In a previous blog, two OOHligans predicted the biggest changes coming to their areas of expertise in the next year.
Of course, some of the changes headed our way aren’t broad industry trends. They’re the result of our ongoing process improvement. Two members of our development team were more concerned with these internal changes, and how they can improve our clients’ projects and overall experience.
Nate Walls, Front-End Developer
“One of the biggest things we will be working on in 2015 is integrating some minor back-end work into the front-end workflow, specifically for high-design gencon (general content) pages. Ideally, FEDs will be able to easily and quickly set up these pages so they automatically integrate with the back end. Most development shops keep these two areas separate, but we are always striving for a more collaborative process.”
“We've been heading towards this blurring of FED and BED for a while but this is probably the most significant example of that. If we go to coded wireframes, that could affect the FED workflow. If we go to mobile-first design, that would be a big change too, but I think that would affect design more than development.”
“Clients probably won't really notice much, since this is mostly behind the scenes. They will have a few more uniquely-designed pages, and will be able to edit them more easily without breaking the layout.”
David Bankes, Back-End Developer
“We’re moving to a different back-end framework. We’re pretty excited about the increased efficiencies it will bring us. It’s going to allow us to make better use of the open source code that has already been written and contribute back to the community.”
“I think 2015 is unlikely to be a year of dramatic disruption for PHP back-end developers. Rather, it will be a year of consistent iteration, taking what we have to the next level, and then the level after that. For example, PHP 7 is set to be released late in 2015, but it’s not introducing any radical new programming paradigms; it’s simply going to be twice as fast.”
“As far as the implications for marketers, it’s about knowing what you need. When shopping for a web development shop, make sure it’s using the right stack of technology to meet your requirements. Does your business need a brochure site? An e-commerce solution? A web app? Make sure that a more complex project is being built on a platform that can handle the complexity by a development shop with the right tools to maximize efficiency and reliability.”
We don’t always get the opportunity to share the inner workings of our web development process. In fact, some clients don’t want to know the exact details of how their project will be completed. However, that doesn’t mean we aren’t always making every effort to ensure our workflow is the best it can be.
That’s how we keep delivering great results, year after year.