Blog Archives - IGold-Applocks https://goldilocksapproach.com/category/blog/ The best web design school Mon, 29 May 2023 12:07:41 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.0.1 https://goldilocksapproach.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-lbjaavon-32x32.png Blog Archives - IGold-Applocks https://goldilocksapproach.com/category/blog/ 32 32 What Is Staff Augmentation and How Does It Work https://goldilocksapproach.com/what-is-staff-augmentation-and-how-does-it-work/ Mon, 29 May 2023 12:07:37 +0000 https://goldilocksapproach.com/?p=246 In 2021, the global workforce experienced a significant shortage of skilled professionals, reaching a peak of 40 million, with the deficit projected to grow further. Research by Korn Ferry anticipates that by 2030, there could be a scarcity of over 85 million roles, primarily due to the absence of individuals possessing the required skill sets.

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In 2021, the global workforce experienced a significant shortage of skilled professionals, reaching a peak of 40 million, with the deficit projected to grow further. Research by Korn Ferry anticipates that by 2030, there could be a scarcity of over 85 million roles, primarily due to the absence of individuals possessing the required skill sets.

Amid the digital revolution, software developers have become increasingly vital to the job market. The recent pandemic and ensuing lockdowns have intensified our dependence on technology for everyday tasks like online shopping and making reservations, leading to a substantial demand for software engineers who can create tailored software solutions.

Understanding Staff Augmentation

Staff augmentation, a specialized form of outsourcing, enables organizations to enhance their existing team’s capabilities, either permanently or temporarily, by incorporating skilled technology resources. By employing contracted developers or other professionals, your internal team can address any knowledge or skill gaps. It is crucial to evaluate the current team’s competencies and identify any gaps before integrating additional experts.

Assessing In-house Team, Project-Based Outsourcing, and Staff Augmentation

Choosing the initial outsourcing business model is a multifaceted process. This decision entails considering various factors, such as:

Cost implications of software development
Technical expertise and project requirements
Time-to-market speed and project deadlines

Staff Augmentation

Selecting staff augmentation provides improved control over the entire development process and the expanded team. You are accountable for candidate selection, overseeing software development processes, and team management while circumventing administrative and organizational obstacles.

Comparing In-house Team, Project-Based Outsourcing, and Staff Augmentation

Selecting the initial outsourcing business model is a complex process. This decision requires an understanding of various factors, including:

The expense associated with software development.
The technical proficiencies and project necessities.
The speed of time-to-market and project deadlines.

Staff Augmentation

Opting for staff augmentation allows for better control over the entire development process and the extended team. You are responsible for choosing the candidates, directing the software development processes, and leading the team, while also avoiding administrative and organizational challenges.

Project-based Outsourcing

Project-based outsourcing takes care of every aspect of software development, from team organization to process management. There’s no need for internal technical skills or investing time coordinating with a remote development team. However, clients often lack insight into who is working on their project, what the developers are doing, or what decisions are being made during the software development process.

In-house Development Team

Creating an in-house team provides complete control over the project. Typically, an in-house team aligns with your company’s values and is more invested in the project’s success. However, setting up an in-house team demands a substantial investment of time and money. Hiring in-house experts for a single project can pose an unjustifiable risk if the company’s primary focus isn’t technology or software development.

Challenges of Staff Augmentation

Time and Language Differences

Your staff augmentation partner may be located in a different part of the world, which could lead to communication difficulties. Although the language barrier is largely mitigated by the proficiency of most IT professionals in English, time zone differences can still present challenges.

Companies like Orangesoft have developed strategies to address these communication issues, such as strategically placing hubs in Eastern Europe to allow for overlapping office hours, thereby facilitating better communication. This approach has become commonplace among many industry players.

Security Concerns

Staff augmentation involves sharing sensitive information with a third party and integrating them into your internal processes. Customer data, being susceptible to compromise, often takes priority for the security team.

As a software development agency, we regularly perform security audits to identify and mitigate potential threats. At Orangesoft, we adhere to all security protocols and sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to ensure the absolute safety of your data.

Technical Competence and Skills

If your augmented team’s performance falls short of expectations, it’s important to reassess your development team and tech leaders. Typically, vendors don’t assign a project manager, manage the development processes, or take accountability for their staff’s efficiency.

Staff Augmentation at Orangesoft

At Orangesoft, we offer more than just project-based outsourcing services. We offer a full cycle of app development services, in addition to flexible IT staff augmentation services that can be tailored to meet your exact needs. You can choose to engage our IT experts such as software developers, UI/UX designers, quality assurance engineers, project managers, and business analysts. When you choose to augment your team with Orangesoft, you get access to highly skilled tech professionals who will concentrate solely on the product you’re developing.

Our augmentees will become an integral part of your development team, while you manage all the key aspects of the project, like planning, supervision, and other significant activities. As you’ll be the one managing your IT professionals, they’ll feel like they’re an important part of your primary team. If any issue arises that needs your or your augmented team’s attention, an Account Manager will be on hand to ease the discussion process.

The process of staff augmentation with Orangesoft involves the following steps:

Understanding Your Initial Request

Once we receive your request for staff augmentation services, our IT managers and BAs will conduct a detailed analysis. Before you request these services, there are certain key questions you need to consider:

How many professionals of various types do you need for the staff augmentation project?
What’s the required expertise level? Junior, middle, or senior?
When should the necessary professionals start working?
What’s your project’s deadline?
Is it a new or an ongoing project?

To understand your request and create a unique team augmentation plan, our managers will need around sixteen business hours. After that, we’ll schedule a call with you or a member of your team to discuss all the requirements.

Selecting the Right Professionals

After understanding your project’s needs and requirements and signing a non-disclosure agreement, we start the search for professionals with the required skills and expertise. Then, within the next two business days, we’ll provide you with the first set of CVs.

Arranging Technical Interviews

Once you give the green light to the CVs, we arrange interviews with the qualified professionals. Typically, these interviews are two-fold: one with the Chief Technology Officer (CTO), and the other with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or the product owner. Regardless of the number of people you interview for the role, you only pay for those who get hired.

Signing the Agreement

After concluding all the interviews, we sign an agreement and initiate the staff augmentation project. Once everything is vetted and approved, you can incorporate the chosen professionals into your workflows and development processes. Additionally, we assign an Account Manager who will work closely with your engineers and assist you in establishing a productive relationship with your augmented team members.

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Web design trends 2022 https://goldilocksapproach.com/web-design-trends/ Tue, 01 Feb 2022 11:42:00 +0000 https://goldilocksapproach.com/?p=116 It seems that in 2021 web designers have played with maximalism - and now return to a large amount of "air", concise layout and restrained color scheme.

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  • The new minimalism
  • It seems that in 2021 web designers have played with maximalism – and now return to a large amount of “air”, concise layout and restrained color scheme. However, the minimalism of the 2022 sample differs from its predecessors. The monochrome palette has changed to a more colorful palette, and the navigation includes special effects. The goal of the new minimalism is to make the site more interesting without distracting from the essence of the page.

    1. Symmetrical layout.

    Last year’s web design trends passed under the auspices of organized chaos – which was entirely in keeping with the mood in 2021. This year begins with the search for harmony: the balance between text and images and symmetrical grid design.

    The advantage of this layout is that the web designer can control the reader’s visual path through the page, and grab their attention to the important elements of the site.

    1. Serifs and lightness in typography

    Serif fonts are hard to call modern: they are mainly associated with the printed press, official documents and stiff websites of government agencies. But in 2022 designers are finding a way to give the old aesthetic a new look and are using sophisticated versions of fonts such as Times New Roman, Garamond and Georgia for websites.

    1. Earthy and basic shades (and some neon)

    Remember the “nature heals” meme from the beginning of the pandemic? Now a return to the roots has come to web design trends as well. In 2022, natural and basic hues are in vogue, giving the site a more organic look. However, amidst all this muted color palette can be seen and the opposite trend: bright neon accents that are used for menu icons and all kinds of dividing lines.

    1. Photographs of ordinary people.

    Over the past few decades, we’ve gotten pretty tired of models with perfect bodies and photoshopped faces. Throughout the marketing industry, there’s a demand for ordinary people that customers can identify with.

    Of course, this cultural trend has come to web design as well. More and more companies are using photos of people with different skin colors, body types, ages and gender identities on their website. In addition, we are seeing more and more people with disabilities acting as brand ambassadors for fashion brands. We advise to pay attention to this trend if you are going to create a business website: photos of real people will help you establish a closer emotional connection with the client.

    1. 3D elements.

    Remember the crazy 3D gifs from the early 2000s? Last year they came back to web design – only in a much more sophisticated form. Now they’re slowly shifting from maximalism to a new minimalism to add spice and originality to concise and calibrated designs.

    1. the blur effect.

    In 2022 we’re noticing more and more elements with a blur effect – they make the composition more dynamic and add an element of surprise. Blurring is a very useful technique when you want to draw the reader’s attention to a particular element of the site. For greater effectiveness, use contrasting colors so that the blurred element really stands out from the rest of the site.

    1. Smooth gradients.

    Gradient web design has its origins in the aesthetics of the ’90s – and since the ’90s are back in vogue, smooth gradients are returning to the trends with them.

    Gradient backgrounds allow you to enrich your site’s background with a spectrum of colors without distracting from the page content. Wix users can easily add such a background to their site using a handy visual editor.

    1. Unusual interface interactions

    How do you create a site that stands out from the rest? For example, fill it with elements of unusual visual storytelling. One of the most extravagant web design trends in 2022 is the “game of hide-and-seek” with the user: a certain element of the site is hidden until the reader hovering over it. This adds dynamics to the page and keeps the visitor from getting bored – which has a positive effect on conversion.

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    Benefits of working as an online employee https://goldilocksapproach.com/online-employee/ Tue, 19 Jan 2021 11:39:00 +0000 https://goldilocksapproach.com/?p=113 To date, you can find very few companies that do not use the Internet in their activities. Almost all take it into circulation in their daily lives.

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    To date, you can find very few companies that do not use the Internet in their activities. Almost all take it into circulation in their daily lives. Even many people, as independent units, work exclusively through the World Wide Web. With this, less money is spent on equipment and all sorts of consumables; the work becomes effective to the maximum. The positive aspects of such activities are very influential on the whole process, but not every employee of the enterprise can perform its functions in this way, because for the majority still need to watch.

    To have a guarantee of quality executed tasks, as well as their timeliness, it is necessary to conduct special tests or to observe how a person implements the same tasks in the office environment. It’s worth bearing in mind that not every position can be accepted with the help of the web, as, some of them simply can’t be accommodated there. Thanks to the World Wide Web, only specialists with information can cope with their duties.

    So who are these specialists? As an example:
    Web masters. The more the Internet develops, the more in demand such workers become. It is believed that they are the ones who introduced such a concept as “work online”;
    translators;
    designers. Since the most important quality of such a person is creativity, the comfort of the home environment will only contribute to this. Thus, you can save a lot of money and not look for a computer, a separate room, office supplies, water – food;
    programmer. He can easily do all the work without leaving the apartment, and the code will just send it;
    a content manager.

    What is advantageous to cooperate, precisely, in this way:

    Efficiency of tasks;
    You won’t need to spend money for keeping your subordinates;
    The quality of task fulfillment will only be higher;
    The employee will be most comfortable from such a way of doing things, and you will motivate him to work for your company.
    The news confirms the fact that in the future online work will only become more popular.

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    How to become a web designer https://goldilocksapproach.com/how-to-become-a-web-designer/ Tue, 04 Feb 2020 11:35:00 +0000 https://goldilocksapproach.com/?p=110 The profession of web designer is now very much in demand and highly paid. Ordinary websites and mobile applications no longer surprise anyone.

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    The profession of web designer is now very much in demand and highly paid. Ordinary websites and mobile applications no longer surprise anyone. We need effective and usable web resources that would reflect the personality of the company.

    20 years ago nobody bothered with design of web-sites – it works and it works, there is text in a square and that’s enough. Now companies realize that they are losing customers and to keep up with the trend, many involve web designers. They are willing to pay any money to make them a pretty wrapper.

    Much of this world, we choose first of all with our eyes. Similarly, the case with sites. The task of the web designer to make his work was a masterpiece, which wants to touch, from which you can not take your eyes off. By learning to create, the specialist will be rolling like cheese in butter.

    What does a web designer?

    This specialist is responsible for everything related to the design of websites and mobile applications. The main functions of this specialist:

    Creating a concept, an idea.
    Working on the structure, stylistics, UX UI – User-friendliness of the site.
    Interaction with a graphic designer to draw a logo, banners, pictures.
    Creating a layout and transferring it to the layout designer and programmer.
    No one makes block sites anymore, as they do not reflect the essence of the company and visitors do not linger here. Individual style of the project – a guarantee that it will be visited and will attract the maximum number of customers. It will not be enough to take a thematic picture from the Internet. This, of course, also need to be able to, but still a real web designer comes up with something that is not yet on the Internet in a particular niche / country / world.

    Web designer works closely with the layout designer of the site and after creating a prototype (draft) is applied. Web designer prepares a layout for the layout designer. In this layout designer has all the necessary elements of the site, he chooses what shape they should be, with or without rounding, adds the desired color, insert pictures, logo, banner (they are drawn already graphic designer).

    Web-designer should know UX UI – know how to pick the right colors, place the right triggers (calls to action), at most make the site easy for the user. For example, many people associate red with a ban / cancellation, and made a button “buy” in this color, the site risks daily shortfall in customers. All this seems ridiculous, but at a subconscious level, most will not make a purchase with a button of this color. There may be many such nuances, and all this should work through web-designer.

    Should a web-designer be able to draw?
    In general, it makes no difference can you draw or not. Web designer must have a good imagination and aesthetic taste and only. As for drawing, this skill is desirable to have a graphic designer – this specialist draws all kinds of pictures, logos, banners with Photoshop, Illustratot and other tools. A web designer can only set the concept of these images, sketch a draft. If you like to draw more, we advise training in graphic design.

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