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UI Design and Development: Capabilities for Enterprise Development

Innovatix’s Future Technology Directions Series: UI / UX This paper provides an overview of Innovatix Technology Partner’s latest UI design, prototyping, and development toolsets for creating compelling and intuitive user interfaces for the enterprise systems we build for our clients. In addition to what our current technology stack looks like, we also describe the new technologies we are now evaluating and moving to, including new capabilities for incorporating interactive and animated UI features. We consider UI design and development to be a leading and integral part of our overall enterprise design and development efforts. The fact is our customers see the new applications we just built for them thru the User Interface first and foremost. Our methods for UI design revolve around ‘design thinking’, that is, we always work closely and intensely with our client’s business users to ensure that the applications we build are exactly what the client needs and wants. For our part in the client-vendor relationship, we emphasize always that the UI needs to be as simple, minimal, and intuitive as possible.[1] Most importantly, our UI designs nowadays must adhere to two new critical design principles: UI design is one of the dimensions in which we can move a client’s business process to a new dramatically more automated level. During the design stage, we don’t only ask the client what the current business processes look like now (which we certainly need to know), but much more importantly, we discuss with the client what the business process could look like if/when it is fully automated. That forms one of the central pillars of all our current enterprise development work efforts and we are expecting that trend to continue to grow going forward. [2] At the other end of smart, it can mean the incorporation of smart algorithms that anticipate a user’s next need and fill in place-holder information for the user to start with. There is no limit to how advanced and productive this type of UI design and development thinking can be, and we feel we are on the leading edge of this type of thinking. Currently, we have about 20-25 separate enterprise development projects ‘in process’.[3] In most all these new app development efforts, effective and intuitive user interfaces form a key part of achieving ‘best in class’ apps. So, in a nutshell, to achieve best-in-class we strongly adopt the principles of ‘design thinking’ with the two major additions noted above. We strive to ensure we embed in our new UI designs the most business process automation possible, and we incorporate as much smartness as possible. On the tech side, we are constantly testing and validating the latest tools available in the marketplace, always looking for ones that provide significantly better functionality or productivity. Once a new tech is selected, we work hard on intensive education and training of our design teams in the new selected technology. Our goal is to make the transition to the new tech as seamless and effective as possible, so we and our customers gain the benefits of the new tech without all the startup problems and hiccups. So read below to see what we are currently doing and the new directions we are moving to. One last point before we dive in. Innovatix’s Enterprise Development line of business is a contract enterprise development shop – clients come to us to enquire about a new system or app that they need to be built, either to replace an existing system or to add new functionality to an existing system. As such, we understand fully that the tools and methods we would like to use may not be the ones used by our clients, and of course, in these cases we will adhere to the client’s final choices. We are versatile in a whole slew of technologies and tools other than the ones in our recommended tech stack. Background This is the first in a series of short technical papers on advances and innovations Innovatix is now pursuing and implementing within each of our five LOBs. This paper relates to our Enterprise Development LOB and highlights the advances in methods and technologies we are making to our UI design, prototyping, and development efforts in support of developing new enterprise applications for our clients. UI Design and Development Technologies Here we describe the toolset we currently use for UI design and the new tools we expect to move into our recommended tech stack before the end of this year. 1.   Current Tool Set As shown in the pie chart below, about 50% of our current work is done using the mainstay tool Photoshop, no surprise there. In addition to this, we are using Adobe XD for about 20% of our current work efforts. The third tool, Figma comprises about 30% of our current work efforts, and therein lies our movement to the future. It is expected by end of this year, a much greater percentage of our UI design efforts (probably more than half) will be based on the Figma design toolset. Of course, as noted earlier, this tool mix is directly influenced by our client base. For all new projects, we offer our clients a recommended tech stack that includes the tools for UI design and development.[4] However, in the final analysis, it is up to our clients to approve our recommended tech stack or to substitute their choices. So, while our first choice will be to move as much of our new UI design efforts to Figma, that may not be possible in all new projects.  With respect to UI development tools, the right-hand side of the chart above shows the mix of development tools we currently use. There is a broad mix of tools we are currently using and the choices for any particular project are driven in large measure by client expectations and wishes. For work where we have the option to select our tool of choice, it has been the Angular toolset. We are also now doing

Leeja S September 22, 2022 No Comments

Innovatix Explains: Is Laravel Still Relevant Today?

Laravel is an open-source full-stack PHP framework providing a rapid development platform. Laravel has gained popularity amongst web application developers and enterprises looking for web app solutions and other PHP-based MVC frameworks due to its integrity, execution, scalability, and features. Considering the competition prevailing in the market, the one thing developers and entrepreneurs can’t afford today is time. This demands an infrastructure that can keep up with the required speeds. This is especially crucial for web development; we should ensure the framework we deploy meets these requirements. Laracasts, an active community of developers, supports Laravel by providing solutions for customer needs and always keeping up with the latest trends. Latest Trends In Laravel One of the most current web application developments in Laravel is Cloud Integration. Laravel Vapor is a serverless deployment platform for Laravel with auto-scaling advantages powered by AWS Lambda. The most significant benefit of this infrastructure is that it allows running code without configuring and managing the servers. It will enable your applications to scale automatically to meet demand with little capacity planning. Laravel Forge is a server management tool built for application deployment services. Forge takes the hassle and pain out of deploying to servers and can be used to launch your next mobile API or website. Laravel Envoyer ensures Zero downtime for deploying PHP applications. Usually, when deploying a PHP application like Laravel, you would put up a maintenance page until you are done deploying your application. While installing Composer updates, end users of your application can face inconvenience and encounter a fatal error. Using Envoyer, we don’t have to worry about application downtime. We can deploy all day long without interrupting any of our customers. Just push your code, and Envoyer delivers your application to one or many servers. A micro-front end is an architecture that allows teams to work independently on web application UIs composed of semi-independent fragments. Later it combines them all to create a feature-packed application. Micro frontends enable us to consider a unified method to deal with changes. We can make every business requirement easier to test and maintain by choosing this architecture. Over the last several years, the popularity of Cryptocurrencies has grown even less. Eradicating any uncertainties about the procedure, they have assured secure online transactions. Blockchain technology, also known as a records-chain structure, is an information structure that simplifies the process and increases security by incorporating conditional records. Because of its safety and reliability, many major corporations have begun accepting cryptocurrency payments. Laravel interacts with blockchain API efficiently through third-party packages and has no vulnerabilities.  AI Chatbots engages with humans and converse with them to help with customer service difficulties, technical questions, and SOP advice. With Laravel trends, you can make customer service procedures more accessible and faster by building intelligent chatbots. In the Laravel community, the Internet of Things (IoT) is the hottest topic and merging them with the Laravel framework may be advantageous to any business. Arduino is a hardware platform that is language-neutral and more versatile, supporting PHP and working with other devices. Many firms have noticed Laravel’s strength, with the most outstanding IoT solutions. IoT enables web developers to construct legible code without difficulty using built-in functions with many terrific capabilities. Compiling assets helps manage data better. Laravel Mix is an in-built asset compilation package provided by Laravel. These packages are beneficial in storing different kinds of data in different places or folders and help with the initial stages of web development. It helps avoid being confused about which data you need now. The Latest Release Features Make It Relevant Now Laravel aims to make the advancement process of application development faster and smoother, so they are seeking out new releases with new features, functionalities, advancements, and much more continuously. Laravel has gone through several updates. Its functionalities and features have developed with every release, becoming the go-to PHP framework for web application development. With Laravel 9, developers are empowered with the new query builder interface for static analysis, type hinting, and refactoring. Since the minimum requirement for Laravel 9 is PHP 8, Laravel utilizes the most up-to-date PHP 8 string functions. Multiple migrations in the same class name can cause issues when attempting to recreate the entire database. Migration class name collisions are eliminated by default use of stub migration in the new Laravel release. Laravel Supporting And Opposing Arguments Each framework has its Positives and Negatives, and we can do almost anything in any modern framework. Every framework provides alternatives for its cons. Laravel framework provides ready-to-use mail templates that are simple and clean, powered by the popular Symfony mailer component. This software minimizes the coding required with the extensive library of pre-programmed functionalities. It has a safe, built-in access control system. Additionally, it provides a robust mechanism that allows you to handle any issues or bugs with ease. Using Laravel makes Data migration a lot simpler. The overall project development time is cut down. Laravel offers users easy-to-use pre-built designs, security, Password hashing, an Authentication system, Protection against XSS, Protection against CSRF, Cookie protection, and SQL injection. Laravel protects against XSS if the attack is related to rendering UI outside of the blade by using a pre-defined PHP function. Support for the software isn’t readily available; dealing with issues in the case of system downtimes can become problematic. Laravel has regular updates, which is excellent. The downside of regular updates is that older product versions quickly become buggy. Conclusion For more than a decade, Innovatix Technology Partners, a Macrosoft, Inc. company has provided full-stack Laravel development services to help companies with their enterprise online applications. The out-of-the-box features provided by Laravel can help you with any digital project. The Innovatix team has produced numerous web applications and is knowledgeable about the Laravel ecosystem. Laravel provides official packages that are the cherry on the cake. It can build high-quality, scalable, traffic-generating websites that can increase enterprise competency. Laravel may not be able to solve all your digital challenges, but it will

Jeen P Xavier September 6, 2022 No Comments

Which is the right e-Commerce platform for your Business – WooCommerce or Magento 2?

Starting an e-Commerce business can seem overwhelming with many factors to consider. Selling products online needs a well-defined e-Commerce platform that supports e-Commerce business which considers various aspects of the business and targets users, and an easy-to-use atmosphere is most important. Streaming the products automatically, trending payment gateways, dynamic shipping options, and charge calculations are important in a good e-commerce platform. It’s difficult to choose just one platform for the business need and comparing the characteristics of one with the other may leave us confused in many aspects. We have two robust platforms to consider among the well-known, widely used e-commerce platforms – WooCommerce and Magento 2 (now known as Adobe Commerce). Different characteristic features must be considered when we investigate an e-commerce platform that satisfies our business needs. WooCommerce or Magento 2 – Which is the Right E-Commerce Platform for Your Business? This is a million-dollar question, but to reach a specific answer to the question, ‘Your Business’ needs to be well-defined and specific to find the best suitable platform to serve the purpose. Are you a Small Business or a Start-up entrepreneur? If your business has a smaller budget and a less technical skill set to handle, say a beginner one, WooCommerce is the suggested one. It’s a free platform that bind-up with WordPress as a free plugin. Some knowledge in handling WordPress will make life easy with WooCommerce. It is possible to admit an infinite number of goods in WooCommerce. Since its powerful extension system is based on the WordPress plugin format, it will support nearly all the WordPress themes, with several customization possibilities available. Using the available extensions and plugins, we can choose just about any payment processor we want. There are dozens of free and paid themes available to meet all functional and technical requirements. WordPress is the best option if your main goal is to market your site with great content. Most marketing features, Google Analytics, and Search Engine Optimization are handled using the available plugins. Apart from the cost of web hosting, creating a store is free. SSL support is included, but you must obtain your certificate. An e-Commerce website contains many customer information and payment details; optimum security is a top priority. Security features are included with WooCommerce to protect the store from hackers and malware. WooCommerce plugin updates are released whenever new threats are identified to prevent such activities. Additionally, many advanced security plugins are available (free and paid). WooCommerce is limited in its capabilities and may end up paying more of that cost if you opt to give more security features for your store. Since the e-Commerce functionality is not integrated into WordPress, you need to install the WordPress first and then need to install the free WooCommerce plugin. Although WordPress offers endless possibilities for features and specifications, you’ll need to install each one separately based on the suitability and need. WordPress and WooCommerce provide greater flexibility in managing the store, including the payment side and User-friendliness – so if you are a beginner – WordPress/WooCommerce should be the option you must consider. Are you a Medium to Big Online Retailer? Is your focus on Increasing E-Commerce Sales? If you are in a medium to big online market or a retailer, Magento suits you better. An enterprise-level e-commerce platform is best suited for large websites that need advanced features. Magento is a less user-friendly platform than WordPress; you’ll have the potential resources to handle the technical stuff yourself or the budget to outsource to a Magento expert to step in with your requirements. As WordPress and WooCommerce serve as free platforms, Magento stands as an open-source platform with its free version Magento Community which is widely used. Magento also offers paid versions, called Magento Enterprise and Magento Commerce Cloud, which are designed to support large businesses requiring many technology resources. The e-Commerce features are already built with Magento software, including many useful sales and invaluable parts when you download it. It is a more scalable and robust platform to support large stores and help small stores grow. Magento provides multi-store capability, multilingual capabilities, intricately adjustable elements, and layered navigation. Suppose you need two websites – and you need to list the same product on both sites with different prices: it’s possible via Magento. So, both websites will have a typical admin panel to manage inventory and sales, making life easy for owners. We can even list products to eBay and Amazon and manage inventory and orders from Magento – keeping this as a centralized platform. Magento provides more robust security for online stores, with Magento Patches released frequently. The free security scan tool helps you monitor your site, update malware patches and find unauthorized access. Furthermore, you can easily add Magento 2 security extensions to protect your online store better. Magento 2 is a real winner when it comes to e-Commerce features with advanced security features and a handful of plugins that provides additional support. Even though Magento is free, costs can add up quickly because it’s designed for large sites. So better, performing servers is a must-have for Magento. Also, outsourcing technology and design assistance can affect your budget. WooCommerce lacks some capabilities that Magento provides without purchasing additional extensions. For example, it supports product reviews, grouped items, wish lists, advanced pricing rules, and product personalization. Also, the features like elastic search, b2b, multistore, and promotions. And more… comes with Magento out of the box. As Magento has an advantage in terms of functionality, that brings a steeper learning curve. Final Verdict You have a lot of options when considering which eCommerce platform to choose. But among them, WordPress and Magento stand at the top due to their user-friendliness, flexibility, and customization friendliness. Both platforms can offer huge support for your online business for sure. Why choose Innovatix? Innovatix Technology Partner is a 30-year-old technology company with six lines of business in which Web Development Services is considered one of our niche areas. Innovatix assists businesses all over

Is Your Website Future-Ready?

Is your current website aligned with the latest trends and all the functionality to boost your business? Do you think your website is strong enough to compete in the next three years and achieve your goals? Your website plays a vital role in showcasing the identity and features of your business.  This helps your prospects and customers to understand the business values and products, generate leads, and act as the front-line of your marketing efforts. But do you think creating a good website is enough for the growth of your business?  We are in a digital era where things are changing daily – new trends and technologies emerge at a rate of knots, leaving the current ones obsolete. Most good websites today will be outdated within a couple of years if they’re not constantly monitored and updated. As we all know, hackers and other trespassers constantly roam around the internet for an opportunity to attack websites. Imagine your website is launched and left untouched for some time. If the website doesn’t have up-to-date security features and proper maintenance, it opens a gateway for such hackers. Google and other search engines constantly update their algorithm and introduce mandatory features for enhanced functionality. If such features are not updated, that can adversely affect the website’s ranking, affecting your business. So, maintaining your website is as essential as creating it. Constant monitoring and updating of the website help prevent threats from attackers, comply with the latest trends in technology, better search ranking, etc. Innovatix works with businesses worldwide to improve their website’s performance and security. Whether you require monthly, hourly, or after-hours website maintenance, Innovatix has the experience and skills you need. Our team has a pool of highly skilled UI designers, development engineers, and test engineers to support the website development monitored by our project managers. We create user-friendly out-of-the-box and custom business websites that allow accessible communication with customers. Innovatix also has hands-on experience creating more crucial Business Applications that are used by organizations internally by their employees, externally by customers, or even both. As a result, we ensure that these applications may be used on any device, regardless of screen size, and present the data in the best feasible way. Web Development Steps Innovatix follows: Finally, we also apply Power Automate to examine the data within the application and determine how we might analyze and visualize the data to make better decisions. Why consider Innovatix? Innovatix Technology Partner has considered Web development services to be one of its niche areas. We are experts in analyzing your business’s needs, target market, and competitors and developing growth-oriented strategies. Our eCommerce experts can help you create and deliver flawless customer experiences on the most popular eCommerce platforms. Innovatix has expertise in the verticals given below: We understand how critical it is for SMEs to have a trustworthy WordPress Development Agency handle maintenance tasks. As a result, our experts are available for website updates and support 24 hours a day. Innovatix is here to help you build through the current trends and stay on top of your business.