A web application is a software that runs on a web browser and interacts fully with its user. Give responses when clicked or as you hover over an element.
From the basic UI/UX design, which depicts the user interface (What the user sees) and the user experience (How the application interacts with its user), to building the website itself,
Different web design tools have always been a great assistance in creating websites and web applications.
Choosing web design tools is considered based on their functionality and purpose. No tool does all the work, so you must first use various tools to achieve the best-designed website.
- The IDEA stage
In this stage, you have to put down your ideas and make sure they solve a problem, and then you have to research and understand the market, its competitors, and how to make your product readily available to users.
Also, in this stage, you have to plan and write out the functionality and features of the application.
- The Design stage;
The design stage is where we have to consider a good design for our product and plan how its looks and interactivity would be. Using UI/UX tools like Figma and adobe XD, we would be able to achieve this effortlessly
- The development stage;
Brainstorming and designing, we now have to look out for the frameworks and tools we would use to build this application using both front-end and back-end tools.
The front-end tools are programs we use to create what the user sees and interacts with.
All the tools you need to set up a web application environment are;
- A code editor
- Knowledge of front-end languages like HTML, CSS, and Javascript.
- Front-end frameworks like react and vue
The back-end tools are those tools that would help our application communicate with our database. The database is where all our information is stored. There are various frameworks for setting up a database, e.g., nodeJS, PHP, Ruby e.t.c.
Tools we need to set up our back-end environment are;
- API(application programming interface); This is a way for two or more programs to communicate with each other. It connects the front-end and back-end and enables them to exchange data.
- Web Servers like apache
- Database, e.g., MongoDB, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server
- Operating system, e.g., Linux, Windows, macOS, ANDROID, IOS
- Testing the application
Testing involves previewing the application, knowing how it behaves, and responding to clicks to detect any errors. We have to make sure it works as we want. We can also test the application by giving it to some users to make use of it and then send feedback.
- Hosting
Hosting the application involves putting it in the cloud so anyone from anywhere can access it. Hosting providers include GoDaddy, Hostgator, WhoGoHost e.t.c
To learn more about hosting, check out this article.
- Deploying your application
Deploying the application involves getting the web application from its source control system to the hosting provider you’ve already chosen above. Various tools can help in deploying a web application, e.g., GitHub, BitBucket, Netlify, Jenkins, GitLab e.t.c
As a beginner, read more about the best web application tools here.