In the world of ever-changing technology, it doesn’t take as much time to fall behind in the software realm. When it comes to the frontend, the situation is even more exaggerated. Mostly due to constant upgrades in technologies and languages. Building a successful solution requires not only proper development but also vigilance in maintenance and support. That’s the key to knowing when the frontend is outdated and when it’s time to focus on redesigning your system. Let’s dive straight into the telltale signs that your app or website is behind the times.

1. Users struggle with navigation

Even if you fill your website or app with exceptional content, the efforts you put into it are wasted if its visitors can’t reach it. It is vital to understand that the readability of the solution comes down to a couple of simple factors. Most importantly intuitiveness and previous experiences. Almost all of the time users move the mousepad or fingers instinctively. As if that’s what leads the way and it all comes down to how we learn to use technology at hand.

On top of experienced specialists analyzing the solution in this respect, session recordings come in handy. Especially when there is any doubt about user paths. If you are interested in the topic of user-friendly features, we have plenty of ideas for you in our other articles.

2. Extended loading time

It’s no secret that the longer users wait for the page to load, the more discouraged they get. According to research provided by Google, after only 3 seconds mobile site abandonment reaches 53%. What we can take out of it is that every moment that can be saved is crucial. The statistics for other platforms showcase a similar tendency, and the question arises.

How to prevent extended loading time, especially with frontend optimization? The answer to that is not straightforward due to an abundance of factors at play. Multiple operations that happen at the same time can create overloads. In that situation the best thing to do is to seek advice from experts in the field to get the full scope of the problem.

3. Outdated frontend as the cause of scalability issues

Your business is growing, new users get engaged in your solution and everything goes well but apparently, your software disagrees. While it operated well before, now with more traffic, it starts to struggle. It’s a typical scenario but without a proper plan for upscaling or adding new platforms, the situation may become troublesome pretty rapidly. The communication between components and data storages or libraries grows. The frequency of inquiries increases and the strategies for differences between devices haven’t been implemented. That’s when the time comes to decide, whether it is possible to improve what you already have or if you have to change the architectural solution scope.

4. You cannot do anything without the development team

In the perfect world, you would have developer help within reach, but often it’s simply not worth the resources. Most people opt for services provided by other parties but to keep the reigns of your app or website and maintain independency you have to know how to implement minor changes into your software. You don’t need coding skills to achieve that with properly designed solutions.

Without that possibility management becomes chaotic. The whole process of implementing changes, when you have to ask for help anytime you want to swap out a simple text or graphic, will become tedious and discourage you from further improvements.

5. Bad results

You had your business plan set up and met the requirements but the outcome is not satisfactory. The data shows that there are less and less users but you can’t pinpoint why. Well, you may want to do a thorough check of everything mentioned above as there is a high chance that you already have the answer in plain sight. One of the greatest indicators of the performance of your app is the opinion of the ones you design it for, which they showcase through your results.

To sum up, know when to reach out for help

Whether you are struggling to find what to improve in your site/app or already know where the problem with the outdated frontend is, a thorough analysis will help you reach the full potential of your solution. There are plenty of fantastic specialists that can guide you to achieving your goal for the benefit of your users.

Reading on this topic is already a great starting point and we are here to help you with our knowledge and expertise. Fill out one of contact forms on our website and let’s work together on your specific case.