of a front-end application. It enables the developers to develop stunning, responsive and unique multi-device applications without having in-depth design, development, and technical skills. 

UI frameworks are entirely based on web standards, like CSS, HTML5, and JavaScript. For example, Twitter created a custom UI framework of Bootstrap Framework, which is an open-source, free-to-use, responsive, compatible, and customizable. UI frameworks are typically categorized into:

• Ready-to-use UI Framework
• Customized UI Framework

Both have discreet advantages and disadvantages — ready-to-use frameworks are easy-to-use and stable but consist of limitations and lack of control, whereas, customized frameworks offer optimization and full control but require time and expertise and need frequent updates and bug fixes. But, the comparison between the two goes way beyond these factors; thus, let’s discuss the difference between ready-to-use and front-end solutions in detail.

Front-end Frameworks: Custom vs. Ready-to-use Solutions

Ready-to-Use Solutions Advantages

One of the primary reasons people prefer sticking to ready-to-use solutions is its simplicity and functionality. Let’s look at some of the significant benefits of these types of frameworks. 

Plug-and-play functionality: In ready-to-use frameworks, all you need to do is type some markup and you will get a functional code without bothering about factors like dynamic behavior and styling. 

Stable and well-tested code: When you download a ready-to-use framework package, you can be rest assured that the code is stable and well tested. Thus, your website or application will perform well on all the platforms and browsers supported by the particular framework. 

Regular updates: Another significant advantage of ready-to-use frameworks that makes it a go-to choice for most developers is the frequent updates, new features, and bug fixes it receives. 

More significant Community: Ready-to-use frameworks usually have a large community, which you can rely on in times of troubles and doubts. These communities readily provide articles, tutorials, FAQs, add-ons, and extensions for framework learning and website & app development process. 

Ready-to-Use Solutions Disadvantages

The advantages of ready-to-use frameworks look appealing, and you might be on the verge of downloading one for your next development task. But, hold on for a second, as it offers some drawbacks as well, which you cannot look beyond. Here are a few disadvantages of using a ready-to-use framework. 

You still need to learn: Although these frameworks don’t require a lot of technical expertise, you still need to invest time and effort to learn to use it to make the most out of the plug-and-play functionality.

Excess of code: Ready-to-use frameworks are developed for a large segment of users; thus, it attempts to provide functionality for all kinds of developers. It might sound good on the surface, but this one-for-all approach results in a lot of unnecessary code, which might be a burden to use. 

You will need to modify it: Since it is made for a large number of consumers, it comes with a standard set of features, which, in its general form, might not be able to cater to your requirements. Therefore, you will need to tweak a ready-to-use framework to make it functional, which will take additional time and effort.

Standard-looking websites: If you are not able to tweak the framework and stick with the general one, your site will look generic like every other website made using that framework. The look and feel of your website play a vital role in attracting visitors, and having a dull site will damage the reputation and image of your brand.  

Third-party integrations: Since these types of frameworks have limited functionality and usable components, you will need to add third-party integrations.

You can’t change the code: The primary disadvantage of ready-to-use solutions is the limitations you have while using it. If you want to use a component of the framework, but the development team decides to remove it,  you cannot do anything but accept the change.

Customized UI Frameworks Advantages

Custom solutions provide seamless functionality and accessibility. More in-detail benefits are discussed below. 

Less time and effort required: When you develop a custom framework, you do so as per your objectives and long-term requirements, which helps to save a substantial amount of time and effort in the future. 

Control over the code: Since you have made the framework, you have full control over its code and design implementation; thus, no features will be removed until you remove them yourself. 

Uniqueness: Customized solutions allow you to give your website a unique touch, which makes your site look more attractive and responsive.

Customized UI Frameworks Disadvantages

Apart from a plethora of advantages, custom solutions offer a few drawbacks as well, as discussed below. 

Time and effort: You will need to put in time and effort in the early stages of requirement; however, after the framework is ready, you will save a significant amount of time and resources. 

Testing and maintenance: For the browsers you are targeting, you will need to test and maintain the code regularly.  

You are responsible for bug fixes and updates: Since you have made the framework, you will be responsible for all the updates, bug fixes, and new features you want to add to the framework. 

The Best Solution

So, as you can see that both types of frameworks offer their set of benefits and drawbacks, and for a beginner developer, making the right call can be a tedious task. However, there is a third solution as well, which many refer to as a semi-custom solution. It can be achieved by performing customizations on ready-to-use solutions like Bootstrap. 

Best practice to create Custom UI framework in JavaScript

Creating frameworks can take a lot of time and effort; therefore, make sure you do it rightly and smartly. Here are a few practices you should keep in mind when creating a custom UI framework in JavaScript. 

Don’t create a framework similar to an existing one: Many developers do this — just because they don’t want to use a ready-to-use framework, they create a new one with the exact same features and functionalities. There are already a lot of excellent frameworks available, and if you create one that does the exact same thing that any other framework does, you have done nothing but wasted your time and effort. Therefore, take the matter in your own hands only if you feel no other framework out there caters to your requirements. 

Make sure you are solving a problem: You can consider this point as an extension of the above point. Every good framework is created under the shadow of a problem, and if you are contemplating designing a custom framework, make sure it helps people overcome some common challenges. You can either create a solution that no one is talking about or create a better version of an existing framework that is in demand. A few common examples of frameworks that solve problems are:

• jQuery: provides seamless selection and manipulation of DOM 
• Modernizr: helps effortless identification of features a browser supports

If you know what your framework is all about, you can make it worth it. 

Don’t rewrite: If you feel you can solve a problem better than some other framework, make sure you don’t end up rewriting it but entirely modify it to cater to your requirements. 

Chase Stability: Unless you are creating a custom framework targeted to cater to highly specific requirements, don’t play around with the code. Avoid experimenting and making the code unstable as it will slow down your framework along with making it incompatible with previous browsers. Instead,  keep it simple and straightforward. 

Make it open-source: Making your source openly available is a great idea — giants like Google have invested years in creating open-source frameworks like AngularJS. Making your framework open-source will help you gain the attention of fellow developers that are willing to contribute to your project. This, in turn, will enable you to speed up your development process, along with making the final product better and bug-free.

Wrapping It Up

Customized UI frameworks offer excellent functionality and flexibility to develop websites and web applications, whereas ready-to-use solutions offer stability and uniformity. Selecting the best among the two can be a challenging thing to do, and you should make a call depending upon your capabilities and requirements. If you feel you are capable of creating a custom solution and you think it is worth making a new one, go for it; if not, stick to ready-to-use frameworks.

To create custom UI frameworks for your business, get in touch with us at contact@goodworklabs.com or visit us at www.goodworklabs.com.