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App Development
6 minutes read

Modern JavaScript Development and Design

By Jose Gomez
By Jose Gomez
App Development
6 minutes read

JavaScript application design and development has evolved with technology and consumer trends. JavaScript is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, so this programming language is one of the most popular and widely used languages in the world. JavaScript was initially developed to bring static web pages to life, but it is capable of so much more. 

Modern JavaScript development is capable of creating more than web apps. JavaScript can be used to develop mobile apps, games, smartwatch apps, and server applications too. JavaScript development frameworks allow developers to expand the capabilities of their code and create stunning projects using JavaScript. 

Let’s explore the development frameworks that help create modern JavaScript applications. 

JavaScript Application Design: Development Frameworks 

JavaScript development frameworks provide developers with modern libraries and architectural support. Some frameworks have similar abilities and uses, and others are more specialized for certain types of projects. 

Nevertheless, modern JavaScript application design benefits from the expanded capabilities frameworks provide. Some of the most popular JavaScript application development frameworks are:

  • jQuery
  • React Native 
  • Mobile Angular UI
  • PhoneGap
  • Titanium
  • Ionic
  • NodeJS

jQuery 

The jQuery development library offers developers tools to simplify event handling, DOM tree traversal, and CSS animation, among other things. jQuery Mobile is a lightweight mobile app development framework based on the jQuery library. The biggest advantage of jQuery mobile apps is the load speed, but the main focus of the JavaScript framework is compatibility. This gives developers the ability to create cross-platform JavaScript applications. 

Android and iOS devices dominate the mobile market, but other manufacturers like Windows also have mobile devices as well. If you want to be able to reach any user on any device, a cross-platform mobile app is your most cost-effective option. 

jQuery Mobile allows developers to create mobile apps using web standards HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. jQuery can also be used to create custom themes with the addition of the ThemeRoller web app. 

React Native 

Native mobile apps provide the most engaging User Experience because they take advantage of unique features present on each type of device. React Native is a mobile app development framework that allows developers to create strong cross-platform mobile apps with JavaScript that look and function like native mobile apps built with Swift or Kotlin. 

React Native utilizes a modern declarative style of writing code and gives developers the ability to reuse User Interface components, which can drastically speed up the development process. Another reason why React Native is a great choice for mobile development is that it can be combined with native code written in other programming languages. 

Whether you want to add new features to your existing native app or build a cross-platform app that looks and functions like a native app, React Native is one of the best JavaScript frameworks to use. 

Mobile Angular UI

Angular is one of the most popular JavaScript frameworks for front-end web design and development. If you’re already familiar with the principles of Angular, using Mobile Angular UI to develop a mobile app will be no problem since it is basically the same thing except for mobile development. 

Mobile Angular UI makes it easy to bring an existing Angular web app to mobile. Some of the key features of this framework that ensure quality and development workflow are:

  • Two-way data binding 
  • Built-in dependency injection
  • Built-in directives 

Angular is great for building fast, responsive User Interfaces because it relies on the browser to develop the page instead of the server. This feature lessens the strain on the webserver and ultimately results in faster load times. 

PhoneGap

This is a very popular development framework with JavaScript developers. PhoneGap makes app development easy for developers who are proficient with JavaScript, and it doesn’t require any additional knowledge or skills. It also provides access to a large development library and an extensive backend. 

JavaScript application development projects that are working on a tight or small budget might find that PhoneGap is their best choice since it can create apps using a single code base. Developers can also rapidly test and deploy apps built with PhoneGap. 

PhoneGap also enjoys a large online community of developers who help create new plugins for this JavaScript framework and extend its capabilities. 

Titanium 

This open-source framework, created by the team at Appcelerator, is capable of building web and mobile applications using the core technologies of the World Wide Web, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Titanium gets its most value out of developing prototypes quickly in its integrated development environment. This feature allows developers to design a build first, test their ideas, and see if there is a market for their app before they launch their full development and production processes. 

The Titanium framework allows developers to reuse large portions of their code when creating hybrid, cross-platform applications. 

Ionic

This app development framework was initially developed and built on top of the Angular User Interface framework. The latest versions of Ionic allow developers to choose a UI framework of their choice like Angular, React, or VueJS. Developers can use this framework to build hybrid mobile apps, desktop apps, and progressive web apps using core web technologies like JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. 

Ionic also gives developers four different testing options. Developers can choose the testing methodology that best aligns with their philosophy and needs. Ionic apps can be tested using the Webkit browser, in an Android or iOS simulator, in a mobile browser, or on a specific mobile device. 

NodeJS

NodeJS is a backend JavaScript runtime environment. It runs on Google’s V8 JavaScript engine, which makes it very fast. This runtime environment is popular with web applications that require a lot of real-time updates and use event-driven servers.

NodeJS can also be used for backend API servers and traditional websites too. This runtime environment is easily scalable and never has to buffer data. 

Final Thoughts

These are just a few of the JavaScript frameworks and tools that are seriously changing and improving mobile and web development. Modern JavaScript development and design rely on these technologies to create the high-powered experiences users have come to expect on the web and from mobile apps.

If you need help figuring out which technologies to use in your development project, turn to an app development partner. A partner can help you understand everything you need to know about JavaScript application design and development and offer you technical expertise and industry experience to guide you through the entire development process.

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