Like with a desktop app, a web app’s quality can be measured in different categories such as:
- Usability
- Functionality
- Reliability
- Efficiency
- Maintainability
But they also have additional considerations:
- Security – all that information stored in one place is a target for hackers
- Scalability – if it gets popular, you might go from a few hundred users (easy) to tens of thousands (harder)
- Availability – going down for a few minutes can cost you millions of dollars (just ask Amazon)
- Time-to-Market – more of a business perspective
Design Goals
When designing an app, you have lots of factors to consider. Most relate to the UI either directly, or indirectly. This will affect your programming design and complexity.
Simplicity – Think about how easy something like Amazon or Google is to use. Users expect this level of simplicity. I had a web app that had a 19+ field search engine. We simplified it down to 5 fields, and allowed an “advanced” tab to add more fields for people who wanted them.
Consistency. This design goal applies to virtually every element of the design model. Content should be constructed consistently (e.g., text formatting and font styles should be the same across all text documents; graphic art should have a consistent look, color scheme, and style).
Robustness/Compatibility. Users expect web apps to work, and in their browser. Not working in their browser, or at all is a big problem.
Visual Appeal/Identity – How it looks is important. However, the content and style designs often vary between regions in the world. This can be an extra challenge.
Web App Design Quality was originally found on Access 2 Learn
