Best Website Design Trends to Engage Your Target Audience in 2018

The graphic designers play a crucial role in website development. Web design has the capability to sets you apart from the competitors. Today there is a competition on how to offer a newer and better user experience.

The team has to develop websites and applications which not only provides what is necessary, also include different features to fulfill their needs.

Here are some elements which are necessary to check while designing a website.

• Visually appealing: The design must be simple yet attractive so that visitors stay on the website for a longer period of time.
• Drive more traffic: Your attractive website design will draw more traffic and end up in more sale conversions.
• Better user experience: If the UX design is great, the site will have increased repeated visitors.
• Relevant information: The site must contain relevant information and provide a solution to visitor’s queries. You can have an FAQ page depending upon your market.
• Easy navigation and accessibility: A complicated design is a big NO. Easy navigation, accessibility and faster loading time are some of the crucial things to keep an eye on.
• Responsive Design: You must check that the website is easily operated from different browser and devices.
• Personal touch: Customizing the pages with a personal touch for example, by introducing the chatbot will offer one to one experience.
• Call To Action: The look of the page depends on your choice, but remember one thing your website must hold a CTA to your products or services. An interesting CTA will make the audience click and follow the remaining processes.

The Latest Trends to Engage Your Target Audience

• Animations & GIFs: Smartly you can use these tools to guide users to different elements on your website.
• Simple design: Visitors like de-cluttered websites. The new trend of visual cards is in trends. The works as a gate to more information and are self-explanatory.
• Video with sound: You can even add your customer journey story to increase the credibility of your products or services.
• Typography: We have so many different font styles, what are they for? Of course, use it smartly to attract the visitor and to add that extra dose of interest. Find the legible one to clearly convey your message.

2018 is an exciting year. Different brands are trying different elements to increase the customer base. Great ROI and traffic conversions are two important things to remember when you approach any web development company.

 

Native vs. Cross Platform, what you should know before App Development

Planning to develop a mobile application? And you are confused between Native and cross-platform mobile app development. Today we are talking about the basic differences between both the platforms. You have no clue and faced similar kind of questions, this article is surely for you. Read on to know more.

What is Native application?

A native app is a software programme which is developed for use on a particular device or platform. It uses device-specific hardware and software. It is developed using platform specific programming language like Java for Android or Objective –C/ C++ for iOS and environment like Android Studio for Android or XCode for iOS. It can optimize performance and take advantages of the features such as GPS, local DB, camera etc.

What is Cross Platform application?

Cross-platform application is developed only once and can work on different operating systems. The UI is curated using standard technologies such as CSS and HTML and the logic is driven by JavaScript. In simple words, it is a website that is optimized to show over the mobile device. It uses the browser’s engine to work and it cannot access most of the device’s functionality.

Difference between Native and Cross-Platform

To help you understand better, we made a comparison table, just check it out:

	Native App	Cross-Platform App
User Experience	More responsive UI when it comes to animations	Not so responsive
Performance and Speed	Runs smoothly on all mobile devices	The performance and speed are a bit slow
Device specific features	It takes complete advantages of platform-specific functionality	It has a restricted functionality
Distribution via App stores	Full support of the iTunes store and google play store	Few slow performing are not always welcomed by the app stores
Multiple Platform deployment cost	Separate development for each platform makes it a costly affair for small businesses	The financial investment is very low and takes less time to implement an app on all platforms
Maintenance and support	Maintenance of Native apps require average twice the time and resources	It comes with much simpler development lifecycle and the problem can be fixed at once
Security	High-security level	Medium security
Access to new OS features	Supports all the features of the OS and device	Supports selective features of OS, developers have to wait for updates

Conclusion

After going through the basic difference, you can select any of the platforms for app development. However, many enterprises go for combine approaches too. With the surge in demand, we have found that it all depends on the budget of different businesses.

In terms of high-quality user engagement and experience, Native platform is the best choice. On the other hand, projects like mobile games seek cross-platform development.

Well, when you are planning for one for your business, an experienced team can guide you to the right development. We are working on a mobile application, website and software development for a decade now. If you have any queries feel free to contact us.

7 Latest iOS App Development Trends to follow in 2018

The world of mobile applications are huge and the innovation taking place is creating great opportunities for businesses. The users are also taking full advantages of the everyday mobile applications. iOS app is developed with great care and comes with an amazing interface for easy utility.

The trends in iOS app development are changing keeping in mind the increased usability of smartphones. It creates a great impact on the business of organizations. Here are 7 latest trends that iOS app development company must follow to take app development to next level.

• Cloud-based Applications: Cloud driven mobile applications hold the ability to resolve data security problems. For a company, protecting sensitive data with regards to employee devices is a challenge. However, cloud-based iOS application assures better and secure data storage. And it is the latest trend to design such applications.
• Apple HomeKit: The iOS application must be configured with the Apple Homekit for controlling connected devices and accessories in the home. Various companies are into creating a smart home or home automation, an iOS application with this feature and seamlessly collaborate together.
• Apple Pay: According to the stat, transactions using Apple Pay has seen an incredible hike of about 500%. In Apple Pay, you don’t need to load debit or credit card information, such as the security of the application. It also supports all the iOS devices.
• Improved AI: Siri, the AI assistant over iOS devices is now more developed. With the smart algorithm, she can communicate well and understands almost everything you say.
• Core Machine Learning: It is one of the most attractive trends in iOS app development. This machine learning framework is proving to be great in handling camera, QuickType or Siri. It works effectively which helps in developing highly interactive apps over iOS.
• IoT focused apps: Recognizing digital signals from the sensors in IoT devices and secure information exchange over Wi-Fi networks is the main focus of iOS developers. The value-adding apps will help the users to take advantages of the IoT devices.

• Augmented Reality: With the launch of iOS 12, the ARkit is one of the must features that need to be there in iOS applications. To offer a real experience to the users Augmented Reality implementation is mandatory. ARkit is receiving ample support from Amazon platform to take the experience to the next level.

Opportunities are huge. All these smart developments will surely create an amazing experience. There are several other updates which Apple got for its iOS platform and are trending. You can check another blog on iOS 12 important features, here. For more such latest technology updates, follow us.

We are one of the promising mobile app development company. We develop mobile applications with the latest features. If you want to know more, check the link.

 

 

Top 5 Technology Trends for E-commerce in 2018

It’s already half of 2018, and the IoT have witnessed dramatic changes. Technological development in every sphere is creating new opportunities. The marketers are of course looking for more ROI. According to Statista, “global e-commerce sales are expected to increase 246.15% by 2021, from 1.3 trillion in 2014 to 4.5 trillion 2021.

The e-commerce industry is growing steadily and it has utilized the technology smartly to get the right output. Here we are talking about the technology trends over E-commerce platform which is not only making shopping interesting but offering great results to marketers.

• Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality
  As e-commerce grows, the option of visually testing out products before buying is an amazing concept. For example, try in 3D options for glasses or decorating one’s own house space as a demo. This innovation is fantastic and the AR is making consumers to buy more products. With the help of machine learning technologies, product recommendations are also likely to be more accurate and helpful.
• Chatbots for Online Purchasing
  Chatbots are doing pretty well. E-commerce industry has taken it to the new level. Chatbot development is little tricky, it needs constant upgrade. The recent example is the Domino’s use of messenger bot which interacts and shows the full menu for fast and easy ordering. Creating chatbot for business is still an open field and e-commerce businesses should grab this technology to see the real difference.
• Voice Search- as one of the leading drivers                                                                    As Amazon Alexa, Siri, and Google assistant grow in popularity, voice search is now one of the preferred methods of search. It is one of the leading drivers of technology in the e-commerce space. It is found that “40% of millennials are already using voice search before making an online order.” So, it is important to optimize your business for voice search.
• Image Search
  Imagine you have seen a wine bottle in the market but you wish to get a discount on that. So, you get a picture of it and use Vivino app to find similar products for a better deal. The product scanning apps are gaining popularity and it is a great deal for the e-commerce industry to utilize it. It’s also estimated that “image and voice search will make up 50% of all the searches by 2020.
• High-Quality Product Videos                                                                                              The online customers generally have a lot of queries related to the product. Any e-commerce portal needs to answer all the queries digitally and a video is the best way for that. A high-quality video related to product’s design and functionality is a good way to allure the buyers.

We are already seeing these trends influencing the market and no doubt it will grow in the coming years. However, when you are planning online business make sure you get the help of advanced technologies for better ROI.

We at Sphinx are continuously working on e-commerce, Amazon Alexa skill, blockchain, and ICO services development. We are turning ideas into reality by providing end-to-end IT solutions. We support businesses to grow and get the best results. If you have any query, feel free to get in touch.