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Technology

Cyber Security

Cyber security

Cyber Security refers to the protection of data, network, servers and mobile devices from unauthorized access. It is important for any Organization including bank, Government, healthcare, and manufacturing sector to protect data stored on their system and information transmitted over the network from malicious attacks. Cyber attacks are targeting data related to national security, finance, health care records, business, and personal information.

Effective cyber security should take care of all the elements below:

  • Network security refers to securing a computer network from malware or targeted attacks. A network that is not secure is vulnerable to attacks.
  • Cloud security refers to the protection of data, application, infrastructure, and anything stored on the cloud from theft and deletion.
  • Database security refers to protecting databases, database management systems from external attacks.
  • Infrastructure security refers to protecting the communication center, IT center from targeted or random threats.
  • Application security refers to protecting software applications from security threats to avoid data theft.
  • Information security refers to protecting the integrity and privacy of data.  A cyberattack can target confidential or sensitive information.

Some of the common cyber threats include:

Malware – these are malicious software programs designed to gain unauthorized access to a person’s computer and cause damage. Malware can steal data, login information or crash your system. Some types of malware include spyware, adware, Trojan horse, viruses and worms.

Ransomware – it is also a form of malware that gains access to a system, restrict user access or encrypts the data and demands a ransom. The user cannot log in to their device or access the data unless they pay the ransom. Ransomware attacks target individuals and organizations through phishing emails or free downloads. Some ransomware examples include WannaCry and GoldenEye.

Measures to combat Cyber Threat

Awareness – The most common reason for a cyberattack is due to lack of awareness among users. Failing to adopt good security practices makes a system vulnerable. It is essential to impart knowledge on various security measures to users like deleting suspicious email attachments or files, installing security software, updating devices with security patches, taking back up of files regularly, trusting URLs with ‘https’.

Avoid Ransomware attack – Never open an email from untrusted sources. Pay extra caution if the attachment instructs to enable a macro. If you become a victim of a ransomware attack, never pay the ransom as the chance of getting back your data is very less. Instead, contact the internet security vendor for a suitable decryption tool.

Mitigate the risk of cyber attacks – It is essential to train employees on secure handling of information to maintain a high level of security. An organization should educate employees about security threats, password policies and the need for updating antivirus software through seminars and sessions. Another approach to mitigate cyberattacks is through firewall and proxy server which will block unsecured websites.

Disaster Recovery – Every Organization should have a disaster recovery policy in place. The disaster recovery plan should define how the organization will respond to a cyber attack and restore its operation to ensure business continuity. Companies should take data back up at regular intervals to avoid losing vital business information. It is important to stay ahead and keep track of the latest security threats and new security settings.

Hope this article gives you insights into cybersecurity and how to avoid becoming a victim of a cyber attack.

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Technology

Web Development Framework

web development framework

A Web Development Framework refers to a structure used to develop web applications. The framework comprises a set of tools and resources to build your application faster. The framework eases the development work by providing a foundation to build a content management system. It provides libraries and functions that can help to develop applications instead of writing the code from scratch.

There are many frameworks available to develop web applications. A web application has two parts – front end and back-end. While front end refers to interactive components on the website, back end refers to database and storage. There are frameworks available for both the front end and back-end development. You can pick the right one by weighing the pros and cons.

Backend Framework

Laravel

Laravel is a PHP framework and is suitable for developers who have knowledge in HTML, Core PHP, and Advance PHP. The advantage of a PHP framework is that it allows rapid development of web applications. Laravel is a free, open-source framework that provides functions for caching, session and authentication. It provides a secured framework and helps to protect the application from malware and security threats.

Express

Express is a NodeJS framework that can help in developing server-side web applications. The advantages of this framework is it is free, open-source, simple, flexible and scalable and can develop web applications faster. Express is used by IBM and Uber.

Django

Django is a MVC framework that uses Python for rapid web development. This framework is free and open source. It is used by Google, Youtube and Instagram. The main advantage of this framework is that it comes with batteries included features that provide authentication, URL routing, and messaging features. Django’s performance keeps increasing and it provides an online forum and discussion group that can help in troubleshooting.

Rails

Ruby on Rails is an extremely efficient framework. It is used to develop applications 10 times faster than java framework. This framework is a friendly and supportive framework for beginners.

Applications developed using this framework include Airbnb and Shopify.

Spring

Spring is a Java framework. It is often considered a lightweight framework as it uses the Plain Old Java Object (POJO). It provides modularity allowing developers to choose packages and classes of their choice. The downside is that the spring framework has 2400 classes which might be complicated for the developer. This framework requires developers to have XML knowledge.

Frontend Framework

Angular

Angular is Typescript based framework provided by Google. It is used to develop high-performance web applications for both mobile and web platforms. It is ideally used to build complex applications and considered superior among other Javascript frameworks. Angular has lots of handy tools and features like static typing, interfaces, namespaces, and classes which make development process faster and easier. There are some challenges in using the Angular framework. As Angular is built using TypeScript, the developers need to be familiar with Typescript which is a superset of Javascript. 

React JS

React JS is not exactly a framework but a front end library developed by Facebook. It is used to develop both client or server-side.

React is a Javascript framework developed by Facebook. It is the wide choice of developers to build an interactive user interface and single page web applications. The advantages of using React is it is open source and has an active community. It is a Javascript library and supports code reusability and one side data binding.

Bootstrap

Bootstrap is a front end framework used to build responsive web and mobile-friendly websites. This open-source framework by Twitter uses HTML, CSS, and Javascript. This framework has good community support and provides continual fixes and releases. It offers templates, WordPress themes, and plugins that help to develop dynamic web pages faster.

Ember

Ember is among the best Javascript framework and it is gaining popularity as it gets updated with new features and releases. It is widely used by developers to build single-page web applications. It is used by Google, Microsoft and Netflix. It uses MVC architecture and has lots of features to increase developers’ productivity. It is the heaviest framework and not suitable for smaller projects.

Backbone

Backbone is a frontend Javascript framework used to build client-side applications. Backbone library provides the functionality to build a design with fewer lines of code. It is a free open source library that provides views, models, and events to build an application.

In short, a development framework can ease the work for developers and help to speed the development process.

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Technology

Internet of Things (IoT)

Internet of things

Internet of Things (IoT) is the latest technology used in everyday life. In the digital world we live in, IoT has a major role to play in making our life easier and smarter. It is behind many applications that we are using today. It offers smart devices to automate things at work and at home.

This blog briefs about what is IoT and some of its applications and the future of IoT.

What is Internet of Things (IoT)?

Internet of Things refers to a network of objects connected to the Internet and can transfer data without any human intervention. The objects can be any physical device beyond computers and smartphones which can sense and communicate with each other. Some examples of objects include car, light bulb, thermostat, gate, etc.

Connecting devices helps to automate manual tasks at home or in office. Smart homes and Smart City are possible through IoT. Some typical examples of IoT in a smart home are a gate that opens when the car arrives, a door that unlocks automatically, thermostat inside the house adjusted to preferred room temperature and light that goes on sensing the movement of door. These devices can also be operated remotely. For example, you can turn off the lights at home while you are at your office desk using your smart phone.

It is widely used in factories and warehouses to automate production or deal with logistics.

How IoT Works

The IoT architecture comprises of sensor-enabled devices with internet connectivity. The devices communicate with each other through the sensors. The devices collect data through the sensors and the data is sent to the IoT Platform(cloud).  Bluetooth or Wi-Fi is required to transmit data from devices to Cloud. The data is analyzed and triggers action based on data found. The action can be anything like adjusting the temperature of the ac, switching on a light bulb or notifying the user on his mobile app. The devices are automated and perform these actions without any manual intervention.

Uses of IoT

The Internet of Things is changing the world we live in a smart place. Here are some of the applications of IoT across different industries.

Smart Homes: Smart homes make it possible to remotely monitor your residence for lighting, heating and security. Smart cameras allow monitoring your home while you are away travelling. Smart locks can detect owners and unlock the door automatically. Plants can be watered at regular intervals and Cars can drive you to work. Other smart devices that can be automated to make your life easier include fridge, laundry machines, thermostats, and even coffee machines.

Smart Offices: Smart Offices has a number of devices connected to each other and manages operations automatically. The conference room temperature is adjusted based on the number of people, lighting goes on and off through a motion sensor resulting in energy savings.

Smart Farming: IoT is used in farming to analyze the environmental condition, to monitor the field for moisture, humidity, temperature and automates irrigation. The application of IoT in farming will help to improve production and predict yield.

Smart Warehouse: IoT enables complete warehouse automation by tracking the movement of items, monitoring inventory and avoiding picking error. A Smart warehouse uses devices, drones, sensors and RFID. Robots are employed for picking, putaway and truck loading without human intervention.

Smart Health monitoring system: IoT finds its use in remote health monitoring and can act as a life-saving system. It can monitor the health condition and trigger notifications when there is any change in the body functions of the patient.

Future of Internet of Things (IoT)

Internet of Things has a promising future across healthcare, manufacturing, production, and agriculture. Research shows that by 2025 around 75 billion devices will be connected to IoT worldwide.

According to a study, global spending on IoT hardware and software is expected to be $1trillion in 2022. Cities will rely on IoT to bring in smart infrastructure. Cities will be monitored with surveillance cameras and IoT sensors, traffic can be monitored remotely and security can be enhanced and the world will be a better place.

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Technology

Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)

what is CORS ?

Cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) is a mechanism based on HTTP headers that permits restricted access to a resource with a different domain.

The browser restricts the web page of different origin, this mechanism is called same origin policy. For example, https://www.demo.com/abc.html and https://www.demo.com/xyz.html these two urls are of the same origin. Consider the following urls:

  • http://www.demo.com – Different scheme: In this URL you can see that the protocol is ‘http://’ not ‘https://’. The ‘s’ (secure) is missing. 
  • https://www.demo.com:1234/abc.html – Different port number. The port number is a communication endpoint. In this URL the port no is 1234.

These kinds of different origins are blocked by browser security.

But sometimes the web page has to request some of the resources from different origins. In such cases you can use the Cross Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) as it allows the server to relax the same origin policy. 

Same Origin Policy

The same origin policy will restrict the website interacting with the resource from different domains.It helps prevent personal data from being stolen from one website to another.

How CORS Works

To make CORS Work you will have to add the new HTTP header that describes which origins allow you to read the information. To enable the CORS on the server, you have to add an additional header (Access-Control-Allow-Origin) to whitelist the urls. 

For example, if your API server is hosted in https://api.demo.com/customer and the CORS is configured in it, when you access the API from https://www.sample.com webpage it will send a response with the following header:

Access-Control-Allow-Origin: https://www.sample.com

The following image illustrates how CORS works. The client sends the request to the server API and the server API sends back the response with the header Access-Control-Allow-Origin: https://www.sample.com. 

Cross-Origin Resource Sharing

Also, you can use wildcard character(*), which means that the resource can be accessed by any origin.

Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *

Preflight Request

The preflight request is a small request sent by  the browser before the original request.  This will give the server an idea about the actual request.The server will then announce whether or not to send a request to the browser. The preflight request contains metadata about the HTTP method and additional request header. The server inspects the metadata and decides whether or not to send the request.

CORS

Note:

If the CORS policy is not properly configured, then it  leads to cross-domain based attacks.

Categories
Technology

Understanding Scrum Methodology

Scrum Methodology

Scrum is one of the popular agile framework widely used by software development teams to manage product development. Scrum methodology adopts a structured approach to project management.

Although scrum is one of the agile process frameworks and shares certain principles and practices of Agile, it is distinguished by certain concepts and detailed software development practices. Scrum is all about continuous improvement, where it follows an iterative approach and work is delivered at regular intervals known as sprints. The team delivers the product as increments at the end of each sprint.

The components of a scrum framework include product owner, scrum master and a team.

The Product owner refers to the key stakeholder of the project who is responsible for product development and delivering the desired outcome. He has a clear understanding of the requirement and is responsible for managing the sprint and accepting the completed sprints. Scrum master is a scrum expert who oversees the project and offers guidance to the team. He is a facilitator between the product owner and the team and ensures that the development team follows scrum practices. The development team follows scrum practices and is equipped with the skills to deliver increments. The team has no leaders to delegate tasks and each member of the team is part of product development.

Here are some terminologies used in Scrum lifecycle –

  • Product Backlog – The product owner creates a backlog which is a list of tasks to be accomplished in a specific order.
  • Increment – Sum of all product backlog since the previous release.
  • Sprint – A time frame usually with a duration of 1 to 4 weeks to accomplish an increment.
  • Sprint Planning – Plan the work to be completed in the current sprint by taking a task from the backlog and fix a time length to complete it.
  • Scrum meeting – Daily meetings of no more than 15 minutes to discuss the progress made by each team member on the previous day and what is the work to be accomplished for the day.
  • Sprint Review – Once the sprint is completed, the work done is reviewed. The sprint is considered to be complete only when it is submitted to the customer.  
  • Definition of Done -Each scrum team has a Definition of Done which refers to acceptance criteria to check if an increment has been completed and ready for release.

Scrum Project Management

Scrum addresses shortfalls in the traditional waterfall process which results in constant changing requirements. The scrum process is iterative, unlike the waterfall process which is consecutive. Scrum development breaks down the project into several sprints and daily scrum meeting and inspection ensures that each sprint delivery meets customer expectations. Any discrepancy is detected early and is fixed before moving onto the next sprint.

Scrum Framework

Scrum project phases include:

  • Initiate the project by forming a scrum team and building a product backlog.
  • The planning phase includes sprint planning and estimating the tasks.
  • The Implementation phase includes daily scrum meetings and execution of tasks.
  • The Development team builds the product as an increment.
  • The sprint review is conducted by giving a demo of the increment to the stakeholders for review.
  • The sprint retrospective is done to determine what needs to be improved in terms of tools and practices in project development.
  • The increment is evaluated according to the criteria specified in ‘Definition of Done’.
  • In the release phase, the increment is delivered to the customer.

The above process is repeated until the product development is completed.

The scrum methodology brings in transparency in work accomplished and progress made by the team.

Advantages of Scrum methodology

Adopting scrum methodology brings in the following benefits to the team:

  • Improved communication
  • Transparency in project progress
  • Increased productivity
  • Increased customer satisfaction
  • Quality end products
  • Save time, resources and cost
  • Scrum can be tailored to organizations need

I hope this article gives a basic understanding of the Scrum process and can help implement scrum practices in your organization.

Categories
Solutions

Everything you need to know about Cloud Computing

cloud computing

What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing refers to the delivery of services that include server, data storage, software, databases and network through the Internet. It is a method of delivering technology to end-users over the Internet. In simple terms, instead of buying and maintaining your own resources utilize the resources over the Internet and pay for the services availed. Some common examples of cloud computing include using online services to send emails, store data, watch movies, listen to music, etc.

This emerging technology is considered a boon for small and medium organizations that want to experiment with ideas within less budget. Organizations are reducing their investment in IT infrastructure, servers and storage devices and moving towards cloud services.

Cloud computing Advantages:

Shifting towards cloud computing offer numerous advantages that include:

  • Cost – As cloud services can be availed on a need basis (by the hour or by the minute), users can pay only for the resources consumed. Organizations need not invest in infrastructure and maintenance.
  • Scalability – Organizations can easily scale up and scale down the IT resources (less storage, more bandwidth) based on demand.
  • Productivity – Organizations can save time on hardware set up, software updates and maintenance activities and focus more on core business.
  • Security – The cloud providers have policies to protect your data from security threats. Data backup and disaster recovery are also easier.

Cloud Models

Cloud computing services are broadly categorized into three main models.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

In SaaS, the vendor provides access to a software product on a subscription basis. SaaS is the most widely used cloud services model. In this model, instead of installing the software on your system you access it through the Internet. The advantage of this is you need not install, update or maintain the software or worry about the underlying infrastructure. It is also easy to manage privileges and monitor usage.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

In this cloud computing service, the vendor provides a platform on which the application can be built. Organizations can build their business application without maintaining the infrastructure. The services can be accessed through a web browser. Some of the PaaS services include operating systems, application hosting, languages, libraries, and tools. In short, anything that is required to build an application like operating system and development tools can be accessed through the Internet.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Iaas is a model that provides hardware, server, virtual machines, networks and data storage over the Internet. The vendor hosts the infrastructure on the cloud and makes it available to customers on demand. IaaS offerings include load balancers, disk storage, IP address, VLANs.

Cloud Computing Service providers

Some of the leading cloud service providers include:

Hope this article gives you an understanding of cloud service offerings and helps you decide what services can be hired for your needs.

Categories
Web App Development

How to choose a technology stack for web application development?

web app development

Choosing the technology stack is the first step for successful web application development. Organizations should spend time and effort in selecting the right technology stack for building a web application. 

A technology stack is a combination of tools, programming languages and frameworks used by developers to build an application. In short, it is a collection of software used for web development.

Web application development involves front end development and back-end development. The front end is where the user interacts with the application and back-end refers to the server-side of the application that communicates user requests to the server.

Technologies for front-end Web application development include:

Front end development involves three primary coding languages that can be used to build a basic web application.

  • HTML – Hypertext Markup Language used for describing the structure of displayed content
  • CSS – Cascading Style Sheet used to describe the style of content.
  • Javascript – used to make web application dynamic and interactive through animations, forms and visuals.

In addition to these, there are some open-source Javascript frameworks that are taking over the front end development which includes React JS, Angular JS, Vue JS, and jQuery.

React JS is the most trending technology for front end development. React JS is a flexible Javascript library as it enables faster UI development using reusable components. It can be integrated with external libraries like jQuery.

Angular JS is the preferred framework for creating interactive and dynamic web applications. It supports MVC programming structure and two-way data binding which makes it unique.

Vue.js is a progressive Javascript framework for building web interfaces and one-page applications. It is easily adaptable and helps to build robust and reliable applications.

jQuery is a feature-rich Javascript library. It has a collection of plugins and makes front end development easier with ready to use elements like a countdown timer, auto-complete functions.

Technologies for back end Web application development include:

The challenge lies in selecting the technologies for back-end development. Though it is not visible to the user, it defines the logic and allows the user to perform actions and interact with the application. The back-end is developed using server-side programming languages.

Back end technologies consist of an operating system, web server, framework, server-side programming language, and the database. Some of the popular programming languages for back-end development include Ruby, Python, PHP, Javascript, and .NET. Databases include MongoDB and MySQL. Some of the frameworks include Ruby on Rails, Flask, Django, Swift or Objective-C. The most popular web servers include Apache, Nginx, etc.

Middleware

Middleware acts as a communication interface between the front end and back-end. It performs tasks such as parsing and authentication.

Things to consider when choosing a Technology Stack

Users without a strong technical background will find it difficult in choosing the technology stack for their application. Here are some factors that will help users to select the right stack.

Project complexity – The first step in choosing the technology stack is to analyze the size and complexity of the application to be developed.  Applications can be small, mid-range or complex projects. Understanding the requirement makes it easy to choose the right technology stack.

Scalability – The selected technology stack should support application growth in the future. The application can grow in terms of the number of users or add more processes and functionality. Developers should select a flexible technology stack that supports the growth of the application.

Maintainability – The application should be easily maintainable. If the code is lengthy, it becomes complicated to process the code. So, select technologies that are easily maintainable and can be updated easily.

Cost – Some of the tools and frameworks are free and open-source while some require a license cost. Depending on the features and usability of the software, opt for technologies that will reduce the software development cost.

Team’s expertise – Team’s expertise on the tools and technologies has to be considered while deciding on the technology stack. The team must be experienced in the technologies to develop a quality application within the deadline.

Project-based – Don’t choose a technology stack used for previous projects. Each project requirement is unique and technology components that proved successful for one project may not be relevant for another.

Ability to process data – If the project deals with loads of data, the application should be designed to handle the load. Select a programming language that can balance heavy loads of data.

Development time – The selected technology stack should facilitate faster development and reduce development time. The faster an application is developed the cheaper the development cost.

Security – Cyberattack is the biggest threat to online applications. Make sure that the technology stack you are considering is not vulnerable to security threats.

Some of the commonly used tech stacks are .NET stack, LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP), MEAN (MongoDB, Express js, Angular js and Node js) and Ruby on Rails.

Advantages of choosing the right technology stack

Choosing the right technology stack is important for any business and offers numerous benefits:

  • The software product will be robust
  • Faster time to market
  • Less maintenance cost
  • Easy to fix bugs and enhance the product

Selecting a technology stack can be a challenge. A wrong choice of a technology stack may result in project failure.

Discuss with our experts who can help you decide on the right technology stack for your product based on your business requirements and budget.

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Technology

How to Improve the quality of your code?

improve code quality

Clean code is essential to create a scalable and maintainable product, bad code can make product maintainability a disaster. Writing clean code makes it easier for programmers to understand.

Good code can be defined as a code that is of high quality. Good software should have clean, consistent and easy to understand code. Sometimes programmers write ambiguous code due to time constraints and deadlines. This might result in bugs and take more time to fix it due to code complexity.

What makes a clean code?

Attributes that define code quality include:

  • Readability – The code should be readable and understandable. Enhance the readability of the code by using meaningful names for variables and functions. Add proper whitespace, indentation or line breaks to make the code more readable.
  • Consistency – Programmers working on different modules should follow formatting and coding style to make the code consistent.
  • Reliability – Reliability refers to a reliable codebase that will make a product run without failure.
  • Maintainability – Maintainable code relies on factors such as testability and understandability. To have a maintainable codebase, the code should be consistent and well structured.
  • Modularity – The code should follow a logical structure. Independent blocks of functionality should be enfolded in a module so any change in functionality doesn’t affect the entire code.

Steps to improve code quality

Code quality can be checked as the code is written, when running a test or when the code is committed.  Here are some methods that can help improve the quality of the code.

Use a coding standard

A coding standard emphasizes that every programmer uses the same coding style. The Coding standard helps to write consistent and readable code. Some of the coding best practices include using meaningful names for variables, functions, classes, arguments and methods. Coding conventions for the project should document information on naming convention and coding guidelines. Add comments wherever required to explain what a chunk of code does and to help in future code enhancement. Don’t clutter the code with comments as it might distract the programmers. Ensure to update the comments section when code is being updated.

Adopt Test Driven Development

A well-defined test strategy can improve the quality of the code. Developers can adopt test-driven development that involves creating test cases that well-written code should be able to pass through. The key idea is to figure out all the loopholes that could make the code goes wrong and fix them in advance.

Manual Code Review

Manual code review can be done by reading the source code line by line to check for structure, style, logic and readability. The problem with manual code review is it requires patience and skill.

Use Automated Code Review Tools

Integrate automated code review tools into your project. These tools help to improve the code by suggesting feedback after commit. The code will be reviewed after each commit and issues are categorized in a dashboard. Common mistakes include coding style, compatibility, security and errors.  Fixing the issues suggested by the tool can have a positive impact on the code.

Some of the popular code review tools include:

  • SonarQube
  • Code Climate
  • Github
  • Visual Studio Code

Use a Linter

Linters can be used to reduce coding errors. Linter is a tool to analyze the code and they are different from the code review tool. The Linter reads the code and throws warnings if the code is not compliant with the syntax requirements and standards of a language. It enforces code guidelines and makes developers follow the syntax. Lint tools are available for most programming languages like Javascript, HTML, CSS, Python and PHP.

Some of the popular linters include:

  • ESLINT
  • TSLINT
  • JSHINT
  • StandardJS

Conclusion

The above methods can drive programmers to improve code quality. The tools can increase the productivity and effectiveness of the developers.

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Technology

Know the difference between UI and UX

UI vs UX

When talking about web and mobile app design users often get confused between UI and UX. Although UI and UX are often used interchangeably they are actually two different terms. UI stands for User Interface design and UX stands for User Experience and both are crucial for the success of a product. This article defines each of these terms and briefs the differences between them.

What is UI?

The term User Interface is derived from User Interaction. The term user interface relates to how a user interacts with an application. The Interface is the graphical layout which includes screen layout, animation, buttons, text fields, color scheme, and sliders. All these interactive elements should guide the user through the application interface. The UI designer should ensure that the design is coherent and appealing to the user.

What is UX?

UX refers to the user’s experience with the interface. The aim of UX is to give relevant experience to the user while interacting with the application. User experience is directly proportional to user retention and can result in customer satisfaction.

Differences between UI and UX

UI refers to how the interface functions whereas UX refers to the feel of the interface. UI is applicable only to software products whereas UX is applicable to any kind of product or service.

During product development, UX comes before UI design. UX designer conducts research about the product features and user journey and develops a prototype. The UI designer then develops the application considering these factors.

It is the responsibility of the UI designer to translate the research into an attractive experience for the users. The UI designer creates a responsive design that is compatible across all screen sizes.

Elements of UX

To achieve a holistic user experience, the following design aspects should be considered.

  • User Research – The UX designer should analyze the product and do research about the end-user and their needs as interaction design is focused on user behavior.
  • Design Strategy – Do study about the device on which the application will run as the device poses challenges in terms of layout and smaller display.
  • Design Structure – Usefulness of the website depends on the user-friendly architecture. The content should be organized allowing users to find the information they are looking for.
  • Usability – Usability is an essential component of UX as it increases user engagement. User testing and performance testing can help evaluate usability.
  • Prototyping – The UX designers should build a prototype and evaluate them to understand how the application will respond to real-time inputs. There are many prototyping tools available to speed up the process.
  • Visual Design – The designer aims to improve the user experience by considering visual aspects of the application like colors, layout, illustrations.

Elements of Great UI

The following components are essential for designing a good user interface

  • Clarity – An effective UI should allow users to understand the design and how to use it. The screens should be clutter-free.
  • Intuitive – Designer should keep the interface intuitive by making it familiar for the users to understand how the application behaves.
  • Consistency – The UI should have consistent design elements, typography, buttons, icons, and color schemes throughout the application for easy interaction.
  • Easy Navigation  – Provide an easy to navigate interface. Good UI should have page titles and highlights to help users understand the interface. Navigation should be simple and self-explanatory.
  • Progressive disclosure – Adopt progressive disclosure to show only the necessary information on the screen.
  • Forgiving – The interface should be flexible allowing users to delete or undo their mistakes.

To summarize, both UI and UX are essential for a successful product. UI and UX designers work closely with each other to build a functional and delightful software product.

Categories
Marketing

Email Marketing Made Simple

email marketing

What is email marketing?

Email Marketing refers to the use of email to promote products or services among a selected group of people. It is an essential tool for online marketing and business can leverage email campaigns to boost sales and reach potential customers. The commercial emails feature information about the brand, product promotion, discount, upcoming events or product launch. In short, every email sent to a potential or existing customer can be called email marketing.

Why is email marketing important?

Email marketing is used by businesses across the globe to promote their product or services. 94% of internet users use email. A study shows that 75% of adult users prefer email marketing over other forms of marketing. Email marketing helps to keep customers informed about the brand they care about. Email marketing need not always be about offers and discounts, you can send emailers that can be informative to the customers. Through emails with unique content, you can retain your subscribers and people will look forward to receiving regular updates.

  • Emails have a larger reach than social media. Every user who is active online has an email id.
  • People prefer to receive promotional content through email rather than through social media.

Benefits of email marketing

Enhance customer relationships

It is important to keep your customers informed about your latest product, new offers, upcoming events and much more. Sending regular emails to your customers is the best way to build customer relationships.

Market your brand

Your brand may not be popular or recognizable in the industry. Email is a great way to make your brand well known among potential customers. Send regular emails with your brand name, logo and style and use it as an opportunity to register your brand identity among the customers.

Budget-friendly

Email marketing can be beneficial for small or mid-size businesses that operate on a strict budget and timeline. An email marketing campaign is inexpensive and takes less time compared to traditional marketing. Instead of designing, printing and delivering flyers you can directly reach the email box of thousand potential customers in no time.

Targeted campaign

Email marketing allows you to plan your strategy and target potential prospects. You don’t want to reach people who are not interested in your product. It allows targeting a specific group of people or individuals. Identify target customers and reach them with product information they are interested in. For instance, an apparel store can send exclusive offers to women for women’s day.

Tracking results

Tracking ROI is easy with email marketing. The use of a marketing tool allows you to track the number of users who opened your email and how many clicked through the link.

Tips for successful email marketing

Here are some tips to make your campaign successful:

  • Email list – Build your email list by attracting users with an offer that will pay off in years to come. To send personalized emails to group users based on interest, age group, gender, etc. Strategies to grow your email list include a coupon, free trial, quiz, etc.
  • Subject line – Subject line needs to be appealing to the user and convey the intention of your email within the right character limit. An eye-catchy subject line is sure to get a better open rate.
  • Schedule – Email marketing is effective when it is sent consistently on a schedule.  Sending emails regularly on a specific schedule helps your customers understand when to expect emails.
  • Personalize emails – Spend some time in cleaning your mailing list and segmenting your audience. Targeting users and sending personalized emails will lead to higher opening and click-through rates.
  • Unsubscribe – Marketing and commercial emails should comply with the Spam act. According to this act, emails should be sent only with the permission of the recipient, emails should clearly specify the sender or business name, there should be an option for the receiver to unsubscribe from your mailing list.
  • Insightful Info – Avoid sending commercial advertisements in all the emails. Send useful tips and information relevant to your product that will educate and add value to your customers.
  • Mobile friendly – Emails should be mobile optimized as the chances of the emails opened in the mobile device is high.
  • Social Media buttons – Emails can include social media buttons to increase your brand reach among customers.

Email marketing tools

Setting up an email marketing campaign is now easy with email marketing software. There are many automation tools available in the market that come up with standard templates. Some of the popular ones include Mail chimp, SendinBlue, Drip, and constant contact. The email marketing tool is flexible and allows integration with CRM. These tools monitor and analyze the results of your email marketing campaign and help track metrics such as open rate, click-through rates, bounce rate, and conversions.

Email marketing is the best tool to grow your business.  Well-planned strategies can make your email campaign successful.