The Importance of Big Data in Web Development Strategy

The current public health crisis continues to disrupt industries across the globe. One of the biggest lessons that are coming out of this ordeal is the crucial role that technology plays in building resilience. Big data, perhaps one of the biggest faces of technological disruption over the past few years, has played a central role in helping startups stay alive, even before the pandemic.

For web developers and web development startups, big data can be a game-changer. Big data enables developers to infuse critical insights from data analysis, which helps build data-driven applications that boost user experience.

Here are some specific ways that big data can help build user-friendly applications.

How Big Data Builds User Friendly Applications

Personalized UX

One of the biggest perks of infusing big data into web development is the ability to maintain a clear, inside-out look into user behavior as they navigate through the application.

By infusing elements of artificial intelligence to help comb through user data within the application, developers can identify design flaws and other issues, allowing them to come up with updates that address these issues.

Disruption to the Web Development Process

One of the biggest perceived threats of data science is that it will make most development roles obsolete. On the contrary, big data and associated technologies will increase the demand for developers — however, this is contingent on the premise that these developers will need to upgrade their skill-sets so that they are conversant with data analysis.

And that’s because big data analytics has helped move the conversation away from pure coding to data-centric practices such as curation, structuring, and cleaning data, which is then used to teach algorithms that are eventually utilized in the web development process.

This move away from traditional object-oriented programming in favor of scripting in Python and Matlab or R-based data analysis means data science is changing web development for the better. It also means machines will have access to pieces of code and the ability to organize these chunks of code into a fully-functional program, thus significantly reducing turnaround times for web development.

Automatic App Updates

Data science and analytics are also capable of transforming your app update process, which can be a huge advantage for your upgrade efforts post-development. Instead of relying on focus groups, raw user feedback, in-house development teams, or just simple intuition, you can use data collected via organic streams to inform upgrades.

Data points can be generated when users interact with the application or when users make their feelings known on social media or forums. These data points are then fed into an upgrade module, with algorithms that analyze the data and then churn out upgrades and subsequent new versions of the application.

In fact, Nvidia’s strategic department, as a sign of the changing times, has removed app upgrades as one of its roles, instead choosing to leave that role to machine learning algorithms. This leaves more time for developers to focus on other pertinent app-related issues, which can be a huge bonus.

Bottom Line

At the moment, big data is among numerous technological advancements that can give development teams a competitive advantage. However, with increased activity in the digital space owing to the current health crisis, data science will soon become the new normal and a minimum operation requirement for development teams. Other benefits will include improved efficiency, productivity, and personalization, all of which will serve to create a better web development strategy.