What Are Single Page Applications?

In simple terms, a single-page application gives you new content as you interact without actually taking you to a new page. You stay on the same page while the data changes with each click. It simply rewrites new data onto the existing page dynamically.

Technically speaking, SPA uses client-side rendering to rewrite the current page dynamically without reloading the entire page or website again. It only updates the few pieces required at a time and lets the rest stay as it is.

Users will feel that they are skipping through different pages through the site. But technically, they would be on the same page, just the data that changes.

The simplest way to understand this is by analyzing how your Gmail or your Facebook applications work. The header or left-side menu bar and other features of the page remain intact even when you switch between different pages like your inbox, sent items, spam, draft, and more. Same in Facebook, your header with the search bar and Facebook logo remains the same, so does the left menu and right chat option. It changes only what you have asked; other things remain unchanged.

Users obviously love that they do not have to constantly wait for the entire page to reload again. The customer journey is made easy with an SPA. Users stay within the natural environment of the app while it fetches the required elements. They can even access the site across different browsers, devices, and operating systems without any hassle.

This brings us to the next important question - how and why SPAs can help simplify the customer journey and enhance the customer experience?

Why Do You Need SPAs For Customer Experience?

The web architecture of a single-page application is such that it allows users to enjoy a seamless experience while browsing through it. But how does it do it?

Here are some ways in which SPAs are believed to be a godsend for those aiming to enhance their user experience.

• It makes interactions more fluid and quicker, eliminating the need to reload the entire page for the slightest request.

• It increases the overall speed of your page as there are no server calls made for each interaction.

• It amplifies the overall performance by not loading every resource and updating only the data required for a specific response.

• It can offer more content to the users in a faster manner once the users have initially loaded the SPA.

By ensuring that only a single page request (initial) is made to the server, and only JSON data is sent on any subsequent request, the load on the server decreases. This makes the application faster to load at each request and offers a seamless experience.

We know that SPAs are easier and quicker to build, considering it allows the reusability of codes. And the biggest hotshots like Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, and more have been using this approach to deliver a better experience for their users. But why should your business also use SPA to enhance the customer experience?

Here are some reasons:

To Enhance Speed: By now, it can be stated that single-page applications are known for their speed. They lower the page load time by a great margin when you compare single-page applications to multi-page applications. Instead of sending HTML documents for each client-side request, SPA sends JSON data that rewrites the page content instead of reloading.

To Enable Offline Loading: SPAs are known for offering better caching of data as the initial page is loaded only once. What happens after that is that only the data is updated. This data allows browsers to show content and load the page even when the user is offline. Not just that, users with slow internet connectivity can seamlessly browse through single-page applications without any inconvenience.

To Provide Better Interaction: It goes without saying that SPAs are better at interacting with users than any other site. Take Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, for that matter. They have one of the best interactions. The instantaneous live changes in the website without any delay due to loading make the interactions more swift and enhanced.

To Ensure Continuous Experience: Continuous experience without any distractions is crucial for simplifying the customer journey. With a single-page application, you have a page where the navigation and other headers, footer, or menus, remain intact. Users never technically leave the same page despite calling different features or functionalities. There is a minimal distraction and ensures a continuous experience.

To Increase Session Time & Reduce Bounce Rate: When there is a minimal distraction in the experience, pages load quickly, and interaction is seamless, users will eventually spend more time on the page. This, in turn, helps in increasing the average session time and reducing the instant exits from the site.

To Offer A Native-like Experience: Getting custom software development for a native app is quite expensive. Businesses that want to offer a native-like experience but without the cost can go for single-page applications. It can offer the same consistent experience across different browsers, operating systems, and even devices with its cross-platform compatibility.

Tips To Win With SPAs

With big names using SPA, the popularity of single-page applications is undisputed today. However, it is crucial that you have a well-executed SPA backed by a well-researched SPA web architecture. But how do you get it right?

Here are a few ways and tips:

• Choosing the right framework for building your single-page application can make all the difference. You need to assess your project requirements, business goals, and other things to determine the framework that would best suit your SPA needs. Meteor, React, Angular, Ember, and Vue are some of the top frameworks with the best features and great support for building SPA in 2022.

• The biggest limitation of single-page applications is that they are harder to rank on search engines. You can win at search engine optimization of your SPA by using server-side rendering. No doubt this slows down your SPA by a slight notch, but it will certainly help your site rank. Moreover, you can choose Angular or Reach for your SPA to build an SEO-friendly single-page application.

• When aiming to enhance the customer experience with your single-page application, make sure that you use prerendering to fetch content as quickly for your SPA.

• Build a SPA development team that has hands-on experience with JavaScript and various JS frameworks. The majority of frameworks on which you can build a single-page application are JS frameworks.

• Build a single-page application when you are working with a small data volume. Transferring a huge volume of content in SPA would make the site lag.

• Make the most of a single URL in SPAs. Linking could be an issue. URL fragments can be designated with # to make it clear to users as they call different states of the site.

Simplify Your Customer Journey With SPA

Simplifying the customer journey is crucial for any business to stand out in the oversaturated market. With a single-page application, businesses can make sure that tier business is quickly accessible to their customers. And it is offering a native-like experience across different devices, operating systems, and browsers.

In a nutshell, you can truly make a difference in your delivered customer experience by using single-page applications. They are quick, interactive, flexible, and cross-platform compatible. Your users can even access your SPA when offline or in slow-internet connection areas.