Many web designers are muddled through their way to successful web application design. Like any other creative process, this also should be handled with a defined and structured approach; otherwise, things can easily go wrong anywhere between the start and the finish.

The process of designing a website or a web application can be divided into the following six phases:

• Project defining
• Site structuring
• Visual designing
• Site development
• Testing
• Launch

Here is some detail of each phase:

Project Defining: This is the beginning of the process where the client should be interviewed for the exact project requirement and scope defining. The designer needs to be highly interactive with the client during this phase as it is extremely important that any project outlining done here is with mutual understanding. This involves understanding the business’ persona, establishing initial technical specifications, creating project timeline, and doing initial maintenance planning.

Site Structuring: This phase involves designing of the site architecture, which includes creation of a content/functionality outline, site diagram, diagrams for page descriptions, and wireframes.

Visual Designing: Once the site structure is confirmed, the designer should start working on the design patterns for the layout. After creating drafts of the possible versions, he can take the feedback or suggestions of the client on refining and then make the final selection.

Site Development: This is a crucial phase where the initial technical specifications should be confirmed or refined, the project timeline should be reviewed and adjusted if needed, and based on this, application building and integration should be undertaken.

Testing: Before declaring the completion of web application process, the application should undergo a quality assurance testing. By prioritizing the issues, a final site refining can be done.

Launch: Obtaining a complete guide on the software application development style can help later on to solve any issues. The application is finally launched and a maintenance plan is implemented.

iPhone App Store has got yet another bigger functional niche, as prodigious as many other wondrous virtues iPhone itself has, known as iPhone web apps (short of web applications). iPhone web apps combine the power and versatility of the internet with the functionality and simplicity of Multi-Touch technology. The iPhone web app corner of Apple Store currently owns several hundreds of web apps.

Just think of an app need and you can find an iPhone web app to fulfill it. You get them in all the regular app categories such as entertainment, sports, travel, news, productivity, search, utility, and so on, allowing you to further customize your iPhone in the most ways possible.

YouTube, AOL, ESPN, Reuters, NASA, and the online giant Google – everyone is with web apps, so is Apple now that has very well perfected this concept. There were Java and Python web apps and web apps were getting designed for practically every Web 2.0 friendly programming language, but iPhone compatibility was always in question. With iPhone providing tools to write iPhone compatible web apps, web apps have got a confirmed iPhone nativity.

The route for distributing web apps on the Apple site is simple. Any iPhone-savvy web developer can sign up for a free online membership to Apple Developer Connection (ADC) and submit his iPhone web program for the users to enjoy. What more, Apple offers clear, extensive guidelines and instructions on producing iPhone-worthy web apps so that one really can put his best work to the iPhone web app collection. You also get a lot of web app promotion and marketing literature on the internet to help you out in winding up on the most iPhones possible.

In the end, just a small picture of what you can get by downloading iPhone web apps to your iPhone home screen:

• Movie show times
• Public transportation routes, schedules, and fares
• Latest sports news
• Lotteries
• Stock updates
• Fuel prices
• Food recipes
• Household management tips
• Employment and recruitment
• Latest ringtones
• Blog updates
• Gaming with all the popular games available to download, like Chess, Sudoku, and Tic-Tac-Toe, and modern video gaming
• Connecting on popular social networking and social bookmarking sites

Every entrepreneur has to do two tasks at a time – one, to learn more efficient ways to progress fast in the business and second, to promote his business well for winning the attention of prospective customers and preventing them to turn to others. For the best business experience in terms of these two, he has to gauge what exactly he requires for the different needs that arise per se: a strong web presence, a responsive web application, a desktop application, and whatever. At such junctures, many business doers realize that web development and software application development may not be the same. Knowledge will only do good to you, better than getting a software made to work on your business infrastructure when you actually needed a web service. Let me differentiate the two for you: the software development and the web development.

Software development can be a part of web development, but web development is not always so. When you need a website or a web segment to run on it, you are looking for website development services. But, if you want a program that runs only on your PC or all the interconnected computers in your organization, you might be on your way to a desktop application or software. So, while a desktop software runs off the web, a web-based software application is intended to run in the web environment.

Most application development companies work on both the types of technologies. Here, you should know that technologies used in web-based activities often get replaced by something superior and more effective than the earlier one. Hence, you couldn't always stick to one that had been done once. As such, the role of a professional application and web developer could come in real handy for you. With his domain expertise, he could give you all the necessary support-based services for all types of your projects.

On the other hand, many business applications are better suited to be run on individual desktops, as they are clearly technologically defined and programmed to a specific purpose and also security concerns and legacy issue come to resolution. This kind of software development is without a subscription fee over the life of the software use. It’s made once and purchased outright. Coming to the use of software in a web-based environment, there are a few common procedures like monitoring of online lead generation, customer conversion rates etc. for which a business would require web-based software programs.

Whether applications running on the web or offline and backend apps, both are handled by the professional software application development firms. They would always try to understand the business nature of the concerned firm before they work on any type of development strategy for it. You need not get worried about the quality of work produced by them. Just be clear on your needs and in telling them about the same.

Custom web application development is often made to face a choice between the web programming languages. It’s vital for the webmasters to carefully choose a framework that most suits the spender’s financial capacity, technical ability, and overall application requirement. The two most extensively used programming languages for web designing, .NET and PHP, often drop into the dilemma of developers and put them to the difficult task of judging and comparing the effectiveness of both for the task in question. However, comparing them first takes understanding them well.

Microsoft leverages its .NET software development framework to produce dynamic websites and web applications in the form of ASP.NET. Open source technologies of the internet, on the other hand, have one of them as PHP, a scripting language having the largest free module to be downloaded and plugged in for the application building. Below are the major grounds on which both can be compared:

Development

PHP seems to be the most popular open source platform for web services based on user generated material. A large number of add-ons that are free of charge, a Zend optimizer for compiling the code and making it quicker, good user support and needed assistance through numerous online forums drive the development process of PHP-based applications. In case of ASP.NET, you get an excellent development platform and tools where you need a series of Microsoft products such as Windows operating system, Visual Studio or Dreamweaver for programming, but this all makes it costlier.

Performance of the application

PHP is an interpreted language, means it runs directly from the code which you write every time. On the other hand, ASP.NET is an optimized and compiled language; everything in it is compiled to machine code before being uploaded to productivity. This really points out to the essential core of the compiling “essence.” It is commonly accepted and proved many times that a compiled application generally loads faster than interpreted ones because an interpreted application must be reduced to machine instructions at runtime. Thus, ASP.NET applications clearly provide the benefit of an efficient, active compiling engine.

Environment for running the application

A PHP application will run on various platforms such as Linux, Unix, Windows, and Apache, whereas ASP.NET by default is able to run only on a Windows server.

Language support

PHP is made in C++, considered by most computer programmers as the best ever programming language. However, .NET is truly a framework that supports a number of programming languages such as ASP.NET, VB.NET, cSharp, C++, jSharp etc. It effectively enables different language programmers to easily develop an application together without the gaps.

Cost

PHP, being open source, provides a “free” platform where coding and modifying with its multiple free-of-charge add-ons makes the project fairly inexpensive. .NET has a price to pay, though with the fantastic support from Microsoft.

In the end, both of them are of equal importance in terms of swapping information and contacting with different databases. Development preference is much important while making a choice between them. It’s important to note that commercial .NET has been made with business use in mind and the .NET framework, which is a complete framework in itself, is a great choice to be employed for more high-end programs and applications above and beyond the ‘simple’ site. Having better stability and being well-supported, .NET applications are well worth their price for a business. PHP is a wiser pick if a low-budget solution, such as a simple website or a simple web application, will suffice.

Much is talked about web applications in my earlier blogs, and if you go through my blog comparing desktop applications and web applications, you will find the pros and cons of each. That apart, today I am going to explain the web application development process to impart my readers understanding on how web based software application development projects are carried out.

Web applications are an important tool for B2B and B2C interactions for the present businesses. The whole web application development process can be divided into four phases:

1. Envisioning the scope of web application by defining it and establishing the purpose, goal, nature, and direction of the project

The first phase requires the managers and developers of the project to come together and discuss on the feasibility of the application in question and the solutions it must achieve. Scheduling; limitations, if any; and future objectives of the application will also be elucidated, and the end of this phase will be marked by a clear documentation on what this application will practically achieve.

2. Contriving a plan indentifying functional and visual specifications, technology and techniques to use, scheming out web application architecture and timelines

The second phase is laying out the flow of application development strategy. Right from scripting to time framing of the events and tasks in the project everything is planned out.

3. Developing web application

The third phase is initiation of the development work where web application structure and framework is created; data variables are established; entities and coding procedures to be used are determined; web application model, libraries, and classes are customized; and finally implementation and complete development is done.

4. Performing beta testing, establishing a successful support and stability system

The fourth and final phase is focused on testing of the application from a functional and security perspective. Any bugs are fixed. It’s also the time to address any discrepancies that may cause the application to go bad. A fully functional, stable, and secure application is the ideal end product of any web application development process. This phase is also directed towards establishing policies and procedures that end up in a successful support system.