Step-by-Step Guide for Web Application Development from Scratch

Quick Overview: Web application development is now a big part of driving business sales and productivity. Nonetheless, creating such digital assets may not be necessarily hard. We have divided the whole development process into a series of steps and some extra advice and tricks here in this research-based guide. Read until the end or read through the contents. Learn how to create an effective web application from scratch.

Between mobile apps and software systems, companies are looking to web applications for customers or internal use.

One important reason for this movement is that these sites offer improved access (they can run on any browser). You also get flexibility (they are simple to manage and scale), and user experience (seamless interaction across devices).

Therefore, decision-makers have become more and more interested in the web application development process. Is it a complex process? How long will it take? What are the challenges one may encounter? And so on.

From what we have learned up to this point, we’re going to go into the nitty-gritty to assist you in understanding the optimal way to develop them. We’ll crack the code on the steps, discuss the resources involved, and explore the likely challenges.

So, if you’ve got a great idea, let’s turn it into a working web app!

Resources Needed for Web Application Development

Creating any software product involves a vast range of technical and human resources. Before you begin the process, here is a comprehensive, detailed list of all the resources you need:

Planning and Strategy Tools

Planning, or ideation, or gathering of requirements. Call it whatever you may feel like. It requires a gazillion tools to have a proper idea of the whole project.

• Tools for Requirement Gathering – Microsoft Word, or Google Docs, Confluence for web development app requirements.
• Tools for Project Management – JIRA, Asana or even Trello for task management, and resource allocation.
• Tools for Wireframing and Prototyping Tools – Balsamiq rapid Prototypes, or Figma, Adobe XD, or High Fidelity detailed mockups with Sketch.

Development Environment

These are tools that assist in writing codes:

• Hosting Platforms: Features Bitbucket and GitHub
• Version Control: Git is an example.
• IDE: Primarily consist of VS Code or WebStorm

Team Setup and Technical Skill

A large part of your project’s success relies on the team you work with. They must possess the technical know-how to create a custom web application.

• Back-end : They are proficient in server-side programming languages. They include Java, Node.js, Ruby on Rails, and PHP.
• Front-end: They are proficient in current frameworks such as Vue.js and Angular.
• Database Engineers: They are trained to handle databases like PostgreSQL, MongoDB and DynamoDB.
• UI/UX Designers: Specialists in creating user-friendly interfaces and designs for different devices.

Hosting and Deployment

• Hosting and deployment of custom web application development is best done with the following tools:
• Serverless Management: AWS or Google Cloud Platform
• Containerization: Docker is well-liked
• Cloud Hosting: Apache or Nginx can be an option

API Backend and Infrastructure

You need a strong backend to manage the business logic of web application development. For this, you require the following tools:

• API Tools: RESTful API
• Backend Frameworks: Django, Spring Boot or Ruby on Rails
• Serverless Functions: Google Cloud or AWS Lambda

Steps to Development of Web-based Application

Once you have all the resources in hand, it’s time to develop the product.

The second step follows a set of steps that you follow to remain on course. If you get stuck along the way, reach out to our web development team.

This is the way the web application design and development process flows:

Discovery and Ideation Stage

New product development begins with an idea. It converts a plan into a usable product. Being present, adaptable, user-focused, and energetic in the ideation phase is crucial. It can enable you to identify the optimal means to develop the optimal product.

In this phase, the developers/consultants joining hands with your team develop a roadmap. They will research that plan, and identify the major functionality of the platform.

1. Source an idea

Prior to determining the optimum means of making a web application, know what you want to make and why. So, this phase isn’t limited to planning an idea. But also has a number of brainstorming sessions where emphasis is laid on problems to be resolved.

Based on the user problem-solving method, you can analyze and articulate the defects. You can optimize functionalities to address the problems.

2. Conduct a comprehensive market research and know your target audience

Once you have validated your idea, due diligence in your market is necessary. It will keep you ahead of the competition. Research allows you to analyze and gain a better understanding of user behavior, their issues, and the size of the problem.

3. Prioritize major features and functionality in the web application

At this point, most individuals get excited. But it’s better that you don’t.

The longer it will take to develop the product as more features are being included. The longer the web development application takes to develop, the more the frustration grows. Buckle down and listen to the features that are a requirement, the features it must have, and it might have.

It assists you with the outline of the features that the project must have in the long term.

3. UI/UX Design Stage

Web app design begins with a clearer idea of the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX). You gain a grip on how they are connected and how each can influence design decisions.

4. Explore the user journey

The user journey identifies the general user interaction and behavior. It tells the user experience story and has the customer at the forefront of thinking. You can understand the users’ wants and challenges by taking a look at their journey. It will ultimately make the development process simple.

5. Develop a blueprint for the web development application

Blueprinting is important to design an entire layout or structure of the product. Therefore, it can have an interactive display.

6. Create a clickable prototype

A functional prototype can appear and behave like an actual app by incorporating additional functionality into the developed blueprint. You can simply imagine the idea with it. Click on different interactive buttons to view what the web development application appears to be. And lastly, you can make adjustments as per your needs on the design.

7. Visual designing

In this phase developers concentrate on the look of a product to make it intuitive and distinctive. Here, designers and developers design a mockup and feasible design in terms of the prototype created. Also, they select the appropriate fonts, images, color schemes, and buttons to make the web app functional.

Development Stage

The development stage is where developers code and create an application. Hire web application developers and choose the right technology, tech stack, framework, tools, and programming languages. It helps them create the web app architecture, API and system integrations. Depending on the different web development tech stacks, the development time may differ.

8. Build the front-end

Front-end is that part of an application that users see and interact with. The developers implement this part with a range of technologies. These include HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Additionally, several popular JavaScript frameworks like React, Angular, Vue, Next, and Svelte are also used.

9. Develop the back-end

The backend is the layer that stores the database and code logic. It’s literally the server-side logic that runs your application “from behind the scenes”. Top backend development frameworks include Django, Ruby on Rails, Laravel. Programming languages such as PHP, Python, Ruby, Node.js, etc. also help to build the backend.

10. Integrate the front-end and back-end APIs

Data exchange can be achieved by connecting the back-end and front-end through API integration. Developers make REST or GraphQL APIs available from the backend to the frontend. You can make communication secure by including authentication tokens.

11. Create a database

Database, in the shape of a server, is where the code is stored. The database is responsible for collecting, storing, and managing collected data. It also helps in establishing a smooth and secure connection.

At this point, the choice is significant. You can employ SQL databases like MySQL and PostgreSQL if your web development project has organized data. Use NoSQL databases like MongoDB for non-structured data. Developers then install the database, or a cloud platform. In case of using that option, define schema, seed data loading. Finally, integrate the database into the application. And testing queries and performance optimizing are also inevitable.

Testing and QA Stage

Testing ensures the web application is performing as intended and is enhanced before release.

12. Test the web development application

There’s a collection of tests you need to ensure your testers run:

• Performance testing – Running the web development application under some conditions. These include heavy traffic and huge data consumption to check its speed and stability.
• Functional testing – Confirming whether the forms, buttons, and workflows of the platform are operating as per the set expectations.
• Compatibility testing – Web apps run on varying devices (any device with a browser). You need to confirm yours does so exceptionally well consistently.
• Usability testing – Confirming the workflows and design are intuitive and easy enough to navigate.
• Security testing – Identify any sort of errors, bugs, and vulnerabilities. This makes your system safe from any sort of threats and attacks.

13. Make Improvements

After testing, make necessary corrections or improvements as per the issues encountered during the test. It is here that you fix those bugs and tweak the app to give better performance. Also ask the developers to add or change any feature and perform a thorough re-test.

Launch Stage

This is the last phase, which is hosting and deploying your final application. After this, your web development application will be live and accessible to users.

14. Host the web development application

Hosting involves having your web development application under the cloud environment where users can access it easily. Developers choose an instance or a container service to host the system. Then they upload app files and set up the environment.

Alternatively, it can be hosted on a physical or virtual server. In this case, developers install the software required (e.g., Apache, Nginx, or Node.js). Then they deploy the app files, and finally configure the server and connect it to a domain.

15. Deploy the web development application

This involves deploying your code and database from your source control to the cloud’s hosting environment. There are plenty of deployment platforms available. Top names include Ansible or Jenkins, Heroku, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Chef, and Terraform. Your developers will probably use any one of them for the final deployment.

Crucial Factors  for Choosing Custom Web Application Development Services

The entire web app development process has multiple moving parts. It might apparently sound simple. But executing them all will need a strategic and consistent movement. Experienced and skilled developers follow a time-tested technique. This allows them to optimize and streamline the development lifecycle.

Below, check some effective tips on choosing the best web application development firms. Use these factors to find the most suitable development partner. The best partner will improve time-to-market without budget overrun.

1. Be Mindful of Scope Creeps

Scope creeps refer to you end up adding more features and making more changes to the project than you originally had planned. You may ask, what’s the problem with that? Well, not everybody can afford to set aside the budgets and deadlines. And even the quality of the web development application.

More than 50% of the projects suffer from scope creep, as per the State of Web Development report by Netlify. Therefore, do your best to maintain the original plan. The discovery and ideation period might be time-consuming. But make sure to thoroughly analyze whether new ideas are worthy of implementation.

2. Prioritize Function over Form

Your application should function properly before it will be pleasing to the eye. Users won’t tolerate a slow, buggy platform. The platform shouldn’t load too slowly. A slow and sluggish platform, even if it is attractive, will do no good.

So, don’t just worry about glitzy visuals. Your attention should be on having the features and functions in place. But if you achieve the best of both worlds, that certainly is a win-win scenario.

3. Create More Than One Cost Estimates

Development projects can be dynamic and mutable, particularly if you are using the Agile development process. That is why you need to plan out a few alternatives. These will be in terms of cost buffers, despite how strictly you adhere to the final breakdown. The best web application development company will provide you quality solutions within your estimate.

Make sure to generate several cost estimates. One for low-end features, one for middle-end, and one for full features. These can really help in not having to bargain or negotiate afterwards. You have the optionality for cost considerations. Your developers have the clarity necessary for effective planning.

Also, have a look at the parameters and information that you must have to make the web application development cost estimation.

4. Give QA More than Enough Time

Do not hurry quality analysts and testers to approve the web development app. Give them sufficient time to perform all tests. Let them execute quality checks on every aspect of the product. Thorough checking and assessment of every feature and function of the app takes time.

Every detail matters, from loading speed to security vulnerabilities. Skip any of those steps, and there will be expected issues after launch. In fact, over 40% of the overall development time is dedicated to testing and QA in some projects. While this may be on the higher side, discuss it with your developers. And be generous with the time they demand to give the go-ahead. A thorough testing is mandatory to ensure that the app runs as expected.

Why Digital Aptech will build your web app the best

The steps we shared above are an exact representation of how we at Digital Aptech work. With our experience, we have built over 500 web apps for businesses across the globe. With our team of experts, we deliver solutions that will make your work easier and your users hooked. Let’s look into how we pull it off:

Complete control:

It is your solution, and it obviously needs to be built your way. You get to review the solution after every stage. This way, you can share insights on design, colors, features, buttons, and more so you are in control.

Scalable solutions: 

You opt for technology so you can grow. Once you start growing, your app needs to scale too. We offer solutions which are scalable while adding on new features. So once your traffic grows, we are ready to back you up while offering exactly what users need.

Long term benefits:

Although when compared to off-the-shelf solutions, custom-built web development applications may seem expensive to start with. However, with time, the case changes. With our agile methodology, you can make changes and upgrades, making it cheaper in the long run.

Post-development support:

Our work does not end with mere development. We have a dedicated team for you who will offer post development support. This way, you know that your customers never experience a snag. We also ensure minimal downtime.

Now, we know these are only words. We are not just tall claims, we are beyond that. In fact, we believe in letting our work do the talking.

Here are a few of our case studies for your reference:

GSK – We helped GSK with a dose finding strategy. We built a clinical study report enabling smoother drug trials. This enabled the GSK team to speed up the drug trial process, saving them an immense amount of money.

Netflix – Netflix in association with ARHT reached out to Digital Aptech for a unique holographic structure based solution. We delivered them an amazing audio visual experience and here is the detailed case study.

Helllo – We built an all in one app Helllo for our client. This app is a combination of e-commerce, retail, entertainment, social media, ticket booking and more.

RTG – Rainbow tourism group built a solution which offers multiple services for tourists.

Bazoki– Bazoki is a Kolkata-based e-commerce retailer for which we created 3 versions of the app. One for the retailer, one for the delivery executive and the last for the end user purchasing.

As you can see, we have served clients of varied sizes and across domains with our technical services. Our clients love us for the work we do. This is why they have rated us a solid 4.8 out of 5 across platforms like Clutch, Google, G2, Trustpilot, and more.

Start your web app creation journey today!

You have now been through all the required steps. Are you now set to build a web app for your brand? If the answer is a yes then we are your best option. We will help you with a team of professionals like business analysts, consultants, technical experts like designers and developers.

simply reach out to us at contact@digitalaptech.com and tell us about your idea. If you are not sure about what technology to choose, you can choose to build the solution via the project model. Alternatively, you can also directly hire a developer via our dedicated resource model.

Let’s connect and turn your vision into reality.

Frequently asked questions

Q. What’s needed to build a web app?

A: Here is what you need to build a web app

• Clear requirement, objective and how to get it done
• Doing RnD and emphasizing on data security and user needs
• Clarity over needed functionality and required features
• Finding the right development partner post evaluation
• Wireframing, designing and walking through the interface
• Development process
• Testing and fine tuning for a market ready solution

Q. How is a web app wireframe constructed?

A: A web app wireframe may have several layers that you can use for your ease:

• Data service layer
• Data access layer
• Presentation layer
• Business layer

Q. What are the popular kinds of web apps?

A: Here are a few kinds of web apps that are currently trending:

• Content management systems (CMS)
• Single Page Web Apps
• Rich Intent Web Apps
• Multi Page Web Apps
• Static Web Apps
• Dynamic Web Apps
• E-Commerce Web Apps