Web applications & examples

Cost-effective web applications can help businesses run more efficiently.

Many web-based applications are business solutions. They may use familiar web elements like forms and buttons to perform business tasks. Or they can be fully immersive environments for industrial controls, for example. The web-based approach can save development time and reduce training requirements, and may be easier to maintain and upgrade.

Why a web application?

In many cases, the economy, scalability, maintainability, and portability of a web app are compelling. Features shared by many web applications include:

Web-app & firmware developers:

Outsource your UI design

We work with engineering teams and product developers — use our contact form to tell us a little about your project.

  • Users only need a computer with a standards-compliant web browser. There’s often no other software to buy and install on staff computers.
  • Familiar user interface and controls tap into users’ pre-existing comfort levels with the web, making it almost natural to build web apps that are easier to learn and to use.
  • There may be a larger (and less costly) number of talented developers to help support well-designed web applications.
  • It is relatively simple to connect to devices and interact with them remotely, in the nascent Internet of Things.

Developing a web application can be cost-effective even for small businesses. You get a solution focused on doing what you want, and doing it well, because it was custom-built to your purposes.

Example #1

Manufacturing-process management

screen shot: online production controls for a commercial printer
A greeting card manufacturer used one of our custom web applications to manage their production demands.

One of our custom web apps helped a client, using only a web browser, to calculate complex manufacturing orders and distribute them to external vendors. And it enabled those vendors to report each item’s progress through the production cycle. Total staff training time: about 15 minutes.

Example #2

Custom content-management systems (CMS)

We developed a custom CMS for a website for a non-profit amateur sports team. Our CMS allowed them to manage the site’s dynamic content via ordinary Excel spreadsheets. It delivered high value perfectly suited to the client’s expertise with common business software. Our system generated scoreboard-like displays for games and results, articles with game photos, rosters of players, historical records, and more. And the page-load times were blazingly fast — something users appreciate and Google tends to reward in website rankings.

Example #3

Retail inventory assistant

Could you profit from an easier way to manage your online inventory? We have developed custom inventory management systems that do not require knowledge of web programming and that are customized to your site’s design and shopping cart.

For site owners more comfortable with WordPress, we can integrate third-party shopping and payment plugins for that system. Either way, better inventory management can make it a snap to…

Flexible, portable technology

External Design web apps rely more on web coding standards than on proprietary tools. They typically deploy readily on a web server running common open-source software and can be used with reasonably standards-compliant web browsers.

And yes, a custom application or function can coexist with WordPress. We can customize your site’s theme files to accommodate both web apps we develop and third-party software. That can make it a seamless user experience for site visitors.

  • add and delete merchandise
  • create and delete categories, or departments
  • insert descriptions and recommendations
  • change prices, shipping weight and more
  • upload images, including closeups and enlargements

…and all the routine tasks online merchants usually pay someone else to do. Even for experienced web programmers, a well-designed online inventory management system speeds the chores of organizing and updating online merchandise.

Small business web applications

Custom web-based apps can be tailored to your needs and avoid the complex overhead of larger, multi-purpose systems. We’ll consult with you and your staff to design your application and the development milestones. Along the way, we’ll look for opportunities to deliver added value, such as improving workflow and click-through rates, providing on-screen help and error detection.

Summary
web applications
Service Type
web applications
Provider Name
External Design,
USA,
Area
California, Hawaii, New York
Description
Web applications can be cost-effective, efficient for small business. They use familiar tools, focused on solutions, custom-built for their specific purposes. See here: three web application examples