Tag Archives: html5

USER INTERFACE FRAMEWORKS

User Interface Frameworks

Most of the high class web applications that normally we see on the web depend on a delicate set of UI libraries, controls and frameworks. The Web UI is basically an HTML, CSS, and Javascript based application that is used to construct and manage the server appliance from a remote client. In order to build a consistent and reliable UI (User Interface), you need to extend your Web UI. There are several types of UI frameworks available in multiple languages, in the market. These frameworks are used to create the user interfaces to turn up the desired task quickly. But it is important to choose the right web UI framework for the project to develop more flexible and error free applications.

Frameworks often help speed up the development process by providing necessary functionality that is “out of the box”. This includes things such as user and role management, data access, caching, and much more. These frameworks help you simplify the more important details of design and stays focused on project management by alleviating the need to reinvent the wheel for common development needs. For development of web applications, there is a need of technologies all at once – HTML, CSS and JavaScript for the presentation purpose and there are others such as PHP, Java, and .NET that handle more of the dynamic aspects of the application.

There are UI frameworks that often help speed up the development process by providing necessary functionality used in web applications, web sites, web desktops, widgets, modal dialogs, standalone windows and much more to name. JavaScript UI framework is one of the basic component that is used by most applications for buttons, tabs, menus, trees, and dialogs, etc. On the other hand, there are rich and well organized widgets that control the web 2.0 applications by using the Prototype JavaScript Framework.

There are various integrated set of tools to enable developers to develop user interfaces for different types of web applications. Normally, these tools include an XML markup language, cross-platform library, JavaScript runtime, data binding engine, page compiler, runtime inspector, control library, animation engine, cross-platform library, Ajax as well as back button support. These frameworks add the value based features in different websites and web application development process. Most of them will have unique features specific to that particular framework in terms of platform compatibility, portability, database compatibility, general performance, security, web services and language support etc. and are suitable for key development functions. So before diving in, it’s necessary to have an idea of the most commonly used frameworks that can significantly result in more secure applications.

USERINTERFACE

User Interace

User Interface refers to the aspects of hardware or software which can be seen by the human user, and the commands and mechanisms the user uses to control its operation and input data. While User Interface Design is often used for computer systems, it is the part of any system exposed to a user. As per a research survey, it is found that many people are facing problems with poorly designed websites. Some of their problems include vision problems, level of discomfort, and stress at work. So in this article, I would like to highlight why good user interface design is important and discuss the consequences of poor design.

Good user interface design is important because, the need for the design and development of user interfaces that support the tasks people want to do has become an important issue. Users are more comfortable with computer systems that are easy to use, easy to understand, and enable them to attain their goals with minimum frustration. Good user interfaces can lead to benefits such as higher staff productivity, lower staff turnover, higher staff morale, and higher job satisfaction. Economically, these benefits should translate into lower operating costs. Bad user interfaces, on the other hand, may result in stress and unhappiness among staff, leading to high staff turnover, reduced productivity, and, consequently, financial losses for the organizations.

As presentation of web design have much to do with the success of any company. It is important to come up with a user friendly approach to get better results and attract the targeted audience. So considering reliable human factors is of great importance to the organizations during the website design and development, otherwise you may also lose the chances of driving traffic to your site which would eventually affect your business performance. So streamlining your website by following the human factors is a great way to improve the performance.

There are three factors that should be considered for the design of a successful user interface websites; development factors, visibility factors and acceptance factors. Here is the list of things that must be taken into consideration: human abilities, clear conceptual model, navigation, page layout, typography, headings, links, text appearance, color and texture, images, animation, audio and video effects etc. By taking care of these characteristics, organizations can effectively design good interface design, thereby reducing costs, employee turnover, and increasing user satisfaction, productivity, and quality services.

RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN- A NEW POPULAR TREND IN WEBSITE DESIGN

Responsive Web Design: A New Popular Trend in Website Design

Responsive design represents the simplest way to reach users across multiple devices ensuring a seamless user experience. It has been widely used these days with the growing popularity of mobile devices. Responsive design has been very important for organizations looking to optimize their online content.

It consists of a mix of flexible grids and layouts, images and an intelligent use of CSS media queries that extend the functionality of media types by allowing more precise labeling of style sheets. It has features that make websites adjust to various screen sizes and resolution. It has revolutionized the look and feel of websites across all platforms. The key benefit of this responsive design is that it renders only one version of the website for all kinds of devices, which saves both time and money. With many new devices with varied screen sizes, responsive design is a great solution to many critical web challenges. With responsive design, the HTML is the same for every visiting device and each time a page loads on mobile it also loads all of the HTML elements including images & scripts intended for the tablet and desktop sites. Every time a user visits your site they view the full page content by default – no matter which device they are using.

Increased usage of the internet and exploration of web applications on tablet and mobile devices has been the driving force behind this development. It has enabled clients to deliver an optimum visual experience across any device thereby positioning their brands to achieve better search engine rankings in the future.

Advancing from jQuery to AngularJS

Advancing from jQuery to AngularJS

Technology trends are increasingly growing today with the developers building robust  and more complex applications. Almost all of the rich web applications that we currently see on the web rely on a subtle set of UI controls, libraries and frameworks. There are so many options out there to provide a consistent, reliable, and highly interactive user interface, but selecting the right library or  a framework can be overwhelming. To have an idea of all the possible alternatives, in this article we will explore what constitutes best practices with regard to jQuery and, furthermore, why angular is a good choice of a framework to implement.

jQuery as we all know it has become an essential library when it comes to common functions and adding JavaScript functionality to a website. But when it comes to some of the web applications that are large and complex, jQuery alone cannot be used to provide a stable foundation to write quality, maintainable code. Consequently, MVC frameworks have emerged to provide more structured  and maintainable code when developing these applications.

There are many JavaScript frameworks, which provide a solid structure for your code whilst also offering some extra functionality to turn up the desired task quickly. To name a few- Angular.js, Backbone.js, EmberJS, KnockoutJS, etc.   all these frameworks have their own perspectives based on the functionality, features, size, dependencies and interoperability.  Based on the statistical reports of Infoq.com, it is found that AngularJS has been the preferable framework in most of the cases. Also Angular has jQuery dependency, which makes it a good choice for web development. Angular provides a ready framework that works with multiple libraries which can be added on as required.

Let say, if you would like to send some requests to a backend server and display the results on a web page and vice versa. We can perform this simply in both Angular and jQuery. But with Angular it goes really well against jQuery with one big difference. It does not involve us to think of the back and forth DOM translations as opulent to jQuery. In jQuery, the view and the logic or behavior which affects those elements is left to the developer to split them. In jQuery, if we wish to update a specific DOM element with backend data it has to be coded. There is no separation as to which is the data and which is the controller of the data.

That’s where AngularJS comes into play with its two way data binding. Angular separates the UI data and the UI representation of data. The code in AngularJS  is the translation of data to the DOM and vice versa. Angular makes this binding ideal, while increasing productivity. This is the best way to separate data and the HTML view code.

Angular provides rich ‘desktop like’ applications and features that you don’t get with using a jQuery library.

  • MVW pattern (similar to MVC)
  • Two way data binding
  • Dependency Injection:
  • Templates
  • Form Validations
  • Deep Linking for dynamic pages
  • Communication with server
  • Reusable components and localization to name a few

When looking for a comprehensive all-in-one solution, AngularJS is the right choice between the two. Its two-way data binding, in-built directives and filters allows developers to build applications very rapidly. So if you are looking for a lightweight and modular front-end framework for developing fast and powerful web interfaces, AngularJS is the apt framework to build complex applications.  I hope this post has made you think about Angular.js as being a more than viable replacement to jQuery.