Cocos 2D Becomes Popular, Developers Rejoice

Cocos 2D has been fast emerging as a lucrative career option for those who take keen interest in developing two dimensional games and interactive applications for electronic platforms such as PC’s, smartphones, tablets and much more.

Introduced to the world in 2008, it is an open source application development framework and provides great support and facilities to those looking for amazing application development experience and desirable results with maximum fluency. It can also be used by the Cocos 2D developers to develop software demos, product demos, device demos and much more and has been time and again used to develop graphics based applications for iOS.

The latest version of this framework, cocos2d 0.5.5, was released on August 12,2012 and it comes packed with some very interesting and exciting features and also presents various benefits over its counterparts such as Corona and Unity. These features and advantages have been exhaustively discussed in the following sections.

The amazing and attractive features of Cocos 2D

Cocos 2D might not be as old as many of the existing frameworks but it has already carved a special niche for itself thanks to its fast paced evolution and some really unique and interesting features that aim at empowering the developers and providing them with the options that can translate to admirable user experience.

Cocos 2D provides easy flow control which helps developers switch between scenes easily and provide a fluidic experience to the users. Many transition related features are also embedded to ensure a stylish transition between scenes. To make the games and applications highly interactive and attractive, some special effects such as lens, twirl and waves can be used. The easy and fast sprites provided by Cocos 2D can be easily controlled by actions such as scale, move and rotate which can be composed by the developer. 

Cocos 2D comes with special built-in classes which can be used to create customized menus. Also its built-in python interpreter facilitates debugging operation and makes it easy and convenient. To provide hardware acceleration, Cocos-2D is Open GL based and it is also Pyglet based which means there is no need for external dependencies. What’s more, the Cocos 2D framework comes with complete and detailed documentation such as a guide, programming video tutorials, API reference and few tests to make it all easy for the Cocos developers.

Major advantages that Cocos 2D boasts of

The biggest advantage of Cocos 2D is that it is extremely competent and efficiently supports all major platforms and doesn’t offer compatibility related problems. It is also very easy to grasp and use since it comes with detailed documentation and has an active discussion forum where all Cocos 2D developers excitedly share and discuss their experiences and discoveries. If any developer faces any challenge, he/she can post about it on the forum and get help from senior developers instantly. 

Many popular games and applications such as Binary Defence, IRobot, Flat Bot and Tetrico have been developed using Cocos 2D and more and more game/app developers are adopting this lovely framework to present to the world even more interesting games, applications and demos.

Things to ensure while developing E commerce websites

best web development services

The trend of Real time shopping on virtual stores is gaining momentum. Thus, to get a worthy website developed, an agency claiming the best web development services should know the bits and bytes of a robust E-commerce platform.

Easy to navigate/ Finding the product

The website should be easy to navigate. The developing team has to ensure that the categories of products are accurately streamlined and their headings highlighted. Nesting of web pages is a better idea. A relevant search box option should be provided in case the user wishes to directly access the details of a particular product. Plus, including a feature like ‘Adding to cart’ helps a user remember what he selected, encouraging him to shop more on the store.

What User loves

An e-commerce site hosts a wide range of products. This may end up confusing a user about what to purchase and how much to purchase. To eliminate such a mind squeezing session, help a user by displaying the most popular products on the home page. A banner in motion would do well.

Secure transaction

E-commerce web development is miles away from usual information websites. The inclusion of a transaction process raises the requirement for a robust platform that easily redirects the user to his bank’s net banking page. Also, include associated content with each step of transaction to convince him as why it is extremely crucial to use passwords and codes multiple times. Invite merchant service providers to enable purchases directly through credit/debit cards.

Easy to checkout

Once the user has closed a deal with the store, he would definitely wish to check out quickly. It is a wise approach to help him leave the way he wants. There is actually no need of useless lengthy steps for signing out. Make the final steps, short and smoother.

Product descriptions

While a developer has to route a separate page on clicking any product image or logo, the content developer has to take over the product description job efficiently. A product should be explained (better in short paras or points) in the shortest possible way so that the user is not left helpless to visit a real time store for better assistance.

Include multi dimensional images of the product that explain its look and size from every corner. However, there is nothing like a small video clip.

Plus, user reviews at the end of every product is a smart idea too. But make sure, too much negative reviews are not published.

Accurate shipping details

The only thing a user is sceptical about online purchases is the quality of efficiency services. The shipping details should not be misleading. Don’t over commit about the delivery deadline and help a user in tracking down the transport of his commodity. Thus, giving a purchase ID is must. Also, if you are a start up and your website is yet to gain momentum, then offer sufficient customer support details.

Newsletters to interested customers

Newsletters are the frequent updates about your store for the users via emails. Don’t impose them on your customers. Ask them if they wish to access regular updates about the store, discounts, additions and other offerings.

Don’t force Facebook likes!

This is perhaps one of the poorest things an e commerce site can do. Some of them don’t provide the website access unless a user ‘likes’ their Facebook page or any other social media platform. Always remember, a user has a plethora of e commerce options. You can ask for a Facebook ‘like’ but don’t impose one. It is a poor marketing practice.

E-commerce portal development is a rage and so is the brimming competition. Thus, you need to ensure everything before finalizing on your choice of the best web development services.

Web Development Services: Include much more than just Design and Coding

Web development is a long and elaborated process requiring a proper plan to work quickly and systematically. Many people think that by hiring a professional web developer, their job is finished, but it’s not that easy. Web development services include not only designing and programming, but many more for example deciding the page URL, writing rich content with suitable keywords and finding a host service provider to execute the site in a proper manner.

Below are list of services that must be kept in mind while developing a website:-

Buy and Create a Good Domain Name

The domain name you select for your website must be easy to memorize. Avoid using any punctuation marks in the domain name as it portrays an unprofessional behavior.

In case you are rendering a service through your site and wish to rank it higher on Search Engines, add relevant keywords to the URL. The web developer will assist you with good domain names suiting the type of your website. His experience will definitely help you finalize an apt domain name.

Once you finalize the domain name, check its availability and buy it immediately.

Choose a Hosting Service Provider

Choose a budget favorable, reliable host service provider. You must talk explicitly about bandwidth, memory and security issues with the service provider to certain that he will be able to match your requirements.

Your web developer will assist in the meetings as he would have a clear idea about the memory required and security issues which are mandatory to address.

Assist the Developer in selecting the tools for development
There must be a lucid understanding between you and the developer about the requirements of your website. It will help him to finalize the proper tool or platform for your website.

For example, if you require a dynamic website, and don’t want to use Flash due to SEO problems, then the developer can code in HTML5 for SEO favorable web design.

The Database must be handled carefully
The database must be taken care of properly as later on it helps in online marketing and development of new strategies to increase the growth of your business.

The database not only consists of your website content, but also the data shared by your esteemed customers. Hence, during web development caution from hackers and viruses must be considered.

Content Preparation

It is one of the supreme services of web development. You can either opt to write the content yourself or hire a professional content writer to do the job.

Hiring is a better option as he would write SEO friendly content which in turn would help your website to rank higher on search engines.

Sitemap Suggestion

Sitemap is crucial for serviceability and search engine optimization. Many a times the most experienced web developers miss to add the sitemap and as a consequence, your website never grows.

Therefore, you must discuss the layout of sitemap with the developer in the beginning only.

Usability and Accessibility on different platforms

These two separate things play a significant role in the success of a website. Your site should be accessed from various devices like desktop, smartphone and tablet.

Few impartial users must be asked to test your website and evaluate its serviceability.

After reading the blog you must have recognized that web development services not only includes programming. For the success of a website, the owner and the website developer work as one team to develop a user friendly, quick and bug free website.

We at Miracl3.com render all the web development services to our clients. Feel free to contact us to discuss your requirements. We would love to hear from you!