With the rising demand for connected devices that offers a wholesome user experience, IoT alliance in website design will gradually become mainstream in the coming years. It revolutionizes the interaction between human and technology by tending to merge the gap between the real and virtual world.
If you are wondering, some of the examples of the Internet of Things (IoT) include a smartwatch, ATM machine, Google Nest, and more. From automobiles to surveillance, refrigerators to environmental sensors – everything can be connected to the internet.
Today, we will take a deeper look at some of the best practices that the developers should take into consideration while building next-gen websites that facilitate IoT interaction.
If you are selling hosting services or managing a hosting website then it is recommended to start using WHMCS as it will automate your complex operations like client management, billing, reseller hosting. Moreover, you can customize your website easily using WHMCS design and development services.
IoT Integration in Website Design Practices – Complete Checklist
-
Adaptive User Interface
The experts of website design services focus on offering a consistent UI experience to the users across diverse devices. As IoT facilitates the access of a website through different devices, it’s important that the design layout can adapt to every device – from a desktop to a smartwatch. No wonder that the responsiveness of a website occupies the centre stage in the era of IoT. The Graphical User Interface (GUI) should showcase an intuitive and logical flow.
Further, the interface should be clutter-free and have a sophisticated outlook. That’s because the users can access a website from a small screen and a clumsy website will only affect readability. Instead, the CTA buttons should be large enough to access from different devices.
-
Live Support & Advanced Dashboard
Amidst all other elements, live support or chatbot integration demands a distinct mention as these instantly inspire interactivity. Modern-age websites want people to take an action without any delay. And chat support actively contributes towards that aim.
Advanced dashboards are yet another crucial integration that allows users to manage their operations intuitively through different devices.
-
Optimized for Voice Search
Voice recognition feature has become a crucial element in the world of the Internet of Things. For instance, the rise of voice searches in IoT enables end-to-end home automation through simple voice commands.
The professionals at any website design company should take this trend into consideration and optimize the sites for voice search. Using queries as keywords, maintaining a conversational tone of language, targeting long-tail keywords, etc. are some of the crucial practices to optimize a website for voice search.
-
Loading Speed
Since IoT devices capitalize on interactivity and seamless communication, websites should have a blazing fast loading speed. It’s important to eliminate every bulky features or bug that may decrease a site loading speed.
Usually, people accessing a website through IoT devices are on the go and they want instant response. Therefore, the processing of a request and sending data back & forth must be glitch-free.
Using compressed images and videos without affecting quality, reducing JavaScript parsing with “async” and “defer”, minifying Style Sheets, eliminating irrelevant plugins, using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) are crucial for enhancing site loading speed.
-
Minimized Power Usage
When it comes to IoT devices, we must bear in mind about wireless operations and battery-powered devices. Naturally, heavy programmes running in the backend may drain the battery and affect user communication. Therefore, the experts of website development services recommend building a lightweight website that minimizes power usage.
-
Data Collection
Traditional websites mainly rely on search patterns and cookies to find out users’ activities on a website and analyze the relevance & performance of various features on the site. IoT devices have a centralized and database-reliant characteristic that allows them to gather actionable insights from the users.
Web developers should make further advancements in their website based on these data. As a result, feature addition, performance optimization, bug fixing, and overall UI/UX enhancement become integral to website development.
-
Robust Backend
A robust backend is important for streamlining the entire process. Every device has a unique capability that operates as per the users’ interaction. The website should resonate with these capabilities and receive & transmit data to ensure seamless communication. Also, the advanced features as outlined above can properly function when a website has a powerful backend is essential.
Node is often the best suited technology for building such a high-end website with a robust backend.
-
Security
Websites accessed from IoT devices are often exposed to greater security threats. Therefore, web developers should adhere to strict security protocols to reduce the risk of hacking.
User identification, identity verification, access management, etc. should be essential features for IoT websites. The responsibility of integrating advanced security measures to keep an IoT-based website full-proof lies with the experts and they must have adequate encryption knowledge.
-
Testing
Testing an IoT website can be a bit more overwhelming than traditional websites. Here are a few elements to pay attention to:
- Is the device performing efficiently when the user interface is instructing it to?
- Is power management strategy working?
- Can network latency cause a problem in controlling IoT devices?
It is also important to create simulated environments to test the efficiency of a website on the respective IoT devices.
Way Forward
Juniper Research finds that the number of connected devices may increase above 46 billion by 2021, which is a whopping 200% increase from 2006. If you want to stay ahead in the race, it’s time to implement the above-outlined practices and build a futuristic website that functions well on IoT devices.
