Jara Studio - web development and creative studio

08/08/2023

The Future of Online Presence: Headless Website Development

In the constantly evolving world of web technology, businesses are always looking for the next big innovation to stay ahead. Among the numerous advancements, headless website development has emerged as a game-changer. But what is it, and why is it revolutionizing the way websites are built and managed? Let’s dive in.

Headless website development has emerged as a game-changer. But what is it, and why is it revolutionizing the way websites are built?

28/07/2023

The modern market of platforms for creating websites offers dozens of solutions. So, what principles and criteria should one follow when choosing a platform?
❗ Looking for a platform to create an online store? The information below will be helpful, but be sure to read our post How to choose a platform for an online store?
If you've ever had to choose between Mac OS and Windows, we have good news for you - choosing a website platform is very similar to choosing a computer.
◾ First and foremost, we are interested in the ability to install various applications - in the world of websites, they are called modules or plugins. Industry leaders have tens of thousands of modules, which means vast development possibilities for websites on such platforms.
◾ Secondly, we aim for ergonomics - convenience and user-friendliness. For websites, this relates to interfaces, the ability to create pages without programming knowledge, ease of customization, and content management.
◾ Lastly, we want the chosen solution to be reliable - free of glitches, regularly updated, and not morally outdated, with good protection against malicious activities. In the world of websites, it's no different.
If you are currently facing a platform choice, ask the following questions about each option offered:
❔ How many modules are available in the platform's marketplace?❔ What does the page editing interface look like? Does it have a visual editor and fine-tuning tools?❔ When was the platform last updated?
As of 2023, the main leading platforms in the self-hosted class are WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and in the SAAS (software as a service) class - Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, Webflow.
❓ If the above terms are unfamiliar to you, read our post What types of platforms exist for websites?

The modern market of platforms for creating websites offers dozens of solutions. So, what principles and criteria should one follow when choosing a platform?

27/07/2023

It's no secret that most of us have tried, are trying, and will continue to try to create a website on our own. This post is here to help you.
The world of web development has been around for more than a decade and has long ceased to be the exclusive domain of web programmers and designers. Thanks to modern platform solutions, any confident internet user can create a website on their own.
Here's a universal and simple recipe for creating a website on your own:
◾ Platform Selection: To create a website independently, you need a SAAS solution - software as a service, or in other words, an online website builder by subscription. Popular platforms like Wix, Squarespace, Tilda, or Shopify will meet 90% of your needs.
◾ Design Choice: No need to reinvent the wheel - find a suitable design template for your website's theme in the chosen builder and use it.
◾ Customization: You can easily change the main and accent colors, font size, and style, remove or add any blocks, but we do not recommend going beyond color changes. Almost any other modification may disrupt the harmony built into the design, and you will have to harmonize it yourself.
◾ Image Replacement: A professionally-looking website often owes its appearance to high-quality professional photographs and vice versa. Don't hesitate to do a photoshoot specifically for this purpose.
◾ Text Replacement: At this stage, it's important for the texts to have approximately the same length as those used in the template. Shorter or longer texts may disrupt the design harmony. Also, don't forget about the logical flow of the narrative.
◾ Test the Mobile Version: Typically, the builder automatically handles the adaptability of your site, but some of your changes may disrupt the mobile layout.
◾ Publication: Publish your website and get the link so that others can view it on the internet.
❓ If it's all so easy, then why do web developers still exist? Read about this in the next posts, as well as about:- How to choose a platform for your website?- How to choose a design?- Common mistakes in website creation.

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It's no secret that most of us have tried, are trying, and will continue to try to create a website on our own. This post is here to help you.

26/07/2023

For the classification of platforms (also known as CMS), we have chosen two basic characteristics: ownership and specialization.

📌 Based on ownership, all CMS can be divided into 2 classes - hosted or self-hosted.

◾ Hosted CMS (also known as SaaS - software as a service) offer their users a ready-to-use solution "out of the box" for a monthly fee, running in the cloud. Website owners do not need to know anything about servers, hosting, domains, or programming. Website creation is greatly simplified and occurs within an intuitive visual editor.
The most well-known representatives of SaaS platforms are Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, Weebly, Tilda, Vigbo. Their combined market share in 2020 is approximately 20%.

◾ Self-hosted CMS, on the other hand, are usually distributed for free and installed on their own servers or hosting services. Technical knowledge about website administration is required to work with them. Each CMS also offers its own interfaces and customization methods, which can be quite original and complex. This necessitates the involvement of a qualified developer in the website creation process.
The most well-known representatives of self-hosted platforms are WordPress, Joomla, Magento, OpenCart. These platforms continue to dominate the market, accounting for 80% of all CMS-based websites.

📌 Based on specialization, all CMS can be divided into 3 classes - universal, ecommerce platforms, and niche platforms.

◾ Universal platforms allow creating websites of any functionality - from simple brochure sites to high-traffic portals.
Leaders of this class are WordPress, Wix, Squarespace.

◾ With the rise of ecommerce, ecommerce platforms have also experienced significant growth, specializing in creating online stores. With the help of such platforms, one can launch a store without special technical knowledge within a day.
Prominent representatives are Shopify, Magento, OpenCart.

◾ Niche platforms are diverse and exist due to their specialization for specific tasks. For example, the platform Vigbo is popular among photographers, Tilda among journalists, and the MediaWiki platform has become the primary solution for wiki sites, including Wikipedia.

For the classification of platforms (also known as CMS), we have chosen two essential characteristics: ownership and specialization.

18/12/2020

So first things first and customer's problem or tasks is what we are going to talk about at the very beginning.
To keep it simple here are the three types of problems a customer is facing.

Zero generation website
Here we all started one day being inspired by the possibilities of the Internet or pushed by a necessity to reach new customers. You have never done that before and it is absolutely new challenge for your business. Chances are that your experience level is close to zero - you've seen hundreds of websites in your life and know which websites you like and which you don't. And now it is time to create the first website for your business.

1st generation website
Almost instantly after your 1st generation website is ready you will know what you want to change. These changes are so tiny but still are so desirable. And here starts a 1000-step way of finding the right "freelancer". Sometimes it succeeds but more often your version 1.x website looks even worse than 1.0.

2nd generation website
You've overcome all the difficulties of starting your business on the Internet and are running your 1st generation website for quite a few years already. Due to your efforts, it looks and works fine but a feeling of dissatisfaction and incompleteness torments you all the time. You now clearly understand what could be done better from the very beginning and your experience level is enough to write a short manual for dummies on how not to make websites.
It is time to move forward and invest into a better website and put all of your experience in it.

Digital marketing
You've seen it all. CTR, conversion, and retention are the gods you pray to in the pantheon of digital marketing. You can sell anything to anyone on the Internet and know everything about your target audience. Honestly, you are overwhelmed with the diversity of digital marketing tools and ways of reaching out to your audience. The feeling of dissatisfaction and incompleteness comes again. You know you can be everywhere on the Internet but it will take an eternity.
It is time for a total revision of digital marketing strategy including platform creation, subscription model, video marketing, mobile applications, and offline-digital experience.
Other problem?
Do you face absolutely different type of problem? Help us improve this guide and write your story in the comments bellow. This will make life easier for future readers.

Let's talk about web developers worlds.

Freelancers
The world of web developers starts with freelancers and it is not bad at all. There are thousands of people making beautiful and outstanding things selling their talent to anyone who is in need - designers, web-programmers, typesetters, and many more other specialists including project managers. These are the ones who will offer web-developing services on a freelance platform.
The variety of solutions provided by freelancers is unlimited - everything depends on the freelancer's experiences and favors. This can be anything from a web-constructor to a naked CMSless HTML-coded website. Working with a freelancer will definitely take some additional effort and knowledge from you as a customer.
The most difficult part of working with freelancers is the search. There are millions of freelancers out there. Now divide thousands (those who do beautiful and outstanding) by millions and you will get 1 to 1000 chance to find a good one. This is the real challenge.

Novice web-studio
There is a moment when after several years of freelancing one brave man unites a simple team of two other freelancers and opens up as a brand new web-studio. In fact, it will not differ a lot from an experienced freelancer in terms of what will happen during the development process. What will differ is the willingness of a new web-studio to provide the highest service level possible and to get a positive review from every customer. The web-studio career heavily depends on its reputation.
But here is the trick. There are two scenarios of studio life each leading to a completely different state. The first one is negative - the quality of work is low and reviews are modest. Thus the quantity of new customers stagnates and the team motivation decreases over time. This will eventually lead to further quality drop and the studio will end up soon after. Avoid working with a demotivated team.
A positive scenario is the opposite one. Quality is fantastic and word of mouth brings waves of new customers. The price tag rises very fast and the studio makes a very quick one to three years shift to the next type of web-developers.
Jara Studio is here!

Award-winning web-studios and digital marketing agencies
They are the Olympus habitats. Having several awards from international awards websites like awwwards.com or cssdesignawards.com makes these companies exposed to the whole world of web-development demand. Everyone wants them and everyone dreams about having a website from them. This raises the bar of quality and thus sky-rockets project costs to the level of a Tesla price.
Be sure to work with one of such a studio as their work is itself a very strong competitive advantage worth every dollar you will pay.
From here starts a very distinctive specialization as some of the studios drive towards digital production as a whole and some stick to true UI/UX design and work mostly for the first ones as well as there are dozens of other specialties. The level of problems these guys are solving becomes very high and affordable only to serious businesses with a substantial marketing department.

No doubt that the variety of problems and problem solvers is much bigger then the one we've wrote above. But to a certain extent every problem can be classified with these types.

If you are still confused with the decision on what should you do here is our recipe.

For the problems of 1st and 2nd generation websites as well as everything in between better to be working with an experienced and worked out the team from a raising novice web-studio. For serious challenges search no compromises - go for an award-winning company for the best results.
Leave your thoughts and ideas in the comments below to make this guide perfect!

If you are the first-timer in the world of web development there is a big chance from the very beginning you will be lost in the variety of pathways and options.

18/12/2020

The front-end of a site is a set of related web pages generated by a special program - an engine or WCMS (web content management system) or simply CMS.

Over the decade, modern CMS has grown into platforms on which programmers sell modules for engines ("spare parts for tuning sites") to web developers, and web developers, in turn, create websites from these modules.

Similar to the Android and iOS operating systems, CMS platforms have spawned entire ecosystems that have become a kind of religion for many web developers. Almost every web developer will persist in proving the advantages of their favorite platform over others.⠀

❓ So what exactly is a website platform? WordPress, Wix, Shopify, Tilda, Vigbo, Joomla, Drupal, Magento, Opencart - the list goes on for quite some time. All these are platforms that allow you to solve the main task - website creation.⠀

The platform is a software package that allows you to generate web pages for a site, manage the content of these pages using convenient user interfaces and connect all kinds of modules to the site that expand its functionality.⠀

To understand more about platforms, read our next post on what platform types are and how they differ.

The front-end of a site is a set of related web pages generated by a special program - an engine or WCMS (web content management system) or simply CMS. Over

28/10/2020

Why do we make websites?
Why would anyone create another web development studio? Isn't there enough of them already? By the way tune in our blog and subscribe not to miss our epic material "The complete list of web developers older than 1 year in 2020". So It is true and not at the same time.

The story of this profile as well as of Jara Studio is pretty long. It took around 7 years for me to go through the way of experience and end up with own web studio.
These were years of pain, failures, constant search and disappointments. The task of building "a website" (I use a generic term for describing any online object) seemed to be a piece of cake but turned to be the ultimate challenge even for a big business....
(read the full story in Jara Studio blog)

28/10/2020

You know that a creature is alive only if it is moving. The same story with websites. If a website is static it is more like a memorial or a presentation rather than a realy useful thing you can interact with.
Dynamic websites are the ones that create the real diversity of "life" on the Internet. Keep up and subscribe for not to miss our material "Attempt to embrace the biodiversity of websites".