How To Redesign Your Frontend Architecture To Allow Better User Navigation?

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How to Redesign Your Frontend Architecture to
Allow Better User Navigation?
Frontend architecture can be considered to be the
backbone of any web application although most of
the functionalities depend on the backend. But,
why is this so? This is because when users open a
web application, the first thing they see is the
frontend architecture. If the design of the
website is not attractive, they might not stay on
it for too long. Always remember that a
well-designed frontend architecture makes all the
difference and is a quick way to make a lasting
impression on users. Often, businesses scale up
and want to add new features to their web
applications to better cater to user needs. But,
formulating a new frontend architecture design is
often difficult. A lot of businesses consider
completely changing their tech stack to allow the
addition of new features. You must be asking -
won't it be hectic? The truth is yes, the process
can be quite hectic, which is why we are here
with this article. In the following article, we
will discuss the key aspects of frontend
architecture in detail and help you create a
modern frontend architecture without much hassle.
We will also help you understand how you can
optimize the frontend design and architecture of
your existing application. So, what are you
waiting for? Jump right into this article to get
started with learning the basics of frontend
architecture and take a step towards optimization.
What Is Frontend Architecture All About? Frontend
architecture refers to the design and
organization of the web application code that
runs on the user's web browser. We can consider
it to be the foundation for creating
well-structured, maintainable, and scalable web
applications. When we refer to the frontend
structure of a web application, we refer to the
programming and design that help realize its user
interface. Keep in mind that a well-designed
frontend architecture affects how well the
website functions and the user's impression. When
building a frontend application architecture, you
must consider the goals of the website, user
preferences and needs, and the technologies that
you can utilize. Taking these key factors into
consideration will make the planning easier and
help you better organize the web application
architecture. It will also help identify future
complications if any and allow you to better
maintain your website.
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Why Focus On Your Application's Frontend
Architecture?
In this following section, we will discuss why
you must focus on your application's frontend
architecture. We will also discuss why it is a
wise idea to redesign the frontend architecture
of existing applications. The first reason why
you must hire an expert front-end architect to
build or redesign the architecture of your web
application is to establish coherence between the
UI and UX. This is done by reducing the number of
refreshes between views, selecting element sizes,
designing the layout containing the interaction
elements, and deciding on other elements to be
added for greater accessibility. With a coherent
UI and UX design, you can ensure that users are
glued to your application and facilitate smoother
user journeys. Nowadays, an effective front-end
design includes excellent image-based navigation,
visual markers, welcoming space, and other
elements that allow users to better use the web
application. These web applications are
undoubtedly more user-friendly than those
congested with numerous elements and features.
Some elements that you must focus on when
redesigning the architecture of your web
application include - white space, appealing
color schemes, typography, interlinking of
webpages, and other UI design principles.
What Aspects Are Key To Frontend
Architecture? Redesigning a web application's
frontend architecture can be quite complicated
especially because there are a lot of factors
that you must consider. In the following section,
we will discuss the key aspects of frontend
architecture to help you design a frontend clean
architecture for your web application.
1. Componentization One of the most important
aspects of frontend architecture,
componentization refers to the breaking down of
the web application into small and reusable
components. This is done to facilitate better
organization of web elements, increased
separation of concerns, and ease of maintenance.
Componentization can be easily achieved with
component-based frameworks like React and Vue.js.
2. State Management It can be quite difficult to
keep track of the different component states and
their interaction with each other in a complex
web application. This is where state management
libraries which provide a centralized store for
application states come in handy. With these
libraries, management and updating of the
behavior of different component states becomes
easier.
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3. Data Management
Unlike popular opinion, frontend architecture
also involves a lot of data management. Some
common examples include fetching, caching, and
updating data from the APIs used in the web
application. A great way to handle these
processes is by using a library (a popular
example is - Axios) for making local API calls
and another (for example - LocalForage) to cache
data.
4. Build System A build system helps automate the
complete process of code compilation and bundling
which helps make it more efficient and easy to
manage. A popular build system that is used quite
widely is Webpack which is a tool that combines
all code files and makes it easier to deliver
them to a web server. Once we are done
configuring it, no more customization or
adjustment is necessary. Other than considering
these above-mentioned aspects, it is also
necessary to take the complete application design
and layout into account. This includes
navigation, interaction between different
elements, and the overall user experience. For
those with little to no design and development
experience, it can be difficult to focus on the
numerous factors included in web app development.
This is why we recommend building an expert
design and development team for better results.
What Factors Should One Consider When Building A
Frontend Architecture? We have already discussed
the different components that are key to frontend
architecture. In this section, we will discuss
the different factors that you must consider to
build a great front-end architecture for your web
application. Ensures that your web
application delivers data in a way that is
scalable. This means that you must ensure that
any changes to the existing features or addition
does not put extra strain on its functioning and
the different parts of the system. Another
important aspect of front-end architecture that
helps you ensure the protection of the data and
system from malicious users is security. You can
include features like user authorization or
implement multiple security protocols to develop
a secure application. It is highly important
to optimize your website's performance which is
often compromised when implementing multiple
front-end development tools. If your website is
not optimized properly, the load time can be
quite high. With ever-decreasing user attention
spans, it can be difficult to keep users on the
website, and will lead to low retention rates.
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What Are The Benefits Of A Well-Built Frontend
Architecture?
It is quite clear that an application's frontend
architecture is critical to the user journey and
customer conversion rates. But, are there any
more benefits that you can reap with a well-built
frontend architecture? To help you better
understand the benefits of a clean, modern
frontend architecture, we have listed them below.
We recommend you hire front-end developers with
years of experience to maximize your system's
potential to reap these benefits. How Can You
Optimize Your Application's Existing Frontend
Architecture? Before we jump into front-end
strategy examples, let us have a look at how you
can optimize your existing web application's
frontend architecture. We have listed a few tips
to help you get started with the optimization of
your website's frontend architecture- 1.
Combine multiple files into one to minimize the
total number of HTTP requests made. A common way
to do this is to group your CSS and JS files into
two main files while grouping all images used
into one sprite. 2. Minify your code to
optimize it and ensure that it takes up less
space on the server. This will enable faster
transmission over the internet and help reduce
page loading times. 3. Integration of caching
to allow users to visit your site and check out
the different elements without having to download
content. To perform cache integration, you can
find a number of free tools for HTML as well as
JavaScript files. 4. Use Google Page Speed or
other tools to analyze your page load times and
find areas for concern. Then, you can make
changes and speed up your website loading time
which helps boost its performance.
Bonus - A Simple Example Of A Frontend
Architecture Improvement Process Company A
measured their loading time and noticed that it
was quite high. This resulted in higher bounce
rates and less time on site. After careful
checking, they found that their image files were
quite large which was causing the issue with load
time. To reduce page load times, they decided to
compress the file size and ensure that the images
did not lose their quality. Once done, they
replaced the original images with these
compressed versions. Now, users can not only view
the content quickly but also do not miss out on
high-quality visuals.
Final Words The front-end architecture of a web
application can have a huge effect on the website
metrics and user journey. We hope the above
article helped you learn how you can improve the
design of your web application. If you have
little to no design experience, we recommend
getting in touch with a professional company
offering front end development services. This
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will help take the burden off your shoulders
while ensuring your users get access to an
intuitive and modern user interface.