Tag: website
Agile and Waterfall Methodologies in Software
Waterfall and Agile are well known approaches in software development. They are two unique methodologies providing different directions for various types of projects.
Agile Software Development – a type of development framework that expects the need for flexibility and applies a level of efficiency to the delivery of the finished product through consistent deliverables & communication.
Agile
- Frequent meetings
- Works well in conjunction with MVP
- High flexibility
- Short term deadlines – quick deliverables
- Collaboration between parties
- Reduced risk
- Cost effective
This graph shows the flow of an agile timeline. There is constantly a new deliverable and after each deliverable, there is communication between parties to review what is working and what needs to shift in order to continue improving the product. The time between each deliverable is typically two to four weeks, although it can be shorter. Due to consistent communication between parties, agile is more cost effective because the project can shift easily and frequently.
Waterfall Software Development – With a waterfall methodology, the scope and requirements of the project are defined upfront. The client receives large batch deliverables at the end of each development phase.
Waterfall
- Goals set from the beginning
- Requirements are clear and fixed
- Infrequent meetings
- Complete deliverables before moving onto next phase
- Low flexibility
- Higher cost
Looking at the graph to the right, you’ll see that Waterfall project timelines are longer than Agile. While working on a Waterfall project, there is often less communication as the requirements are less flexible in the beginning phases of the project. Due to this, there is more risk associated because of less flexibility to change the product. In Waterfall, each stage of the project needs to be completed before moving on to the next step.
Agile is more commonly used today because of the flexibility, cost efficiency, and reduced risk associated with this methodology.
Marketing Websites vs Web Applications
We are often asked if we build “websites” – yes we do, but there is nuance to the answer. The websites that we build are better defined as “Web Applications”. And a “Web Application” is different from another type of website – a “Marketing Website”. How are these two different? In short: A Marketing Website presents information about a topic or business and a Web Application helps users get something done. The table below describes many of the differences between a Marketing Site and a Web Application. Since Matraex is the #1 Web Applications development firm in the Boise market – people looking for a local ‘Website Designer’ will often reach out to us – I added some links to the Google My Business page for several long term and reliable local resources to help people understand the different companies that comprise these different categories of “Website” builders.
Marketing Website Developers
Web Application Developers
- Matraex, Inc (this is us!!)
- Vynyl
- Ventive
The key differences between a Marketing Website and a Web Application
| Marketing Website | Web Application | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | A marketing website’s goal is to provide information, most of these are corporate business sites providing details of a company’s offerings with resources, contact information and links to related industry | A Web Application is a website that helps a user accomplish something through its interfaces. |
| Development process | A Marketing Website can be developed by creating and approving a design, building on the information and content and then applying the design to the content. | A Web Application starts as an idea and forms into a list of features (a roadmap) with the most important features first. The developers implement the items in order of the roadmap. More sophisticated applications often have multiple environments so the complex logic can be tested be approving features to be moved to launch. |
| Time to launch | An entry Marketing Website can take between one week and one month depending on complexity and number of pages. | An entry Web Application MVP (minimum viable product), can take 2 to 6 months to launch. |
| Time Requirements | Most time goes to creating content and managing SEO. A larger one time cost to design the interface and layout is a close second | Most time is spent in developing code to create features and functionality. |
| Team | A project manager, a content creator, and a front-end developer. | Project manager and a full stack developer. Larger teams will have roles split into back-end and front-end developers. |
| Hosting Cost | Less expensive – MANY SOLUTIONS! | More expensive – the hosting is often decided by the technology stack and development group. Modern applications use cloud based hosting which only charge for usage, but can scale to high levels |
| Common Technology Platforms | WordPress, Wix, Square | PHP, React.js, NodeJS, ASP.NET, java |
| Specialties | HTML / CSS / Design / Front End SEO / Content Generation / Design / Copywriting | Programming / Database / Logic / Backend Testing / User Experience / QA Innovation / Security |
Are Apps Software?
Apps are to software as snakes are to reptiles.
By that text above you probably got the answer already but we wanted to break it down even further. Snakes are reptiles, and reptiles are snakes…and lizards…and turtles… and crocodiles.
Apps are software and software is apps…mobile apps…web apps…programs.
We had to clarify the difference between mobile and web apps because frankly there is one. A mobile app is a software that is used on a mobile device such as a phone. A web app is a software that is used on a device with access to a website. Phones act as computers nowadays so sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between the two.
Most commonly your mobile app is one of the squares on your phone with round corners.
You may not even realize you’re using a web app. You might just think you’re on a website (and you’re not wrong). The web app allows a user to interact with the website in a way that a normal website can’t. Think PayPal or Venmo. Those are web apps within websites (and they’re mobile apps as well).
Sometimes for the sake of differentiation, it’s easier to just say app when referring to software on your phone and websites for software on the web. Just know, that apps are software and snakes are reptiles.
3 Ways to Improve Your Boise Website Design in 2016
3 Ways to Improve Your Boise Website Design in 2016
Here are 3 Ways to Improve Your Boise Website Design in 2016. Google now applies a score to your website by checking to see if it is mobile-friendly. Another important update for 2016 is to build brief, easy to read content. The third website checkup is for fast page loading. All three combined help build an easy to read website, that loads quickly, and scores well with the search engines.
Mobile-friendly
Also known as responsive design, restructures and adjust various content sizing depending on the device the visitor is using. For example, if Joe from Boise, Idaho visits this page on his desktop computer, he will get a full, wide-screen content rich experience. If Kelly from Garden City, Idaho were to visit this same page on your iPhone 6, she would be served the same content but slightly adjusted. Some photos would be scaled down to fit the smaller screen better, the text would be increased for easier readability. Finally, the content would all be stacked up for easy vertical scrolling. No content would be tiny or pushed off the side of the screen. Thus, Kelly would be presented with a mobile-friendly website design.
Easy to Read Content
The search engines also apply a readability analysis of the content on a web page. Statistics show that many visitors on the Internet are not masters of the English language. Therefore, simple, short sentences make it easier for you to communicate your message and obtain better search engine results.
Fast Page Loading
Finally, the third way to improve your Boise Website Design in 2016 is to have your website optimized for speed. No one likes waiting for slow loading web pages and the search engines have come to realize this. So in some cases, the faster your website loads, the better it helps your search engine rankings.
The 3 Ways to Improve Your Boise Website Design in 2016 are mobile-friendly website design, easy to read content, and fast page loading times. If you are interested in a free quote or website design analysis, please contact us at (208) 344-1115.
Website WordPress PHP Custom Application Development Boise
Website WordPress PHP Custom Application Development Boise
I was asked recently, what kinds of work do you do for your clients.
The short answer is “Matraex, Inc provides Website WordPress PHP Custom Application Development Boise to small businesses“
Below I describe our services in more depth.
Contact me to discuss what we can do for you – Michael Blood – 208.344.1115 x 250
Matraex, Inc – Nationwide Web Services
- We design online presence websites in WordPress.
- We custom build web applications for businesses, entrepreneurs and individuals with ideas.
- We create custom automation and time saving software using the web.
- We support, refresh, repair and enhance existing websites and custom applications.
- We provide Managed WordPress Hosting services.
- We build, host and support custom scale-able hosting environments.
Matraex, Inc – Basic consulting and technology list
- WordPress Website Development
- WordPress Plugin Development
- Custom Web Application Development
- Web Task Automation
- PHP Development
- MySQL and Postgres Database Administration
- Website Overhaul and Repair
Matraex Inc, – Boise, Idaho Web Services:
While we work for clients nationwide. A large percentage of our clients are from here in Boise, Idaho. When items become complex we are able to work directly with clients in our office onsite at our client’s office. We communicate via skype or just on the phone.
- Boise, Idaho WordPress Website Development
- Boise, Idaho WordPress Plugin Development
- Boise, Idaho Custom Web Application Development
- Boise, Idaho Web Task Automation
- Boise, Idaho PHP Development
- Boise, Idaho MySQL and PostgreSQL Database Administration
- Boise, Idaho Website Overhaul and Repair
WordPress Website Development
WordPress is an online, open source website creation tool written in PHP. WordPress allows Matraex, Inc to quickly create a beautiful online presence for your business and the give you the ability to login and make simple updates to your site. It is the easiest and most powerful blogging and website content management system (or CMS)
We offer WordPress Website Development solutions that are compatible with all business models and industry verticals. Our team of WordPress developers provides WordPress CMS development, plugin development. Also theme customization and maintenance services as well as ongoing security and update services through our Managed WordPress Hosting.
When you engage Matraex, Inc to build or enhance your online, unless you have another tool in place. We will likely recommend that we develop your marketing presence using the WordPress Content Management System. Depending on your vertical and your website needs we will either find existing WordPress plugins. We also build new plugins which add the needed custom touch to your website.
WordPress Plugin Development
A WordPress plugin is a piece of software that can be uploaded to extend and expand the functionality of your WordPress site. Matraex, Inc builds custom plugins such as this, any time that our client needs are not met with the base WordPress Package.
In each of these situations, Matraex, Inc relies on its deep knowledge of WordPress. Also the WordPress SDK and the PHP programming language to implement new and innovative website features.
Legacy WordPress Plugin Repair and Replacement
In many cases we have customers with existing WordPress websites with plugins which are out of date. Even some what wont work with newer versions of WordPress, in these cases we can:
- Find an up to date WordPress Plugin which replaces the functionality of the out of date plugin
- Make changes to the WordPress Plugin code to bring it up to date or
- Build a replacement plugin made for the current version of WordPress.
Custom Web Application Development
Matraex, Inc works with entreprenuers, business owners and individuals with ideas to define innovative Web based applications and solutions which solve real world problems. Our team takes stakeholders through a process to define problems and craft potential solutions. From this we build a project that our clients want and the Matraex team can commit to. We then work closely with the client to get constant feedback throughout the development process to implement a fabulous product. Each of our Custom Web Application projects are implemented into a production hosting environment, where we continue to support them as needed.
Web Task Automation
Most people that work within a small business recognize problems and issues within their industry that need to be fixed. Small tasks which take up more time, than the value they provide. They often know that if they had the software, the task could be automated. Matraex, Inc builds the custom software that provides this automation. We work with our clients, the industry professionals who understand the issues. We create software which reliably accomplishes and automates the tasks. We periodically followup on the process to confirm that the software continues to accomplishes what has been intended or whether it could be improved.
PHP Development
PHP Powers nearly 70% of websites and has emerged as the most preferred & widely used server-side language. Historically, 90% of our development projects have been done with PHP. All new development projects are done using PHP, whether it is within the WordPress CMS. The laravel Framework, uses other composer packages. Or a custom frameworkless PHP project using a homegrown library of functions.
Matraex builds PHP websites using MySQL, Linux and Apache which is popularly known as the LAMP platform. We are able to launch new LAMP shared or dedicated development and production environments in minutes at one of our two redundant Data Centers (Involta and Fiberpipe)
Our company’s PHP Development Services offer multipurpose solutions that encapsulate the following:
- PHP Web Development
- PHP Application Development
- Custom PHP Development
- PHP Software Customization and Integration
- PHP Porting and Migration
- Packaged PHP Applications
- PHP Professional Services
- PHP Outsourcing
MySQL and Postgres Database Administration
The custom applications that Matraex, Inc develops integrate with a database to store persistent application data. Some applications like WordPress automatically setup and manage all aspects of the MySQL database architecture. But our custom applications require database administration (DBA) services for setup and maintenance. Matraex, Inc has Oracle Certified MySQL Administration experts to address the Database needs of these custom applications.
Matraex, Inc internally follows very stringent Database Naming conventions which we have used for more than 10 years. These standards allow our development team to very quickly create custom relationships. We also area able to easily read and understand relationships in existing applications we have built.
Website Overhaul and Repair
Websites get old, designs get tired and software gets outdated. Matraex, Inc breathes new life into websites by either a small simple change. Or a complete website overhaul. Depending on the client need we address goals and budget to recreate websites which perform.
Matraex offers Website WordPress PHP Custom Application Development Boise.
Website Owners 6 Free Speed Security and SEO Tools
Website Owners 6 Free Speed Security and SEO Tools
6 Free Speed, Security and SEO Tools Matraex, Inc Uses
There are a plethora of tools out there to help you evaluate your website. We have built a few ourselves that help us manage multiple websites. The following list is geared towards a website owner and should help you to understand some important aspects of your website.
If you should ever need anything part of your website changed, contact us here at Matraex for fast effective help.
1) Pingdom Webspeed Test
A good, full page speed load tester, it gives a score and suggestions for improvements – http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/
2) Google PageSpeed Insights
A phenomenal resource for understanding how you can improve the load speed and experience of your website. Google gives you a Mobile and Desktop Grade and then gives suggestions and advice with downloads. – https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
[Matraex Website Performance Assessment Log – saves results from tools 1 and 2 above to help users ‘watch’ the effect that changes have on their performance]
3) Qualys SSL Labs test
A great free test to check that your SSL certificate on your site does not have any vulnerabilities, The site gives your SSL certificate a grade and describes any problems. This is a great repeatable test if you have a site looking to become PCI compliant – https://www.ssllabs.com/
4) Jitbit SSL
Scan your https:// site to see if you have any insecure content. This test can help identify images, style sheet, javascript and other linked content which runs over an insecure (http://) connection – https://www.jitbit.com/sslcheck/
5) Securi Site Scan
Run a scan on your WordPress website with securi, this will help identify malware or hacks on your site. – https://sitecheck.sucuri.net
6) SEMRush SEO Evaluation
Find how your site is performing – SEM Rush gives you a single overview page with almost too much information. Take a look at your results for organic search backlinks and keywords. The initial report is free however SEM Rush charges for more frequent and advanced reports. Their free report gives you a good general idea to allow you to decide whether you want to get more indepth – https://www.semrush.com/
We of course want to include a link to our free tool as well, our tool helps us to take an even smaller, faster look at a WordPress Website’s speed, security and exposure, take a look if it fits your type of site – https://www.matraex.com/website-check.php
If these tools gave you a good idea about how your website is performing for you, but you would like more info or you would like to improve it, contact us or give me a call to discuss your website – Michael Blood 208.344.1115 x 250
7 Big Words in Website Design
7 Big Words in Website Design
Some of these words are more basic than others, but if you don’t already know these terms you should learn them as they may help your discussion with a web developer. The only criteria for these words / phrases were 1) “big”. they had to be three syllables or more and 2) they had to be terms that would apply to a web design / development conversation. (my contact information is at the bottom of this post so you and I can have a conversation about your website design)
[mtxquickform label=”Suggest a word to define” collectemailaddress=1 hidelist=’emailaddress’ submitbutton=’Suggest’ emailto=”michael@matraex.com” style=’float:right; width:40%; max-width:350px; font-size:12px; font-weight:normal; border:1px solid black; padding:10px; margin:10px; border-radius:4px;’]
- Deep Linking
- Localization
- Minimal Design
- Parallax Scrolling
- Responsive Design
- Skeumorphism
- Typography
Deep Linking
Creating a link directly to a piece of content instead of your home page. The content may otherwise have been buried behind searches or link only available on your website.
Where the page on our website might have been http://matraex.com?p=7044, we use deep linking and have this url https://www.matraex.com/bulk-domain-ns-mx-and-a-record-lookup-tool/
Using good naming convention and deep linking can help a in Search Engine Optimization.
Localization
The process of adapting a product or content to a specific locale.
A website may look up your location from your profile or by IP Address and then change what you see or what language is displayed.
The idea is simple but it can be difficult to implement. In browser translation helps users browse websites which do not have language localization.
Minimal Design
Not specific to web design, this is the idea that less is more.
The idea has taken hold on the web as people respond to websites which create more focused content with less clutter.
Parallax Scrolling
The technique of moving the background images at a different rate than the foreground images, thereby creating and illusion of depth.
Some sites simply move a background a small amount as you move around, other sites have a more involved method of handling the scroll to move through a picture.
http://www.dementialab.org/discovery-lab/ has a very engaging method of moving through their pictures.
Responsive Design
A method of site design which ‘responds’ to the resolution of the users screen to ensures the site looks great for all sizes.
Often the businesses logo and the website navigation menu are shrunk down to make more room for other website content.
A responsive site has become a necessity as users increasingly find other business using mobile devices.
Skeuomorphism
Making the items that are represented in digital form, resemble their real-world counter parts. An example is this microphone which was used in a voice recording app.
A quick way to get up on the concept is to read Gizmodo’s discussion of it. You can also see several examples of it by searching Google Images for ‘Skeuomorphism examples‘
Realism
Typography
The art of arranging typed text to make written language appealing.
Includes selecting the typeface, point size, line and letter length and spacing.
Take a look at a Google Images search for Typography fonts to see lots of examples.
Website Developer
Contact Michael Blood with Matraex, Inc to have a discussion about these or any other Website Development Terms – 208.344.1115 x 250 – Contact Form
Custom network tools we use at Matraex
We had a need for some Network Tools and we could not find them, so we created them
As Matraex has been developing websites over the last 15+ years, we have used many tools to do it.
We often find areas which there are no tools, or we could automate time consuming or error prone tasks in order to get them done more quickly and efficiently.
For these areas, we have developed some Network Tools which help us to get what we need done.
DNS and Name Servers
Bulk DNS Lookup
One of areas we identified was when dealing with new customers with a large number of domains. In ideal situations, the domains would all be registered with a single registrar account and all using known name servers. However that has not always been the case. We built the Bulk MX, DNS Domain Lookup tool to help us quickly assess the domain name, where it is located, who hosts the Name Servers, domains and mail services.
Name Server Compare
In other cases we found that we needed help in identifying where multiple name servers is not set to the same value on different servers. For example if a domain uses three different name servers, there are times that those name servers many not be setup the same and may report different values.
For this we built the https://www.matraex.com/nameserver-compare-tool/
This is especially useful when moving a number of domains from one name server to another.
Website Performance
Website Performance Assessment Log
To help us track the performance increase (or decrease) for Websites we built the Website Performance Assessment Log. The tool has very little functionality itself, however it allows you to type in statistics from Pingdom and from Google’s PageSpeed Insights, then once you make changes to your site you can type in the next set of statistics. This is helps to track which changes made a difference and which changes did not.
WordPress Website Check
We needed to quickly be able to assess a new WordPress website. So we built the Website Check tool which grabs some quick speed and page load statistics, does some security checks and checks on what your WordPress site exposes.
Other less popular, but some times helpful tools,
- our CSS helper tool, this tool helps us identify duplicate and overriding style sheet definitions on a single style sheet.
- Our buik – unix time to date converter. You can paste in a block of text (typically I copy this from some syslog file which logged in unix timestamps) and the tool replaces any found timestamps to help us quickly read the results with Date/ Time stamps
Matraex Inc has other tools as well and we try to offer these tools free (within reason) in order to allow others to do the same thing we do.
WordPress Website Check Instant tool 3 feedback areas
WordPress Website Check Instant tool 3 feedback areas
When working with WordPress websites, there are three main areas we assess within the first few seconds, speed, security and exposure. To help us quickly do this, we built a tool, WordPress Website Check Instant tool 3 feedback areas, which pulls this information quickly and puts it into a single interface.
WordPress Website Check – http://matraex.com/website-check.php
While each of the three areas of speed, security and exposure go much deeper than this small scan, we are able to see some very important metrics very quickly.
Three Checks
Speed
We can see the download speed, the size of your home page, the number of external CSS files and the number of external scripts. This helps us to see how well the site has been optimized. Typically wordpress websites are made up of a Theme with enabled capabilities, as well as a number of plugins. Each of the capabilities and plugins will often have their own stylesheets and script files which can add up to a bloated website.
Security
WordPress websites are the subject of frequent hack attempts. Website scanners quickly find WordPress sites that have their admin and login scripts exposed. The scanner identifies the scripts. If the scripts do not block access after a number of failed attempts (with the username ‘admin’ and then with a random username) the script fails.
Exposure
WordPress websites often publish their version number as well as details about which plugins it uses. This information ideally is private and if possible should be kept private. When vulnerabilities in these tools are found, this is an advertisement to exploit your site.
The results can be saved and a link will be sent to your email so you can permanently have access to the results
The tool is our way of checking a site within seconds, and we offer it free. Our hope is that others find this useful ad will come to Matraex, Inc for their Website Development, Design, Hosting and Security needs.
Matraex, Inc
208.344.1115
Website Performance Assessment Tool Store Compare Page Speed Size Grade
Webpage performance is important and there are a plethora of tools out there that allow you to see your website’s performance.
The tools give a large amount of information and website owners can use that information to make assessments and improvements.
As we use these tools to help our clients improve the performance of their websites, we found a couple of needs:
- We needed a tool to quickly compare the results between changes
- We needed somewhere we could go to quickly lookup results next time that we evaluated the performance
So, we built the Website Performance Assessment Tool (matraex.com/website-performance).
This tool allows us to 1) Enter a web page url 2) Link to two third party performance tools(pingdom,PageSpeed) 3) Enter the results and 4) Save
The numeric results are then stored in a table and as we make changes we can see how performance improves.
With a couple of enhancements (the ability to track multiple urls and an improved User Interface) we decided to make this tool public and encourage others to use it.
The primary benefits we see are:
- The ability for non technical users to track their site performance
- Website owners can track and evaluate changes made by their website developer
- Website developers and website owners can use the tool to communicate performance expectations and results
Here is one example of how it can work:
- A website owner opens the website assessment performance tool and enters their website url
- They use the quick links to generate metrics for a Performance Grade, Number of Requests, Load time, Page size and a Desktop and Mobile Grade
- They enter the metrics into the tool and click Save
- They notice that the total Load time is more than 4 seconds so they ask their website developer to improve the results.
- Specifically they describe they want:
- the Load Time to decrease to less than 2 seconds and
- the Desktop and Mobile Grade should improve to better than 85% each
- The developer makes changes and tells the owner the changes are complete.
- The owner opens the Performance Tool and re enters the metrics and evaluates whether it is true.
- One month later the owner comes back to the tool and checks again and can see the history and whether performance has degraded.