The development phase of the website construction process may appear to many clients to be the calmer part of the process. However, there is a lot going on behind the scenes at this stage of the project, and problems with the development process can quickly cause a project to fall behind time or budget.
It’s critical to use the correct equipment and procedures for the work if you want the process to run well. Use the suggestions below to make your web development workflow more efficient.
Have a precise plan of action
The web development phase, like the previous phases of the web design process, requires a strategy. Plan out elements like the timetable, each team member’s tasks, and how feedback will be documented. Include a testing strategy in your preparation to detect issues early and effectively fix them.
Choose your tools strategically
Using the correct tools can dramatically increase the productivity of your web development process. There are numerous tools available to help web development be more efficient in areas such as code editing, testing, and graphic design. For example, a text editor specialised for code editing, such as Sublime Text, is preferable since it includes capabilities and plugins designed expressly for web developers that a general text editor would lack. Investigate and test various applications to see which ones best fit your project workflow.
Use version control
Version control is an important part of any web development workflow, and it may help you save time and effort in the long term. You can choose from various different forms of version control software, such as Git or SVN, but they all serve the same basic purpose: to make team communication easier. Version control software also aids in the tracking of file changes and protects them from being accidentally deleted or replaced, which can be costly blunders.
Consider automation
For good reason, task automation has become a popular addition to the development process. Grunt and Gulp are two tools that can help you automate monotonous chores. When utilised for typical tasks like picture compression or CSS preprocessing, this has the potential to save a lot of time during the development process. Examine your workflow to see whether processes could be automated to help you get things done faster.
Tools to improve your web development workflow
- Codepen
For UI/UX design, front-end web development technologies are used to handle the aspects that users need to see and interact with the website. Using these technologies improves the website’s usability as well as the user experience and, of course, the aesthetics.
If you’re a front-end designer or developer, CodePen is a great place to get ideas. You may write code, test it, and see the results as you build on this site. You can also use the code that has been donated by other developers in your web design project.
You can also create prototypes with CodePen before using them in your programming environment. This saves you time testing and compiling code to figure out how it works. - Grunt
Grunt is a task runner that assists in automating and performing repetitive operations like compilation, minification, linting, unit testing, and archiving. However, you may need to manually setup the plugins you want to integrate one by one to do this.
You’ll need to install Node.js and Grunt to get started. Then you may define dependencies in package.json, install npm modules, build your gruntfile.js, and set the tasks you require. If you’re not familiar with Grunt, there are a number of resources available that provide detailed instructions on how to use it. - NPM
If you’re a developer who uses a lot of JavaScript, NPM (Node Package Manager) is a great tool to have. It’s an open-source package repository where you may publish or reuse Node.js modules for your project.
These packages are incredibly beneficial to developers since they lessen the time and effort required to write code that works effectively with your website. These solutions are given and approved by a community of professionals, ensuring that quality and support are provided.
Rise, a web design-focused digital studio, attests to the use of npm in their workflow and its overall “added-value” to their business. They were able to take their firm to the next level and grow it faster by incorporating npm into their web development workflow.