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The Time Is Now - Your eCommerce Site Is Ready For A Migration

Fear not! Migrations are often an essential step for every eCommerce site. However, knowing when it’s time to perform a migration can be a little confusing, but it doesn’t have to be! Below, Codal, a leader in both enterprise migrations and eCommerce, details the signs of when it’s time to migrate and replatform your eCommerce site.

Signs Of A Much Needed Ecommerce Migration

Problems with Integrations: an essential element of any successful eCommerce business is that of integrations. Whether that be integrations with social media or other various eCommerce plugins, your eCommerce platform will need to seamlessly integrate.

Unable to Handle Growth/Scalability: your business is growing, and therefore so are your sales. However, your platform isn’t going to miraculously growth. At a certain point a migration is needed in order to scale your growing enterprise.

Poor Customer Experience: ultimately all of the above signs contribute to poor eCommerce customer experience, which is the ultimate sign that it’s time to replatform (or design one!).

Getting Serious

You’re now convinced that your eCommerce site needs a migration. Here are some things to consider to move forward:

Choosing a migration method: there are a number of different migration methods to choose from so some research and or guidance in finalizing a decision is critical. Risk: with every opportunity comes risk. Understanding the risk(s) involved in a migration is necessary in order to implement some sort of risk management prior to the start of the migration.

Downtime: performing a seamless migration can take time. That being said, eCommerce site owners must be aware of the downtime that comes with migrations.

End Users: eCommerce site owners need to continue to satisfy end users despite the migration taking place. One way to do this is by creating a schedule in which to follow. More specifically, choose a migration sequence instead of doing the whole thing all at once. That way your site is still usable for end users.

Emergencies: be sure to consider worst case scenarios and emergencies. Likewise, put in place a plan of action and decided on possibly hard to make decisions as preventative measures in case of an emergency situation during the migration. Consider whether or not to move forward to migration or implement a rollback plan.

Conclusion

Goodbye legacy eCommerce platform! Embrace the migration and say hello to your new eCommerce platform! As a leading ecommerce website design and development company we here at Codal hope you found this information useful! If you have any questions or are wanting to perform a migration or replatforming for your eCommerce enterprise, don’t hesitate to get in touch!

5 Must Have APIs For Ecommerce

1) Product Information API

As an eCommerce retailer, you’re going to need/want certain information. For example, information like product descriptions, pricing info, product titles, etc., from any other database of products. Hence the need for product information APIs.

2) Product Catalogue API

Update thousands of products in your catalogue within minutes by including product catalogue APIs in your eCommerce site. With product catalogue APIs retailers can create, edit, and manage all of their product catalogues. As a certified partner, we here at Codal would love to give a shout-out to BigCommerce’s product catalogue API!

3) Cart API

Another must have eCommerce API is that of the Cart API. With these, retailers are able to see what’s going on inside customers shopping carts. Additionally, cart APIs allow retailers to customize the checkout experience, as well as the customer experience by way of things like discount codes, quote generation, and more.

4) Payment API

Make sure to setup a payment API in order to process electronic payments. A payment API ensures that your customers are able to make their purchases and that retailers are able to make money!

5) Shipping API

With a shipping API, rates are automatically calculated, labels created, tracking numbers generated, and much more. This feature should integrate seamlessly with any eCommerce site or application.

Conclusion

Utilizing APIs for the betterment of your eCommerce is an industry best practice. Not to be overlooked! However, there are plenty other industry best practices to bolster your eCommerce site and/or application. Want to know more? Better yet… want to implement these best practices? Get in touch with Codal, a leading eCommerce website design and development company.

Mobile Programming Languages - Which One Is Right For Your App Design/Development

So you want to make a mobile app. One of your greatest considerations is going to be the back-end; specifically choosing a programming language that’s right for your vision and application. As a leading mobile app developer, us here at Codal would like to profile some of our favorite mobile programming languages in hopes of leading you and your app towards one that’s the perfect fit.

Kotlin

Looking to develop an Android application? Look no further than Kotlin. This statistically typed programming language an ideal fit for developing Android apps. Production-ready, Kotlin is modern and expressive, safe, and interoperable.

Modern and expressive code means developers can express their ideas in full without the need to write a lot of boilerplate code. And when isn’t safety desirable? Safer code only improves the quality of your app. Lastly, Kotlin is 100% interoperable with Java.

These are but a few of the compelling reasons why Kotlin is perfect for an Android mobile app developer. Likewise, Codal loves working with Kotlin for mobile app design and development.

Swift

iPhone or iPad? Swift is the programming language to develop an application for either of these two devices as they run on iOS.

With Swift code you can create an entirely new app from scratch or you can incorporate new functionality and features into a pre-existing application. That being said, Swift is interoperable with Objective-C.

Swift is expressive. Features making this possible include easy to use Generics, functional programming patterns (like map and filter), and enums that allow for payloads and pattern matching.

Additionally, Swift is exceptionally fast as it has speed advantages during iOS application development.

Swift isn’t going anywhere. This programming language is only gaining traction. Some of the biggest companies are using Swift to build and maintain, even rebrand their mobile apps. Likewise, industry leaders in mobile app development, like Codal, are Swift experts.

Conclusion

Starting an app from scratch or modifying a pre-existing app requires time and attention to the back-end programming language. This is easier said than done and oftentimes requires help.

Maybe you need help with eCommerce mobile app development or healthcare mobile app development, even logistics mobile app development. Regardless of the type of app you’re creating, we here at Codal know how to design and develop it. Get in touch with us today!

Database Management Systems 101

What is a database? Why do businesses need databases?

Best put by Oracle, “A database is an organized collection of structured information, or data, typically stored electronically in a computer system.” Storing, managing, and retrieving information is made possible via a database. And although databases contain tables and columns, they are not spreadsheets.

Databases make things easier for businesses. More specifically, a database can, but is not limited to doing the following for a business:

Track inventory

Prepare for growth

Manage customer information

Payroll management

Analyze business data

What is a database management system? And why do businesses need one?

Put simply, a database management system manages databases. It is a software that is installed in order to manage three important things:

Data

Database engine, which allows data to be accessed, modified, and locked

Database schema (defines the logical structure)

Database management systems provide concurrency, data security, data integrity, and a way to make administrative procedures uniform.

Many enterprises have more than one database management system, depending on the type of data in need of handling.

Relational Database Management System

A relational database management system consists of data items with previously defined relationships between them. Important elements of a relational database management system include Structured Query Language (SQL), data integrity, transactions, and the ability to be Atomic, Consistent, Isolated and Durable (ACID).

Examples of relational database management systems include MySQL and PostgresSQL. And as a full-stack digital agency, we here at Codal are experts in regard to these two database management systems. Codal creates the reliable and intelligent digital tools so accessing and managing relational databases is easy. We do this via our MySQL and PostrgresSQLtechnologies.

Graph Database Management System

A graph database management system operates under the idea that the relationship between the data is as important as the data itself. No predefined models for data.

A popular graph database management system is that of Neo4J. Used by many major companies, we here at Codal know how to use and work with this staple of a software.

Conclusion

The bigger the business, the more data. And as such, the need for a database and a database management system exists. However, sometimes incorporating these two elements isn’t easy. Let us here at Codal do the hard work for you and your business, experts in database technologies.

goHow To Eliminate eCommerce Cart Abandonment On Mobile

Every industry has its Achilles heel and for eCommerce that pain point is cart abandonment. Although the cart abandonment average is at 69%, there are solutions to combating this problem. Here at Codal, we know all about shopping cart abandonment solutions.

And while cart abandonment happens on all platforms (i.e. web, tablet, etc.), it happens more on mobile, specifically at a rate of 81%. Whether customers are shopping on apps like Instagram, or shopping on their phones within a web browser, specific attention must be given to various aspects of the mobile experience as to eliminate cart abandonment.

Below are some elements to pay attention to when addressing mobile cart abandonment, as well as their corresponding solutions, courtesy of Codal, an eCommerce mobile app development company!

“Save” Feature

Call it a “wishlist”, a “bookmark,” whatever! Mobile eCommerce demands a feature that allows users to save the items they wish to buy. Although a great bulk of eCommerce occurs on mobile, many users, while they start on mobile, complete their transactions elsewhere. Many users are deterred by the small screens when participating in final stages of mobile transactions. By providing a feature where customers can save their items and pick up where they left off with the purchase, you’re accommodating user needs, as well as securing sales.

Source

Design User Friendly Text Fields

Given the size of a mobile screen, the importance of text fields is paramount. They can make or break your mobile eCommerce, so much so that they may be the catalyst for shopping cart abandonment if not designed and developed well.

Users get confused easily and lose their patience even quicker. Be sure to use simple and concise language. No ambiguous wording and avoid being at all verbose.

Given users desires for immediacy, implement automation for text fields. First name, last name, email address, phone number, city, state, zip code, etc. can all be accommodated via autofilling text fields, which make things faster and easier for users. And thus makes them more inclined to complete purchases.

Source

Guest Checkout

Don’t force users to create an account, especially on mobile. Allow users to checkout as a guest. 1 in 4 customers choose to leave an eCommerce transaction rather than make an account.

While having users create an account may enhance your SEO, it’s not worth losing sales in order to do so. Your customers want ease and efficiency. Don’t elongate the checkout process for them with the need to create an account. Keep guest checkout forms brief.

Source

Conclusion

The above best practices are crucial when designing and developing a mobile platform that doesn’t facilitate shopping cart abandonment. It’s important to keep in mind that these best practices the byproduct of the needs and wants of users. If you’re wanting to uncover the needs and wants of your customers contact Codal, a leader in user experience research services. And based off those findings, consider working with an eCommerce website design and development company, like Codal!

It’s In (Almost) Every Industry - AI/Machine Learning

Once considered to be something in our wildest dreams, AI/machine learning is now a very real part of our everyday lives. AI/machine learning is currently in many industries and making its way into many more. But not everyone knows how exactly AI/machine learning is affecting businesses.

Wonder no more! Codal breaks down a few of the industries being transformed by AI/machine learning!

Finance

Banks and other financial businesses are using AI/machine learning for two main reasons: fraud prevention and data analyzation.

While fraud is rare, it can be very costly. And as data sets grow bigger, it’s even harder to detect fraud, but with AI/machine learning, it just got a little easier. This technology is capable of mining data and analyzing client profiles in order to garner potential signs of fraud.

Insights provided by AI/machine learning analyzed data include investment opportunities or suggestions for investors as to when they ought to trade. Data analyzation helps risk management, which requires identifying risks early on. And with AI/machine learning banks can recognize risky data patterns sooner rather than later.

Looking for an established agency with experience with both finance and AI/machine solutions? Look no further than Codal! For an insider look at our experience, checkout our Charles Schwab case study!

Retail/eCommerce

Retail websites are using machine learning in order to analyze your buying history and recommend products based on that data.

Machine learning is beneficial to eCommerce enterprises. For instance, this technology helps eCommerce enterprises make better data driven decisions, optimize processes, and identify new markets.

AI/machine learning also helps create a more personalized custom experience. Likewise, this technology can predict customer service issues before they even occur.

And with 70% of eCommerce taking place via mobile best believe this technology is usable in that platform too!

Wanting to incorporate AI/machine learning into your eCommerce business? Get in touch with an eCommerce web development company and/or a eCommerce mobile app development company, like Codal!

Healthcare

Digital transformation in healthcare is here! AI and machine learning has taken healthcare by storm! Healthcare AI is estimated to have a value of $6.6 billion by 2021 and save the U.S. healthcare industry $150 billion annually. These technologies are making significant strides for both healthcare professionals and patients.

AI is being used for medical diagnoses. For instance, Stanford University created an AI algorithm that identifies and diagnosis skin cancer. This technology is said to be available on mobile phones eventually. Likewise, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has an AI in the works that uses high-level image recognition to detect metastasis.

In need of healthcare transformation solution? Contact Codal, experts in software development for healthcare, connected healthcare solutions, and more!

Conclusion:

Industries not included in this piece, but that are reaping the benefits of AI and machine learning include, but are not limited to, transportation, manufacturing, and government.

AI/machine learning isn’t going anywhere. That being said, take a step in the innovative direction and incorporate this wonderful technology into your business with a little help from Codal, experts in AI/machine learning.

Designing Platforms For Many User Types - 4 Best Practices

Its not at all realistic to assume you’ll only have a small handful of user types interacting with your platform. To combat this, you need to design a platform that will accommodate a variety of user types.

Below are what we here at Codal, a UX design company in Chicago, deem the best practices for designing platforms for various types of users.

Design Thinking

According to the Interactive Design Foundation, “Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative process which seeks to understand users, challenge assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions to prototype and test.”

Begin design thinking via these steps:

Empathize: research and identify potential problems your users may face and design in empathetic accordance with your discoveries.

Define: gather and organize your findings from the previous stage. Analyze and draw conclusions in order to define problems.

Ideate: challenge your findings and assumptions in order to solve a variety of problems amongst a handful of different potential users.

Prototype: it’s time to experiment with solutions and prototypes as discovered in the previous three stages.

Test: don’t just think about these possible solutions, try them out!

Caption: Source

Personas

Make use of personas!

Personas are demonstrations of potential users in the real world. They help designers design for a variety of people and groups while still addressing individual needs. Personas are created via user research. (In search of user experience research services? Look no further than Codal!). They show the needs, wants, behaviors, etc., of who they’re representing.

Caption: How to create Personas, a step by step guide.

Once your personas are created, give them some context: apply them to different scenarios. Scenarios will help designers understand user flows (see the following section), which is critical when designing for a variety of user types.

User Flows

User flows are a series of steps a user takes in order to achieve an objective. They communicate the intended sequence of steps that a user would go through within an application or website.

Caption: UX Flows, and Why They’re So Confusing

User flows put the user at the center of the design process by putting attention of the users needs and wants, demonstrating how users achieve an objective.

An example of success with user flows can be seen in Codal’s experience working with Showroom Squared.

Accessibility/Compliance

Designing for many types of users also includes developing a platform that is usable for those with disabilities. While this is certainly the ethical practice, it also one that is mandated by law. Make sure you site is ADA compliant!

Caption: Source

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) make designing your platform accessible easy! An example of a WCAG guideline includes consistent navigation. More specifically, for users with visual impairments or cognitive limitations, having a predictable site or application makes it usability easier if repeated components (like an expanding navigation menu) occur in an identical order.

Accessibility allows all types of users to enjoy websites and web applications across many platforms without jeopardizing the quality of the experience.

Conclusion:

You can’t make everyone happy, but you can make your platform usable for a variety of user types. Whether you’re in need of custom software development services, UX research services, or anything else necessary to develop your platform, Codal has you covered. Checkout out our technologies and solutions!

Edtech On The Rise - 5 Noteworthy Innovations 2019

With the ever increasing advent of technological solutions and innovations, across many disciplines and industries, it’s of no surprise that the rise of educational technology is among us. And it’s not going anywhere!

As an advocate for a more educated future, as well as being a leader in edtech solutions, us here at Codal would like to share our five favorite edtech innovations of 2019!

1) Livescribe Smartpens

Research has proven that handwritten notes contribute to better retention of information compared to typed notes. However, handwritten notes have a greater potential for getting lost, ruined, or eaten by your dog. Via a high-tech stylus, Livescribe eliminates these worries by digitizing them into PDFS, editable text files, and recorded audio. This impressive edtech is a product of Anoto.

2) Handshake

With education, particularly higher education, comes the need to put your acquired knowledge and skills into practice within the context of a job. But finding a work that’s complimentary to your area(s) of study can be challenging. However, with Handshake students need not worry. Handshake is an online career network/platform that helps students find jobs/internships with the ability to do specific to their areas of study. Similar to LinkedIn, Handshake lets students build profiles that can be seen by companies (potential employers) who are connected to the platform.

3) EDX: Free Online Courses by Harvard, MIT, & more

This is a non-profit online platform that aims to democratize learning. Managed by leading institutions in higher education, EDX provides free online courses; a concept, similar to open-source software, referred to as MOOC: Massive Open Online Courses. With great accessibility and the potential to be a tradition college education or continuing education supplement, EDX is an encouraging edtech development!

4) MATHia & MATHiaU

These two intelligent and responsive math-teaching softwares are an edtech must! MATHia is for grades 6th-12th and MATHiaU is higher education. Both softwares provide one-on-one tutoring, as well as personalized learning paths for math students. Math learning ought to be differentiated in delivery in order to solidify knowledge and retain understanding and that’s exactly what this software provides. These softwares are easy to use have aesthetically pleasing interfaces, and integrate seamlessly with Learning Management Systems (LMS) (essentially CMS specific to education), so school teachers and instructors can utilize the resource too! This software is a product of Carnegie Learning.

5) Remind Remind is a communication platform and mobile app designed to bring students, parents, and educators together. More specifically, Remind allows teachers and school administrators to communicate with parents and students via mobile all within the context of a neat platform. Additionally, this application integrates seamlessly with LMSs, like Canvas.

Conclusion

Edtech is the future of education. The possibilities are endless, with innovations ranging from hardware to software. Either way, developing said innovations requires solutions. Who better than to contact than Codal, an application development firm specializing in custom software development services.

User Experience For Wearable Tech - What You Need To Know

Wearable technology used to be something in people’s wildest dreams. Now, not only is wearable tech available, its popularity and functionality is ever increasing. Wearables connect the digital world to the physical world. And as such, it’s time for serious consideration when designing a wearable product.

Let’s examine the two parts of the product and how to design accordingly for both.

Hardware

There are two main concerns when designing hardware: comfort and aesthetics.

If the device is not comfortable there is no way users will wear it (unless it looks cool, but designing for comfort really should be a must). When designing consider how the device would best fit on someones body, or rather the hardware could integrate or enhance the body.

Hardware must be aesthetically pleasing. This is the intersection of fashion and function. Consider what’s popular when creating your wearable, but also consider the ability for user customization as you won’t be able to accommodate all aesthetic preferences.

Lastly, make sure your hardware is cohesive with your software. If you’re having trouble bringing these two together seamlessly, consider some custom software development services, like the ones offered at Codal!

Software

The software design for wearables should be treated like any other development process; i.e. putting the user at the center.

The software for a wearable should be intuitive on the front-end for users. They should experience the perfect amount of disfluency, but still be able to easily navigate your product to complete their objectives.

Keep in mind, wearables are often meant to serve a specific function, or accomplish a certain objective, opposed to accommodating a handful of potential tasks, like a computer. That being said, when designing your software less is more. Don’t aim for mass functionality, rather strive for a seamless singular or small set of functionality.

Additionally, considering a great majority of wearable tech involves biometric data, you must be designing in accordance to HIPAA compliance. (If you’re not experienced with designing within these parameters, consider contacting Codal, a leader in software development for healthcare!).

Caption: Picture from Study: Wearable Technology & Preventative Healthcare.

Conclusion

The experience of wearable tech is just as much physical as it is digital. Designing an experience that brings together hardware and software seamlessly is easier said than done. Though, it’s not impossible. If you’re in search of a wearable tech solution, contact Codal, a UX design company.

Agile Versus Waterfall Development: Which Is Right For You

While there are many approaches to software development used by software development agencies, two of the most popular, as well as powerful, are Agile and Waterfall. Both of these approaches are very different, but effective in their own rite. That being said, choosing between the two is not an option as they are often suited for different types of projects. For the purpose of this piece we will profile each process and provide pros and cons of each in efforts of helping you make an informed development decision.

Agile

Agile is not a PM framework, nor is it a methodology, rather its a set of values and principles concerned with producing a product, i.e. software. Agile’s deliverables, especially in regard to software development, are made and accepted incrementally, within short iterations (roughly 2-4 weeks).

Pros Frequent communication amongst developers and those accepting the deliverables is required, which should result in favorable dividends. Akin to the previous point, and although not guaranteed, collaboration amongst people ought to be much higher compared to other development methods. Considerable use of visuals used (e.g. boards, charts, Kanban, etc.).

Cons Larger projects might be challenging due to the inability for developers to always be within proximity to the businesses commissioning their projects. Agile is very intensive to all parties involved, and as a result requires ample time and attention that may be difficult to accommodate. Deadlines are particularly strict and crucial. Oftentimes, people are reluctant to follow these which hinders success.

Waterfall

Waterfall is a linear process. Alternatively put, waterfall is sequential in its phases. Each of these events composes the project, or software, lifecycle. Unlike Agile, requirements of a project when using Waterfall are defined in the beginning but left subject to change as the software develops. Hence why Waterfall is often used on physical projects.

Pros Easy to use and understand! Agreement and expectations between customers and developers is made early on – no surprises later. Relative to Agile, Waterfall can handle large-scale design or analysis with ease, as well as the impact of downstream design changes.

Cons People are often reluctant or skeptical in regard to defining and committing to deliverables from the beginning as the fear is early ideas may be flawed or project may change. The potential for risks is far greater with Waterfall, compared to Agile. For instance, changes to the project made later on have higher costs. Additionally, the range of invalid assumptions is endless with Waterfall. Communication risks are greater than those associated with Agile. Waterfall does not have a communication practice built into its process, whereas Agile does. As a result, communication can lack.

Conclusion

If you’re not sure which process to choose to get your software developed, or you’re unable to develop your own software, contact Codal, experts in custom software development services, software development for healthcare, and logistics software development.

5 Free Shopify App's for Your eCommerce Startup

You’ve made a couple of important decisions recently.

Order Printer

If you’re in the eCommerce business, you’re going to be sending goods through the mail. Decrease costs and hassle with Order Printer; a must have for any eCommerce operation on Shopify.

Caption: Order Printer screenshot

Not only is this app free, it allows users to customize and print custom packing slips, invoices, labels, or receipts. It’s worth noting, that customizations need to be done in HTML and Liquid, both of which one would need experience using.

SEO Site Audit, Benchmark Hero

Startup or not, you should be concerned with SEO. With SEO Site Audit, Benchmark Hero, bolster the success of your eCommerce site by improving your SEO.

In order to do so, this app runs an audit on your site and answers questions like “how does Google scan my site?”, “what is the percentage of recurring customers?”, and “how fast does my site run?”. Answering questions like this will drive traffic and boost conversion rates!

Integrates with StoreYa.

Kit

You’ve secured your next marketing expert with this app. Vowing to support your company’s need for sales growth, Kit will analyze your business and reccomend marketing solutions.

Kit prides itself on helping small businesses overcome the folllowing three challenges:

Lack of time to both learn and execute marketing Not enough capital to hire a marketing professional No experience in online sales

Caption: Kit’s interface

Kit integrates with Facebook, Instagram, Customer reviews by Yotpo, SEO Manager by Venntov, and Kit Karts by ShopPad. Improved Contact Form

A well designed and fully functioning contact page and/or pop-up is a must for any business, espcieally a start-up! Give users and customers interpersonal access to your business by enstating Improved Contact Form to your Shopify store.

This app automatically adds a contact page to your website without any coding, as well as providing contact pop-ups. Additional functionality includes recieval of contact form submission directly to your pre-existing mail box, bot spam protection, customizable contact form fields, and smart contact form, which provides users information (like city, state, IP address, how they found your site, and more).

Caption: Improved Contact Form’s automated email email notification to your personal email.

Integrates with mailchimp and Constant Contact.

Compass

A Shopify store is incomplete without an analytics plugin and with Compass you’ll get just that! All you have to do is download the app, create your dashboard, and get started!

Compass track over 30 eCommerce metrics, like Customer Lifetime Value, Repurchase Rate, Refunds, Customer Acquisition Costs, and more.

Types of reports include: Benchmark Report, Insights Report, Acquisition Report, Revenue Report, and an Executive Report.

There’s no excuse to not know your eCommerce business, especially given the analytics tools abailable. Use Compass to understand your business inside and out.

Integrates with Paypal, Stripe, Amazon, Facebook Ads, Google Analytics, and Google Adwords.

Conclusion

Starting an eCommerce store can be daunting and costly. However, it doesn’t need to be. Take advatage of the free apps recommended above in order to jump start the success of your Shopify store. But if you’re looking for a more specialized app, get in touch with an eCommerce app development agency.

If you’re looking for more eCommerce solutions, consider contacting Codal, an eCommerce web development company.

Statamic CMS: A WordPress Alternative

Caption: image courtesy of Statamic blog post.

Many people and businesses count on WordPress for their CMS, and rightfully so. WordPress has earned its positive reputation. However, there are alternatives to (almost) everyone’s favorite CMS, like Statamic for content-based websites.

Statamic vs. WordPress

Although WordPress is free, which is always nice, you might save money in the long-run with Statamic. For starters, Statamic is far more customizable than WordPress. The core of Statamic is already fitted with Advanced Custom Fields, a backup utility, a forms module, search plugin, and a better caching system, unlike WordPress. As a result, the cost of ownership is lower.

Additionally, 90% of hacked sites from 2018 were WordPress sites. However, Statamic is built on Laravel which is one of the safest and most secure PHP frameworks ever. Other benefits of Laravel include mail integration, authentication/authorization system building, and separation of business logic code and presentation logic code.

No Database

Statamic stores all your information/data via flat files opposed to databases, making information/data more accessible, as well as easier to edit and use. For example, ease in doing the following: version control, migrations, and development. Furthermore, not having a database makes the operating speed of Statamic faster than its database CMS counterpart.

Using Statamic First off, the UX/UI of Statamic easy to use and easy on the eyes. (Interested in improving the UX/UI of your website,web-application, or platform? Check out UX/UI design company, Codal!).

Caption: control panel illustrates user friendly and aesthetically pleasing UX/UI, image from Statamic | Self-Hosted WordPress Alternatives Part 4.

Secondly, Statamic is user friendly on the back-end. Set up and customization on the back-end is easy, inpart due to the Laravel framework.

eCommerce

While Statamic has eCommerce capabilities, such as addons like Charge and Statamify, it doesn’t stand a chance relative to platforms like Shopify or BigCommerce.

However, if you’re an online retailer using Statamic (or any other CMS), but you’re in need of some custom tweaking in order to bolster your eCommerce business, take it to the experts in eCommerce website design and development: Codal.

Plugins and Add-ons

WordPress has considerably more plugins/add-ons than Statamic. It’s worth noting the control panel of Statamic doesn’t allow you to download plugins/add-ons within it. If you’re using Statamic or another CMS and need custom plugin/add-on assistance, Codal, an application development agency, can help.

Conclusion

Both WordPress and Statamic have a lot to offer. Choosing between the two of them will ultimately depend on your specific CMS needs.

Interested in exploring these needs with a ux company or a mobile app design company, even a WordPress development company? Come talk to us here at Codal! And for more useful information, visit our blog!

5 Tips for Conducting User Interviews

By gathering information regarding users feelings, behaviors, motivations, objectives, and routines, UX designers learn how to improve user experiences. They do this via user interviews.

User interviews are great at all stages! Before you design as to provide information concerning personas, journey maps, and feature ideas. Or even after a user test in order to provide verbal responses as contexts to your findings.

Below are Codal’s, a user experience research services company, five tips for conducting user interviews!

1) Ask the right questions

Anyone can ask questions, but asking meaningful questions that elicit informative feedback takes some preparation.

Don’t ask “yes or no” questions and avoid vague questions. You want to ask thought provoking questions that require users to provide genuine, and explanatory, responses. For example, “Why or why don’t you like the checkout process?” or “Tell me about your experience using our product.”

Also, keep in mind the interview is not a sales pitch. Keep your questions neutral. This is not an opportunity to promote your product.

2) Try to anticipate follow-up questions

While you can’t predict the future, chances are you will have at least some idea as to how your users will respond to your questions. That being said, try to anticipate their answers with follow-up questions in order to keep the interview moving forward and gather even more information.

3) Remember human flaws and limitations

User interviews receive self-reported data that reflect feelings and perceptions, both of which are inherently subjective. While we proceed to conduct user interviews seeking out these subjective responses, they are not void of human flaws and limitations.

Important flaws and limitations to keep in mind:

Some people may feel pressure to answer questions a certain way and as a result either omit details or include unnecessary details.

Human memory is not entirely reliable – take this into account when receiving any and all answers.

People prone to cognitive biases – this is certainly something to for both the interviewer and interviewee, however answers given in bias can give skewed results research.

Caption: image courtesy of Visual Capitalist

4) Topics to cover during the interview

While this list is not exhaustive, nor should you limit your interview to these topics, start here:

Background information – general info about the user, such as age, location, demographic, ethnographic, etc..

General technology use – user’s experience with technology, frequency of using technology, and types of technology being used.

Use of the product – determine how your user uses your product.

Objectives and motivations – why your user uses your product.

Pain points – users are usually pretty aware of their frustrations and where they originate so take advantage of this!

5) Make sure user interviews is what you need

There are many different means to address the UX of your product, including but not limited to user interviews. However, oftentimes a user, or usability, test is needed opposed to user interviews.

If you’re needing to know things like whether a design is easy to use or what technically makes a design easy or difficult, then consider a usability test.

Caption: Table highlighting some differences between user testing and user interviewing from Nielsen Norman Group.

Not sure which test is right for you? Chicago ux design agency, Codal, can help!

Your conducted your user interview: now what?

Hopefully your user interview was a success and you acquired plenty of valuable information. Time to start using that data!

Maybe the goal of your product is digital transformation in healthcare, maybe your product aim is digital transformation in logistics, or maybe you’re looking for an eCommerce solution but your user interview results require a solution.

Contact Codal! Let us apply our user research services to your product and business.

Why You Need To Invest In User Testing

How you think users should use your platform is often different from how it is actually being used. When we’re dealing with websites and web-applications, the best way to understand how audiences are engaging with our UX is to conduct a user, or usability, test.

What Is User Testing (A Usability Test)?

Consider the following three qualitative variables: effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. User testing measures how well a platform (i.e. website, web-application, or mobile app) performs based on these variables. Based on your findings, you adjust your platform.

It’s also worth noting difference between user testing and user research. User testing occurs once there is a tangible product with some degree of usability, whether that be a wireframe or a fully developed website. User testing is concerned with how the design functions and how easy the platform is to use. Comparatively, user research is performed before there is a product in order to understand user objectives, behaviors, and expectations in order to develop a product accordingly. Both types of testing can be completed by a UX design company and/or mobile app design company.

But why should you invest in user testing?

Time Is Money

Usability issues can be costly and time consuming the longer you wait to address them. But by investing in user testing you can identify problems before their scope is becomes too large and even harder to correct.

Without a user test, your UX is incomplete and your product is therefore suboptimal, which consequently has negative long-term effects on market share. Customers will try your website or web-application once, be dissatisfied, give up, and not try again, even after you’ve fixed the problem. It’s too late. So be sure to conduct your own user test or let a UX research services company do the work for you!

Caption: Graphic courtesy of The Best UX Tools For User Research And User Testing [2018 Edition]

Usability Converts

Conversion rates show the percentage of at which users make a desired action. Desired actions are taken when UX proves to be effective, efficient, and satisfactory. Improve these elements via the findings in a user test in order to bridge the gap between what your platform is supposed to do and what its actually doing, aka boost conversion rates!

In the case of eCommerce sites, conversion rates are critical. Higher conversion rates are indicative of higher sales. Achieving higher sales is a result of various factors, however the better your usability, the easier and more pleasurable it is for customers to make purchases.

Not sure how to transform your user test findings into an eCommerce solution? Ecommerce website design and development agencies are pros at creating and modifying eCommerce platforms for higher conversion rates.

Conclusion

Thomas J. Watson Jr. of IBM once said, “good design is good business.” Improve your platform’s UX whilst simultaneously in order to save both time and money, as well as boost conversion rates. As a result, improving your business.

You should do user testing pre-design, during design, and post-design. If that seems overwhelming, you don’t have to do it alone. Contact Codal, a Chicago UX design company.

When UXers Should Use A UI Kit

Have you thought about using a UI kit? If the answer is no, it may be time to take the plunge and make your life easier while streamlining the design process. As a UX design agency, we’ve found that UI kits are great because they can also help save time and money while making your designs perform and look better.

The basis of UI kits are aimed at frontend developers who would rather take a modular approach to building a website or app, but may not want to be restricted or tied down by a template.

One big reason for a UXer to want to use a UI kit is because its makes web development simply a quicker process. As an agency that specializes in user experience design services, a faster design process means more websites can be built which leads to increasing efficiency which is every UXers end goal. However something to consider, this doesn’t address the development side, even though it may cut down a few hours in Sketch it still has to be implemented from scratch in code.

A UXer may use a UI kit to get a more realistic sense of how long a project will take for their UI design services project. While it won’t make the estimation for you the design is already known so what’s left for you to do is less than what it would be starting from scratch. After you know which design you want to use you can take elements from the UI kit and set them up according to the wireframe you created. This process ends with customizing those design elements to fit your branding.

To eliminate learning how to solve common problems like breadcrumbs, CTA’s, navigation styles, notification boxes, and icons a UXer may use a UI kit to eliminate these issues. With the amazingly-detail oriented nature UI kits have you’ll end up with a better result than if you were doing it all by yourself, and faster!

Another reason a UXer may want to use a UI kit is to have a standard look and feel for their website. Once you use a UI kit that includes icon packs and custom color palettes etc., it’s simple to keep the same overall look for all elements in your website. Users will go through different pages on the site and different components but still feel that they are similar.

Looking for more insight on UI kits, UX design services, or user experience design services? Are you wanting to develop an app or website and you need to know more information on how this web development agency chicago based company is? Visit Codal’s blog, or come talk to us here! We’d love to hear from you.

Pro’s and Con’s of Using WordPress

WordPress is the most popular platform for building websites and powers millions of websites. WordPress is very user friendly, simply put, it makes website building easy. WordPress is great because you can customize with thousands of website templates and design that you can choose from. Each template/design comes with different options for customizing which allows the user to create very unique websites.

From experience working at a wordpress development company, Highlighted in this article are some of the pro’s and con’s of using WordPress.

A few WordPress Pros:

1. User Friendly CMS. WordPress is extremely simple to organize content without having a background in website management. It’s easy to navigate through content and the pages on a WordPress site.

2. Plugins. A major bonus for WordPress is that there are over 50,000 mostly free and paid plugins that are available to users. These plugins help the users customize and enhance any WordPress site.

3. SEO. SEO is now more important than ever so best SEO practices follow suit. WordPress does a good job of promoting best practices and offers a wide variety of plugins to optimize content, keywords, and meta tags.

A few WordPress cons:

1. Vulnerability. One major con for WordPress is that’s it’s extremely vulnerable and easy to hack into. Someone was able to hack into our website that we built on WordPress using our website.wp-admin and logged in. Since it is an open-source platform this makes it attractive to potential hackers.Being an open-source platform, WordPress is attractive to potential hackers.

2. Many Updates. Of course, everyone needs to install updates and its important to your WordPress site’s health. That being said, it can also be annoying because there are constant updates.

3. Customization. If you aren’t a WordPress expert and one didn’t build your website, customization can be an issue and become expensive. Mentioned above with the updates, it can cause some problems on your site if they aren’t fully functional.

With any platform or website builder there will inevitably be pros or cons. Many of the cons listed in this article can be resolved with the right ux design agency or person managing your website.

Looking for more insight on UX services or a wordpress theme development company? Are you wanting to develop an app or website and you need to know more information or need a web development agency chicago based? Visit Codal’s blog, or come talk to us here! We’d love to hear from you.

Development Approaches: Waterfall Versus Agile

Web design and developers in Chicago and all over the world will tell you how important it is to come up with a game plan for how a project process will go. Agile and Waterfall are potentially two very different ways of delivering project. As an agency that specializes in UX services, we’ve learned time and again why these two ways are very important to understand.

The choice you make on which to use of course impacts how your team will operate, and while it totally depends on the project and requirements you should understand the difference between the two.

Waterfall has been known as the traditional methodology for software development and its rapidly losing popularity as agile methodology is increasingly being adopted by companies.

Agile methodology follows a linear sequential approach while providing flexibility, waterfall is a sequential model where software development is segregated. This agile methodology provides flexibility in a way that as project requirements change so does the methodology approach.

So what are some advantages and disadvantages? This is a great way to put these two models into perspective.

Advantages of the Agile model:

This is focused on client process which in turn keeps them involved at every stage.

Agile teams are motivated and self-organized which is likely to end in a better result.

The process is totally based on the incremental progress.

Advantages of the Waterfall model:

An easy model to manage with each phase having specific deliverables and a review process.

Results in a faster delivery of the project. Works well for smaller projects with easy-to-understand requirements.

And, of course, there are some disadvantages.

Disadvantages of the Agile model:

Agile only works best when members of the development team are completely and totally dedicated to the project.

The involving nature of Agile development may lead to a frequent rethinking if the full scope of the system is not accounted for in the initial architecture and design. Without this rethinking, the system can suffer from a reduction in overall quality.

Disadvantages of the Waterfall model:

It can be time consuming to gather and document requirements on each step since its difficult to assume things about the project at the beginning.

In general, the risk is higher with the Waterfall approach because the scope for mistakes is higher. If something goes wrong, fixing it can be hard because you have to go through a few steps back.

Still not sure on which to go with? Think long and hard about your project requirements and what the best possible outcome could and should be. Looking to work with a ux company or a mobile app design and development agency in Chicago? Are you wanting to develop an app or website or simply want more information on our UX design agency? Visit Codal’s blog, or come talk to us here! We’d love to hear from you.

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