Web Development Tools Every Website Design Company Relies On

Most businesses approach a website design company with a fixed budget and tell the service provider that they want a website built. Few are curious to know the kind of technologies and related tools employed by the website design and development agency.

The reason this awareness is being stressed upon is because after some time, say a year or two if the concerned company wants to revamp its website from a strategic purpose specifically, then it ought to know the best available tools. Some prior knowledge of these will help its cause of articulating its requirements with more precision.

With the web expanding exponentially and getting more and more complex, it is important to know everything about a certain set of trendy design and development tools that suit best the interests of a concerned business.

Given below are a few of those every top website design and development company wears by.

1. CSS Pre-Processors: CSS is easy to write code. The syntax is uncomplicated. It is easy to understand as well. Issues often come up when project become larger in size. That is when the need to manage multiple style sheets arises, as there are thousands of CSS lines in the dock. This is where the website design company brings to fore the pre-processors, which allow CSS programming with variables and functions. This can then be compiled into browser-compliant CSS format. CSS properties can also be used with special rules and there are a lot of pre-processors to carry out the job which would be Sass, LESS, Stylus, Myth etc.

2. Template Engine: This is used to create static HTML pages. It comes handy in cases where the requirement is multiple HTML pages and chances are that things might really go out of hand. A good example is a situation where such HTML Pages have similar components such as Header, Sidebar and Footer. Changes made in the Sidebar of HTML Page would necessitate that changes also be made to the Sidebar of other HTML pages as well. What would be better, that all the pages be dealt with one by one or a Template Engine be used to handle all of these together? Some of the template engines available for use include Kit, Jade and Handlebars. Each of these has its own writing conventions. Kit is available with Variables and Import capabilities declared with a simple HTML comment tag. On the other hand, Jade and Handlebars have robust features to cater to complex subjects. A template engine is most suitable for companies trying to build scalable static websites.

3. Task Runner: Popular Task Runners such as Grunt and Gulp help automate the myriad processes involved in building a website such as Minification, Compilation, Unit Testing, Linting, Concatenating Files and Browser Refreshing. A task runner such as Grunt helps perform a set of tasks specified in the Gruntfile.js. Besides, it also helps remove unnecessary modules in JQuery. These days, there are a lot of plugins available as far as automating things on Grunt is concerned, which means one does not have to write one’s own Grunt tasks. Companies trying to compile LESS files into CSS can do with grunt-contrib-less. If the length of the project is too long, they can do with a Task Runner to streamline workflows.

4. Synchronized Testing Tool: This is one tool to work on come what may in case you happen to build a mobile optimized website. There are so many devices available to test websites on and in case you do test yours on many of them then you need a Synchronized Testing. Reason being, this helps test the website on multiple devices simultaneously. Clicking, scrolling and browser reloading get reflected across all tested devices at the same time which helps save the hassle of repetitive action. A couple of tools on which this can be tried include BrowserSync and Ghostlab, the latter being a GUI application.

5. Development Toolkit: This helps put together various tools in one application. CodeKit is one highly successful example, which includes LESS, Sass, Kit, Jade, Siml, Uglify, Bower etc. In case you are not that comfortable with text-based settings on Grunt, perhaps a GUI application would be a better tool for you to work on.

These are the web development tools most high-profile IT Solutions providers rely on. These 5 are some of most widely used as they give businesses and service providers alike the best chance of building a powerful website that performs well, succeeds in attracting visitors and helps generate revenue.