What is Wix

Wix is a web platform that allows every user, even without any coding skills to build their own website. The website building is being done by mostly Drag & Drop interface of existing wix elements. You take an element, drag it to it’s place, change some settings and move on to the next element and before you know it, you have a website. Furthermore, it didn’t cost anything unless you need the premium features, like your on domain, and well, you need your own domain. So is this the right choice, well, it depends.

What is WordPress

WordPress is an open source platform, which is free, that has started as a blogging platform, with time, it became possible to build general websites, and then e-commerce websites and today you can even build a server side for a mobile app using WordPress. WordPress also got the reputation that you can use it to build websites without knowing how to code at all, and you can even use WordPress.com to host an run your WordPress website which is a service that is similar in a way to Wix.
the whole system is based on Themes & Plugins, that is very easy to keep adding to your website to add functionality, from contact forms to ecommerce plugins (WooCommerce). But is this the right way to build a website? well, It depends.

Wix VS. WordPress – Platforms Comparison

The first and most bold downside to using Wix is that it is a close platform, where on the other hand WordPress is an open source platform, what does it mean? It means that your Wix website can only run on Wix, you do not own the code, and you can’t even move it to another hosting. If tomorrow they charge you double, you have only one choice, to accept it and pay, or rebuild your website on another platform from scratch. What about WordPress, well the code is yours, you can host it wherever you want, always.

Another big disadvantage for Wix, is that if you need a special feature or element, you are bound to Wix, if they developed it, great!, if not, you will need to wait and hope they develop it in the future. Opposing to WordPress, where the plugin base is widely created by the platform users and developers, and if you can’t find the feature or element you need, well you can develop it yourself by literarily any WordPress developer.

And the most important thing, The reason you are thinking about building a website, you want users, you need traffic in order to rich your goals whether they are selling products, or getting more work for your business. Where Wix stand with this, well, It is known that Wix has trouble with search engines, especially google, to say the least. Why? there are a lot of reasons, but mostly it all comes down to this. Any feature or element provided by Wix, was not meant just for you an your needs, It suppose to serve many users with different needs, which means the code there is more complex, slower that it can be, and as a result less friendly to search engines and your general SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). It’s not that you can’t do well in SEO with Wix, It’s just means that it will be harder when you compare it to a slim, clean code that was written for one specific goal.
So, does it mean that WordPress is better for SEO, Well, It’s highly dependent on who is building the website, It can go extremely well or very poorly. If the site is build by someone with no experience in web development in the spirit of “Well theres a plugin for that, and for that and for that…” Than you can end up with a very poor website, that runs slow, loads a ton of scripts, and with very poor SEO results.
So, does this means you should not use Wix at all? Well, no, Wix is a really great platform that just keeps growing and improve, but like anything else, it is a tool that fits only in some cases for specific needs.

So, when it is right to use Wix to build a website

The cases where you should use Wix for your web development needs, in our eyes, are the following:
First, if you don’t have a budget at all. If you need a website, maybe to present your business, and you just don’t have any budget at all to pay a developer, well, in that case, Wix, at least for the short term, is the solution for you.
Other reasons to choose Wix are for temporary websites, maybe a website for an event, or a short term landing page used for a facebook campaign or a google ad, If it’s for a short term, than in this case, you may not care it takes the page 2 more seconds to load, and the SEO is not even a factor, because you are going to kill the website in 4 weeks.
Who else, well, Graphic designers that have the ability to design everything by themselves, and use Wix to publish their website fast and without any need for a developer. Would we recommend them building their own business website using Wix, well, no, cause again they will be facing all of the downsides we already mentioned.

So, when it is right to use WordPress to build a website

Well WordPress is also a wonderful tool for building websites, but, and theres a big BUT here, The fact that you can build an awesome website using WordPress, doesn’t meant you can’t screw it up, you need to know how exactly to build a website correctly. Unfortunately the truth is that along side a lot of great websites that were built with WordPress, there are many really bad websites that were built using WordPress.
For a user with no development skills, It will be almost impossible to built a really great, fast, secure, seo-friendly website. It’s very easy to start, and throw in some plugins, and get a website, but is it SEO-Freindly, is it fast, secure and effective, probably not. Even an experienced developer it takes from hours to days to get the desired results and create a well sustained fast running website.
Furthermore, WordPress is a completely Swiss army knife, It may have started as a blogging platform, but it evolved to a complete eco-system to building websites. But is it always right to use WordPress for building websites, well, absolutely not.

WordPress also have some big disadvantages that should be considered before reaching out to it. Where you should consider using it, When you should not? Well We recommend you read this article that explains just that.

Conclusion

Every tool has a purpose, Wix and WordPress are no exception to the rule. If Wix is the right tool for you, at least for now, and it’s disadvantages does not interfere with your business goals, that go for it, It is a great platform.
If you have decided that it’s not for you and you’ve decided to go with WordPress, that’s great too. Just remember the general rule with WordPress is that you do need an experienced developer or a development company in order to get a WordPress website done right. and even more importantly, WordPress have disadvantages as well and it is not always the right tool for every job.

The post Should I build a website with Wix or WordPress – Wix vs WordPress appeared first on SideCode.

The apple has fallen on your head, and you know you have a great idea for a mobile app, now is the ideal time to transition your vision for the app into a reality. With a good guide and laid out plan even an inexperienced entrepreneur without any coding capabilities can successfully produce a mobile app. When building a mobile app there are five steps you need to take. These five steps will take an idea all the way from a paper sketch to a full blown mobile app.

Step one: Identify the Problem

Before hiring an mobile apps development company we recommend you take the time to identify the problem, what the app is going to solve, in this step you don’t need to worry about the details in your mobile app, you don’t need to think about the design specifics or the development platform, but you should focus on the issue that your app is here to fix. in order to create a successful app, your app needs to solve a problem or hold a value to the user, a really successful app will manage to do both.

“But There are other apps that solve the same problem”

Great! you’ve just proven that there is a market for the app, and that others zeroed in on the problem and are trying to solve it. you can list right now at least 10 email applications that exist, valid and used by thousands of users, They all have a place in the market. The only thing you need to worry focus on now is how your app will be different, how to provide the same solution but give the user a bigger value in using your solution. what will distinguish your app, a better design with nicer UX experience, better features maybe? Try to refine it so you are still solving the problem and target the same audience that is proven to exist by your competition but getting it to the place that your app is with most value to the user. One more thing, Instead of worrying that you are too late, and someone already stole your idea, get yourself to the state of mind that this is a benefit, you have the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of others, learn from the successes of others, and provide a solution that is much better then the competition.

Step Two: Determine the Solution

So, you figured out the problem that your app is going to solve, It’s time to start working on the solution. The first version of your product will not be the complete solution and will not be the ultimate app for this problem, you are guessing at best on the solution for your users, this can be an educated guess, but still a guess. Only once you are in the market and receive feedback from real users you start refining the mobile app  features and get it to be the ultimate solution.

This is why we suggest our clients to build an MVP (Minimum Viable Product), the first version that contains just enough features to gather validated learning  about the product and its continued development.

In order to present an educated guess in the first version, getting the help of experts is a must. Coming to a mobile development company that dealt with hundreds of mobile apps launches will give you the ability to refine your idea and get an ideal first solution, If you can afford it, working with a mobile development company will provide you with expert insight and experience.

Step Three: Creating the Spec Set

Now that you have a clear idea of the problem and the solution you are going to supply the world, it’s time to build the first version of your app and get it to market as fast as possible. It’s extremely important at this point to build and launch a Minimum Viable Product that is smart, effective and with high quality. With over one million apps available in the App Store and in Google Play, competition is high and low-quality apps with a substandard user experience won’t succeed.

Create a Specification Documentation:

Whether you are building your app yourself, with your own team, or with a development company, you should create a spec doc. A spec doc for a mobile app  is a written document that details the specifications of an app, including the design of the product and a description of the technologies needed for the project. A spec doc will make it easier to communicate your product vision with team members, developers, and investors, and it will serve as a reference throughout the process of building the app. Additionally, the exercise of creating a spec doc will help you to define and narrow your product, which means lower costs and faster development cycle.

Create a Wireframe or Mockups:

A wireframe is a blueprint or basic layout of the screens that will be included in your app. The easiest and quickest way to create a wireframe is by using pen and paper. At this point, you can begin imagining the physical features of your app. Try to draw out each screen of your product from start to end, and think about the experience you want your users to have when using going from screen to screen (the user flow). While going through this exercise of creating a basic wireframe, remember to focus on your defined product and don’t get carried away by adding unnecessary elements. always think from the point of view of the user, if you created a flow that for instance for registration a user needs to go through 8 screens, you probably overdid it, and you should think about reducing it to 1-2 screens flow, so the user will not be exhausted in the process.

Turn the Wireframes into Design:

Before you can go ahead and start coding, you must have high-fidelity designs of all of the app screens. Pay attention as this can make or break your product, as we said before, there is a strong competition in the mobile market, and if your app will have a sleek and gorgeous design you increase your chances to success by at least 40% – 50%, this is in the end what your users see, this is crucial to make your app stand out from the rest. A great app design will make your users feel good while using your app, even unconsciously, this in some cases what will make them decide that this is the solution for them.

Mobile App Documentation Set

in the end of this process you should have:

• Detailed specification documentation.
• Wireframes and/or Mockups
• High Fidelity designs.

When the  specification docs, wireframes, mockups and designs are done, your are ready to start actually developing the app, it’s time to start coding.

Step Four: Develop the first version of your Mobile App

If you can afford it, hiring an app development company to build your app is your best bet. Because of their experience, a reputable development agency will likely deliver a high-quality app in a short period of time. If built by a good development company, your app will be worked on by a team of individuals, each of whom is an expert in his or her own field. These development experts are likely to have a good grasp on the ever-changing landscape of app competition and Apple Store acceptance, and they will use this knowledge to your app’s advantage throughout the development process. 

Putting together a team of developers is another approach for building your app. While there are definite upsides to keeping development internal, the process of building a team is often time-consuming and expensive. unlike the well-oiled machine of a good mobile development companies, there is no guarantee that a team you have put together yourself “will work well together.”

It’s also possible to develop a first version app on your own. However, doing so requires having full stack developing capabilities (the ability to do both front-end and back-end development) – not to mention, a lot of time. Moreover, you will probably need an iOS App as well as an Android App, this means knowing a lot of coding languages, but if you are up for this adventure, go ahead dive in and create your first version of your product, if not, you should probably hire someone.

Step Five: Review and rebuild with Market Feedback

Once your app is ready, and you are satisfied with your product, you can release it to the market (App Store, Google Play, Amazon). Before you do so, make sure you integrated at least some ways of getting user feedback and Insights, integrate Google Analytics, AppFlyer, SuperSonic, or any other excellent tool to gain traction and get insights on your users, and how to provide them with better features and a better solution in the second version of your app. You need to see what features are getting a positive feedback, what are the shortcomings, and how to improve the experience for your users in the next development cycle.

The post From an Idea to a Mobile App appeared first on SideCode.

The webinar currently is only available in Hebrew.

Watch the entire GRapps Offshore webinar.
In general the talk was about offshore services, what it’s like to outsource, pros and cons of of a remote developers dedicated teams and a comparison between In-house development, offshore and freelance work.

We introduced a couple of case studies of active Offshore teams (GRapps “Alpha Teams”) that were established by GRapps for our clients,  showing the remote teams structure, costs of a remote development teams, and the additional services that GRapps Israel provides to support the remote teams workflow.

We want to thank all of the precipitants in the webinar, we enjoyed your questions and getting feedback from you
See you in the next webinar!

The post Offshore Webinar – Building Remote Development Teams appeared first on SideCode.

The webinar is currently available only in Hebrew.

Watch the entire GRapps Offshore webinar.
In general the talk was about the offshore model, what it’s like to outsource development, pros and cons of working with an offshore  remote development team,  and a comparison between In-house development team, offshore development teams and freelance work.

A few case studies were displayed based on GRapps Offshore teams (GRapps “Alpha Teams”) that were built by GRapps for their clients. Displaying the structure of the teams, costs of offshore teams, and the additional services that GRapps provide in Israel to support the offshore remote teams workflow.

We want to thank all of the precipitants in the webinar, we enjoyed your questions and feedback.
See you in the next webinar!

The post Webinar – Offshore services appeared first on SideCode.

What is a server

A server is a computer that is running a server program/s and it’s main goal is to provide services to other computers. when you go to any website like our mobile & web apps development company website, your computer is actually talking and getting the data from our servers.

Now let’s try to understand how it works in the context of a Mobile Application

What is a Mobile App Server

It’s basically a regular server, the only difference is that it is not meant to talk with other computers, but instead, it was built to talk specifically with a single Mobile App (actually it is talking with the user’s mobile device, based on interactions with the mobile app).

Okay, but how to create a Mobile App Server

You’ve probably heard about protocols, HTTP requests, response, JSON, Databases,  OAuth, API, REST API, etc. The most basic notion of all of this is this, When building a mobile app and a server, what is actually is being built is a language between the mobile app and the server, a language that they both understand, and helps them to authenticate each other and communicate with each other.

Do I need a mobile server for my app

Yes, as a rule of thumb, you will need a server for your mobile app. Most Mobile apps needs a “backend”,  a server,  to communicate with and to help them  with keeping track of user data, app data, schedule events and push changes to the mobile app.

There are few cases where a mobile app doesn’t need any kind of server to operate at all (for example, a simple game, or a simple tool like flashlight app).

But as soon as you need to dynamically control the app content or keep user data you will need a strong backend to do so.

Why not use a 3rd party solution

Well, you can, but as any other 3rd party solution, you need to understand that you are relying on someone else to keep your app running. What happens if they decide to double their pricing?, what will happen if they close their service (a good example for this is Parse).

Don’t get us wrong, we are not against using 3rd party solutions, we are all for it, If you can use a ready made solution that was built by skilled people and crafted to do a specific job in the best way, that’s great, you should use it, good example for this are: mailing system (like sendInBlue), sms services (like twilio), payment gateways (like paypal) and many more.

But all of those have one thing in common, they are 3rd party solutions that add features to your app (or help with a specific task), you are not basing your whole app on a third party solution. And if tomorrow one of them closes shop or double their pricing, all you need to do is to rewrite a small portion of your code to adjust to the new service.

One other thing to consider is flexibility, when you call the shots, and you have your own server, the server will work exactly the way you need it to do work , you can get it to do anything, and in result to serve your app in the best way possible.

The post Why Does My Mobile App Need a Server? appeared first on SideCode.

Whether you are going to build the Web App or Mobile App on your own or you are going to hire an experienced web apps development company for your mobile or web app server development,  you are still going to face the same question “What technology should I use?”.

So you decided to build an App, Congratulations! Now you are facing this question exactly. The most important thing here, is to understand that it does matter, and it’s crucial for you App success and your startup future. We will try to give you some guidelines, same guidelines we give all of our clients when they first set foot in our doors. to better understand how to answer this question we’ll need to clarify a couple of things about mobile app development.

Do I need a Server side for the app?

As a rule of thumb, yes, you will need a server for your mobile app. Most Mobile apps and all Web Apps needs a “backend”,  a server,  to communicate with and to help them keep track of user data, app data, schedule events and push to the mobile app, process data, manage the mobile app and more. There are few cases where a mobile app doesn’t need any kind of server to operate at all (for example, a simple game, or a simple tool like flashlight app).

But as soon as you need to dynamically control the app content or keep user data you will need a strong backend to do so.
You can read more about this in this article: Why does my Mobile App need a server?

What Server side Technology is good for a Mobile App?

You can build your Mobile App server using practically any technology that is out there today, and there are more than enough platforms and languages to choose from: php, .NET, Node.JS, Java, Python, Rails, and many more.

So how do you choose? You need to pick a technology that is flexible and scalable, so you will know that once you grow the platform will not give you a hard time.

The second thing is to check how mature is the platform, which means a platform that has been thoroughly tested and used by others, a platform that is not changing every 2 days, and there are more than enough examples for these kind of platforms.

Also you’ll need to think about the community size of this platform, this is important because you need to make sure that you will be able to find strong and experienced developers once you grow, if you are using the new hot and buzzed server technology, it might be too hard for you, later on, to find good experienced developers in this technology.

You also would like to know that if you run into problems, there are others that are using the same tools like you and trying to fix and improve the platform.

Okay, once you get the server technology for your mobile app all figured out, it’s time to think and answer questions about the Mobile App recommended development technology.

Should I build Native mobile Apps or use a Hybrid Apps technology?

Well, let’s talk about the differences for a second.

Native app development means you are going to build two different apps in two different technologies and languages, you are going to build an Android Native App using java, and build an iOS Native app using Objective-C or Swift. Which means you’ll need at least two different developers with a very different skill-set.

If you will go with Hybrid app technology, the code needs to be written only once in one language for iOS And Android at the same time, which means you can make it with only one developer for both platforms, this is a huge benefit for a mobile app development.

Now before you get all happy (Sorry about that) and think this a very obvious choice and you are leaning towards Hybrid development, there are some major downsides to consider here. One example is using native device features. All hybrid apps have some sort of wrappers that utilize packages or libraries that allows access to native features (for example: sensors usage, camera usage, animations, etc), these packages and libraries have to be written with native code. This means you’ll either have to find a library for a needed native feature and if it doesn’t exist you will need to write your own. Also in the long run when a new native feature is added, you’ll have to wait for a package that support this feature to be available, so you won’t be able to hit the market as soon as a native written app, you might see your competitors pass you by.

Another Downside is Android and iOS mobile apps have a very different and distinct user experience and design language that they offer to their users. The classic example is that while your android users will hit the back button to go back, the iOS users will look around for the back arrow.

The biggest downside is the performance, Even the biggest fan of hybrid applications are forced to admit that native applications run faster, consume less memory and in the end gives a better user experience. Hybrid apps utilize heavily on webviews, which on it’s own takes up a decent amount of memory, actually most actions will be slower and consume more memory than the native solution.

Yes, in mobile app development, hybrid App development is great, it saves time and money,  and the technology is growing rapidly in the market, but it has many downsides. Don’t get us wrong, we are definitely not against it, As a web apps development company we just feel it’s not completely matured yet, and prefer to choose the path of best infrastructure  with the best user experience we can get for your app and the user in the other side of the screen.

The post Mobile App & Web App Development – What Technology should I use? appeared first on SideCode.

Now, I don’t judge anyone. Although, in my opinion the Lean UX is better for entrepreneurship. Let me explain my position in two examples.

Let’s take for example an X-training app and develop it with Lean UX:

1. The first step would be to create the stick figure, which shows exercises to the users. In this app, you don’t need to read about how to do it correctly – simply listen and watch.
2. Place the application in the market and get the feedback. During this time, you’re asking some questions. For example, is it easy to use, do you like the buttons or etc.
3. On these bases (consumer’s feedback), you’re improving the app and adding the setting to manage the time (for example). So, the users can set a time for the training. Perhaps, someone want to exercise 5 minutes, the others 30.
4. You show it to the public again and get the feedback. You are asking whether it’s comfortable to use and what else do you want to see in it.
5. For example, you get from the feedback that consumers do not like the stick man. So, the solution would be to change it on the girl/boy/monster (or users could pick someone on their taste).
6. Let’s say that you get the positive feedback from the last changes and there no any suggestions from the consumers. Thus, you accomplish the app with the nice boy’s/girl’s/monster’s expressions and the application is done.

If to summarize, you get the product that based on the consumers’ needs and preferences. Doubtless, it’s cordially deferent from the Agile UX methodology.

The approaches’ difference lays in the process. Let’s take the X-training app again and see what we get:

1. You create the app that based on the clients vision, analyze the market, test it, improve it and then get it to the public.
2. There are several professional teams, which work in the development process. Yes, there are developers, designers, marketers and oftenly it cost a lot to manage these teams.
3. Occasionally it happens that the app is not very popular, because it based on the client’s vision. So, you need to improve it. Thus, you manage the teams again and search for solution.

From these facts, you may conclude that Agile UX produces a more polished product and Lean UX produces multiple products of increasing polish. It’s the essential difference between the approaches.

Now, what’s make me to advocate the Lean UX? It’s that you get the product, which based on the consumers’ needs. So, what is good for the customers – get’s you more gain. Although, it’s only my opinion, you might have the other.

The post What’s the difference between Agile UX and Lean UX? appeared first on SideCode.