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Thoughts and ideas on how to build tools, automate workflows and speed-up the workplace.

How to Build and Embed a Form in 6 Steps

Embedding forms is probably the most common way to add interactivity to a webpage. For instance, we’ve all encountered embedded forms for submitting contact information, requesting a callback, or carrying out some kind of sign-up flow. However, how we build web forms can have a huge impact on the value we ultimately get from them. See, most teams build these using one of the following methods: Manually building forms with HTML and JavaScript, Using traditional form builders like JotForm or TypeForm , Using other SaaS tools or CMS platforms like Salesforce or HubSpot.

Ronan McQuillan

Feb 27, 2024

14 Effective Table UI Design Tips + 6 Shortcuts

The humble table is the core of almost any data-centric app interface. Table UI design is central to how your users find, view, and interact with all kinds of information. With such a fundamental role in your tools, the design of your tables and the screens that contain them can have an outsized impact on your overall user experiences. Today, we’re going to look at some of the top ways you can design your tables for maximum efficiency, usability, and effectiveness.

Ronan McQuillan

Nov 27, 2023

How to Implement RBAC in 8 Steps

Knowing how to implement RBAC is a crucial skill for building modern web applications. With an ever-increasing need to maximize security, efficiency, and usability, RBAC is an essential tool for successful app projects. In short, role-based access control (RBAC), is a framework built around defined roles, each with associate permissions. Users are then assigned to one of these roles, to determine which actions they can take within your app. For a more in-depth explanation, check out our ultimate guide to role-based access control .

Ronan McQuillan

Nov 23, 2023

8 Admin UI Design Tips

Designing admin UIs is a part of the app development process that’s quite easy to overlook. In fact, in many cases, it’s a bit of an afterthought. This is a big mistake. Providing sleek, efficient user experiences for your app’s admin functions is just as important as it is with any other functionality. Today, we’re drilling into some concrete strategies that you can use to craft effective, professional app screens for your admin users.

Ronan McQuillan

Sep 29, 2023

Prototype vs MVP | What’s the Difference?

The early stages of application development are critical. A huge part of this is gathering early user feedback. Today we’re comparing two approaches as we explore the differences between building a prototype vs an MVP. See, even the most basic application development projects can be expensive, drawn-out processes. From initial ideation, it could be months or even years before the final product is live and in the hands of users.

Ronan McQuillan

Sep 19, 2023

What is a Process Application?

Process applications are kind of the unsung heroes of digital transformation. These tools are the backbone of countless efficient, streamlined internal business processes. Despite this, they’re rarely at the top of anyone’s list of priorities. The reality for on-the-ground IT teams is that bigger development projects and maintenance needs for existing solutions often take priority. So, even though they have such a huge role to play in optimizing internal workflows, projects to create new process applications often go unrealized.

Ronan McQuillan

Sep 19, 2023

SDKs vs APIs | What’s the Difference?

Understanding the respective roles, requirements, and use cases for APIs and SDKs is one of the most important facets of modern software development. See, nowadays a huge proportion of software isn’t actually built from scratch. Instead, reusable tools, assets, and resources play a greater role than ever in the way that businesses build tools. This serves the dual purposes of saving developers time - as well as ensuring interoperability and adherence to particular development approaches.

Ronan McQuillan

Aug 18, 2023

What are API Management Tools? + 7 Top Picks

Choosing the right API management tools is one of the most fundamental and far-reaching decisions for any IT team. In fact, APIs are totally central to all kinds of application development, process management, workflow automation, integration, support, and IT ops tasks. Most companies leverage a huge range of third-party APIs - as well as their own internal resources. Therefore, how we manage our API usage is going to have a significant impact on both the quality of our team’s output and the resource incursion related to achieving this.

Ronan McQuillan

Aug 18, 2023

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