5 Challenges you must tackle as a web developer

As a web developer, there are stages in the process of building your website that you likely cannot escape. To develop a successful web application, there are some factors that you would have to consider to rate your web application as successful. Everyday web developers are faced with the challenge of meeting up with clients’ need, therefore it is very important that whatever you are building can serve your client and meet the need of users on a regular basis.

• The user interface:

The user interface is very essential in web development because for your user to have a fulfilled user experience, they should be able to relate with web applications and utilize it. The user interface helps create a better user experience. Therefore the developer needs to build a user-friendly application where users can easily navigate and utilize every phase of the web pertaining to their needs. The website has to be a responsive platform which can relate to all kind of user devices. The website should be simple and not confusing or complex for your user.

• Scalability:

This points to the balance of load on the server. There has to be a balance between the load that runs on the server at all times. At some point when a website pulls more traffic, additional server should be added to bring a balance so that the load won’t drag down the system service. The web application should be designed in such a way that it can run on a cluster of servers. The use of a service-orientation architecture can enhance the scalability of the web application.

• Performance:

The speed of a website have a major impact on your user reaction to your web application. A slow website will get a poor reaction from user and vice versa. It is important that web developers enhance the performance of the web application. Slow website can be as a result of Poorly written code, Un-Optimized Databases, Unmanaged Growth of data, Traffic spikes, Poor load distribution, Default configuration, Troublesome third party services, etc.

A content distribution network (CDN) is a globally distributed network of proxy servers deployed in multiple data centers. It means instead of using a single web server for the website, use a network of servers. Some of the benefits of CDN are that the requests on the server will be routed to different servers balancing the traffic, the files are divided on different CDNs so there will be no queuing and wait for downloading different files like images, videos, text, etc.

• Knowledge of frameworks and platforms

The use of frameworks is a scratch development language for web developers. they boost performance, offer libraries of coding and extend capabilities, so developers need not do hand-coding web applications from the ground up. Frameworks offer features like models, APIs, snippets of code and other elements to develop dynamic web applications.

Some of the frameworks have a rigid approach to development and some are flexible. Common examples of web frameworks are PHP, ASP.Net, Ruby on Rails and J2EE. Web platforms provide client libraries to build on existing frameworks required to develop a web application or website. Information delivery and online presence would require a simple web platform such as WordPress or Squarespace but a selling product requires an e-commerce platform such as Magento, Shopify. WooCommerce or BigCommerce). While choosing the perfect platform one should also consider technical skills, learning curve, pricing, customization options, and analytics.

• Security 

The security of your website is very important and should be considered through the building process of the website. when it comes to handling very sensitive data such as payment details, contact information and confidential data, security needs to be taken very seriously. There are many things to consider when it comes to web application security such as denial of service attacks, the safety of user data, database malfunctioning, unauthorized access to restricted parts of the website, etc. Some of the security threats are Cross-Site Scripting, Phishing, Cross-Site Request Forgery, Shell Injection, Session Hijacking, SQL Injection, Buffer Overflow, etc. The website should be carefully coded to be safe against these security concerns.

Web development can be deliberately difficult as it involves achieving a final product that should be pleasing, builds the brand, and is technically up to date with sound visuals.