Pro’s and Con’s of Using WordPress

WordPress is the most popular platform for building websites and powers millions of websites. WordPress is very user friendly, simply put, it makes website building easy. WordPress is great because you can customize with thousands of website templates and design that you can choose from. Each template/design comes with different options for customizing which allows the user to create very unique websites.

From experience working at a wordpress development company, Highlighted in this article are some of the pro’s and con’s of using WordPress.

A few WordPress Pros:

1. User Friendly CMS. WordPress is extremely simple to organize content without having a background in website management. It’s easy to navigate through content and the pages on a WordPress site.

2. Plugins. A major bonus for WordPress is that there are over 50,000 mostly free and paid plugins that are available to users. These plugins help the users customize and enhance any WordPress site.

3. SEO. SEO is now more important than ever so best SEO practices follow suit. WordPress does a good job of promoting best practices and offers a wide variety of plugins to optimize content, keywords, and meta tags.

A few WordPress cons:

1. Vulnerability. One major con for WordPress is that’s it’s extremely vulnerable and easy to hack into. Someone was able to hack into our website that we built on WordPress using our website.wp-admin and logged in. Since it is an open-source platform this makes it attractive to potential hackers.Being an open-source platform, WordPress is attractive to potential hackers.

2. Many Updates. Of course, everyone needs to install updates and its important to your WordPress site’s health. That being said, it can also be annoying because there are constant updates.

3. Customization. If you aren’t a WordPress expert and one didn’t build your website, customization can be an issue and become expensive. Mentioned above with the updates, it can cause some problems on your site if they aren’t fully functional.

With any platform or website builder there will inevitably be pros or cons. Many of the cons listed in this article can be resolved with the right ux design agency or person managing your website.

Looking for more insight on UX services or a wordpress theme development company? Are you wanting to develop an app or website and you need to know more information or need a web development agency chicago based? Visit Codal’s blog, or come talk to us here! We’d love to hear from you.

What Will IoT Be Like in 100 Years

The Internet of Things (IoT) is something more than a hype that will fade away. The IoT has already changed how we work, live, and play! It is being used across all industries; real estate, healthcare, manufacturing, education, and more. According to Statista, by 2025 there will be over 75 billion connected devices, and according to McKinsey, by the same year, IoT could have an annual, global impact of $3.9 trillion.

This is a large impact on society’s economy, and over the next 100 years, we will start to see these changes in action and truly evolve. As a ux ui design company and a IoT mobile app company chicago based, we have to stay on top of trends and statistics within the world of IoT in order to provide our clients with the best business solution possible. Two areas where we can expect to see great changes in IoT are with smart homes and agriculture.

Smart Home
App developers in chicago have seen a major boom in the need for mobile apps where Internet of Things is changing real estate with HVAC systems and smart devices. HVAC systems and smart devices now can respond to the presence/absence of occupants and can adjust air conditioning, heat, and light. When someone lives in the home for a long period of time, the system starts to pick up on usage patterns and find the best way to cut down on energy costs and maximize performance.

For example, having a smart home device such as a wifi enabled water heater gives homeowners the control to choose how long and when the water heater runs during the day. This device provides hot water when it’s needed the most by optimizing water temperatures.
As a home ages, of course maintenance and issues are unavoidable. But, what if homeowners could see these problems and fix them ahead of time? IoT predictive analytics enable homeowners to identify issues and address system failures even before they happen. Through this idea of predictive maintenance, there are sensors and real time energy monitoring that can keep track of any irregularities and have the power to alert you when it’s time for maintenance, when an issue is about to occur, and can predict a maintenance schedule by knowing how much energy has been consumed.

In 100 years, all homes will be smart homes, this will be part of everyone’s daily lives. The technology will of course improve and evolve. This IoT technology will become more mainstream in the future.

Agriculture
IoT livestock management solutions are changing the livestock management paradigm. Livestock wearables are used for monitoring heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature, blood pressure, and even digestion. These monitors also track the location of an animal. This data gathered is sent to the cloud which allows farmers to identify and fix problems in their livestock via user interfaces. As a mobile app design and development and a ux design services agency, we’ve seen the rise of these interfaces and it will continue to grow.

Modern farming involves heavy machinery and equipment to perform a variety of farming operations. The farming sector is continually struggling because of a shortage of skilled workers and also lacks people’s interest in working on a farm. IoT helps farmers in this situation with automated tractors, plows, cultivators and other machinery to meet the need for minimum or almost no human dependency. Just like smart homes, the agriculture industry will continue to advance with technology and you can expect to see many advances in 100 years.

Looking for more insight on UI design services, UX services, or a mobile app design company? Are you wanting to develop an app or website and you need to know more information on how this web development agency chicago based company is? Visit Codal’s blog, or come talk to us here! We’d love to hear from you.

Is the Future of Shopping VR?

Going to a store to shop or even browsing online may soon come to an end. Virtual Reality (VR) technology has the power to transform, and is starting to change consumers shopping experience. Working at an ecommerce mobile app development agency we constantly see new technologies changing the way people shop.

Not only does VR let consumers view products in a unique way, in some cases it takes them to another world. These are some examples of how the future of shopping will be changed and transformed by VR, as well as some of the brands that are already testing the new waters.

Some car companies like Lexus are now allowing customers to use VR to test drive a car around a race track. Instead of sitting in the actual luxury car behind the wheel, VR lets the customer see how fast the car goes, look at the interior/exterior and learn about features. This is a great, convenient way for customers to see new models, test them out, and see what the car has to offer.

Trying on or testing merchandise using VR helps customers see product in context. One area where VR is impacting the eCommerce industry is by helping customers visualize the product their looking at and how much physical space the product will take up. Ecommerce web design in usa like IKEA has a VR app and website that helps shoppers visualize how the furniture would actually look in their living room, bedroom, office, etc. Through this app shoppers can change products, switch colors and sizes, and see how different pieces of furniture will complement each other. Because of this, VR can help consumers in their product searches and speeds up the purchase process.

VR helps customers be able to take creative reign and make custom orders based on their imagination. In past years, creating a custom order used to be a time consuming task. Nike’s Makers’ Experience combines AR, object tracking and AI and IoT as well as digital signage to allow a customized, unique design to appear on a pair of shoes that the customer designed. As soon as an hour later, the customer can even go pick up the finished product and walk away with a totally customizable product.

Lastly, Tommy Hilfiger has recently been making headlines in VR through letting customers experience the high end runway show via virtual reality. Not everyone, barely anyone actually can afford a front row seat to a popular fashion show in real life. Through VR, people have been able to explore backstage, see the models up close. This experience is only available in a few Tommy Hilfiger stores for now, but guests can see clothes virtually on the runway before the hassle of trying them on in a fitting room in real life.

In a few years, AI tech will completely change the way that people shop for specific items (if it hasn’t already). Consumers will virtually be able to “try before they buy” making it easier and more efficient to online shop.

As a ux design company and mobile app development chicago based agency, we have seen many instances of VR and AR coming into play. Virtual reality can be used in so many ways to alter how customers interact with products and brands and its really starting to take off. As technology continues to develop, we’re definitely going to see more and more ways that VR transforms future shopping experiences for consumers.

Looking for more insight on UX design services? Are you wanting to develop an app or website and you need to know more information on how this web development agency chicago based company is? Visit Codal’s blog, or come talk to us here! We’d love to hear from you.

10 Signs You Should Invest in a Mobile App

As a ux design company chicago-based we have seen the use of mobile apps really taking off. It seems as though you can make an app for anything and people will check it out!

If you’re a company and questioning whether or not you should make a mobile app for your business; the pros are infinite.

From a app development agency standpoint, the main reasons companies come to us with the need of a mobile app development are the following:

1. Apps make it so much easier to promote your products or services.
Businesses and companies that have a mobile app will make a better impression on their customers, it makes your business stand out from others, and creates better interest in your products/services.

2. You’re finding that getting to your data takes way too long. Data often loads slowing in older data applications, modern companies need to process data in the fastest way that developing a mobile app would solve.

3. It will build brand recognition.A well-designed mobile app effectively promotes your brand without having to use physical advertisements like signs and billboards. User experience design services offer assistance with helping your brand and the sooner customers recognize your brand, the sooner they will begin to purchase your services/products.

4. Your customer base will grow. After you make your app available on the different app stores and do some online advertising, most likely more people than your regular customers will find out about your product/services. This will increase your sales. Iphone development services have pathed the way for how your app can also work with your social media platforms so your business can reach a larger audience online.

5. It’s a great marketing tool. Digital marketing using your mobile app makes selling products/services much easier; using product descriptions and reviews give an edge to your business.

6. It will help you sell faster. If black friday is coming up and you want to get rid of a lot of your inventory, you can send out coupons via the mobile app to customers. Promotions and sales encourage people to want to shop more and brings more publicity to your business. This goes hand-in-hand with #6.

7. Better conversion rate and better payments. If you want to sell something through a mobile app then you have to have a payment feature on the app for customers. There are so many available options for mobile app payments that include wallets, in-app purchase, PayPal, CC & DC payments etc. These are fast and secure payment options for the customer.

8. It gives your business a better image. Having an app makes any business, small or big stand out to customers while making you look extremely tech-savvy. As a ux design agency we’ve heard so many customers say it’s easier to find details about a business (location, contact, etc.) instead of relying on Google, this is obviously a major plus for any business.

9. Mobile is not the future, its present. The entire world has gone mobile, everywhere you look every person has a phone in their hand and almost 24-7 at that. Whether people are online shopping or looking for a service they use their devices to shop, research, and entertain themselves.

10. Overall better customer service. Good mobile app design and development provides customers will all of the tools to find out about your product/service as well as a quick method of communicating with staff.

Conclusion
In 2019 the mobile app industry is thriving, while this is happening it’s worthwhile for every business to invest in mobile app development. If your business isn’t mobile and not thinking about becoming mobile; you’re already behind your competition.

As an apple and android app design company, Codal has numerous ios development services to offer! Looking for more insight on how app developers in chicago, like Codal, can help you with any of your mobile app needs? Visit Codal’s blog, or come talk to us here! We’d love to hear from you.

Mobile World Congress 2017 is Around the Corner

Mobile World Congress will be back in Barcelona next week, starting on February 27th, running until March 2nd. MWC is the largest gathering in the world for the mobile industry. Last year was a record breaking year for Mobile World Congress. There were over 100,000 attendees, and 2200+ exhibitors across a 98,000 square foot space.

Exhibitors range from mobile app development agencies, to mobile marketing companies, VR and AR companies, as well as smartphone hardware companies. There are companies there for everything-mobile.

Large corporations such as Samsung, Android and Huawei make large announcements and product releases during the extravagant tradeshow. For example, last year Samsung released the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 Edge, while LG released the G5 smartphone.

Although almost every large mobile corporation is present, the conference is also full of smaller, innovative technology companies. The 4YFN hall is stocked with the world’s most upcoming technology startups. Last year we saw a lot of tech around virtual and augmented reality, IoT and robotics.

As a mobile app development company, going to MWC gives us the opportunity to stay on top of the latest trends, and apply the new trends to our current and upcoming projects.

Every year, the Illinois DCEO (Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity) selects a handful of companies from the Chicagoland area to attend and exhibit at the event. For the fourth year in a row, Codal was selected based on the innovative services offered, and the ability to do business with international markets.

Interested in learning more about the conference? Wondering what the cost to build an app is? Schedule a time to chat with us here.

Basics of PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is an open-source DBMS (database management system) developed by volunteers around the world, as it is not controlled by a corporation or private company. The source code of available free of charge, which is one of the many bonuses.

PostgreSQL runs on a range of platforms such as Linux, Moc OS X, UNIX, Solaris, and Windows, and includes programming interfaces for Java, Python, Ruby, C and C++, and Perl.

This open source database has an array of sophisticated and innovative features, some which include:

• MVCC (Multi-Version Concurrency Control)
• Tablespaces
• Asynchronous Replication
• PITR (Point-in-Time Recovery)
• Online Backups
• Tracking for Fault Tolerance

Along with these features, PostgreSQL supports unicode, multibyte and international characters. It is also very scalable in terms of the quantity of data that the database can manage, and the amount of simultaneous users it can shelter.
One of the things that developers, including the developers at Codal love about PostgreSQL is that the source code is available with an open source license. This means that anyone can use the code, modify it and distribute it anyway desired.
If you are looking for the PostgreSQL source code, you can find it here. You can also access the control repository here.

About The Author:
This Article is written by Codal’s Writer. Codal is a full-stack UX design and mobile apps development company with a focus on blending an agile and innovation process with the latest emerging technologies.

The Usability of Post-It’s During the UX Research Phase

As a UX Design and Development Agency, our office walls, whiteboards and desks are consistently filled up with bright and informational post-it’s, not because it’s colorful and cheering, but it is part of our user experience designer’s overall strategy.

In fact, post it notes are a very common tool in the use of UX Designers of all kinds. A UX process is typically to explore and iterate ideas as a team. Post it’s allow a team to collaborate their ideas on paper, seamlessly.

Post it notes can be used in a variety of ways– scenarios and user flows, card sorting, ideation sessions, user testing, and identification of patterns. Yes, this can all be done in a different manner, however the post it notes brings a whole new level of collaboration to the table and allows a great “move-around nature,” letting the whole team critique without damaging any previous work.

“My favorite time to use post it notes are during user research, specifically in the user testing stage. During user testing sessions, the clients and observers write down their observations on a note, then our team organizes the notes on the board to get a larger picture of the main findings of the session. The collaboration between the users, and the UX designer, and even between the UX designers is substantial.”
– – Brienne Moore, UX Researcher, Codal

In the user research phase, the notes can also be used to analyze and visualize the in-depth interviews, after the user testing is completed. After the organization of the research from the interviews and user testing, personas are created to fit the platform.

Codal’s UX team also likes to use post it notes for card sorting exercises, besides just the information on the note, the colors are an additional way to sort through the information.

In ideation sessions for the information architecture stage, designers are able to organize the notes, mix them up and reorganize them in order to see different patterns and insights of IA emerge.

Strategy | User Experience | Development

Laravel 101

Laravel is a PHP web framework that is both free and open-source under MIT License. This framework was built by Taylor Otwell and was intentionally built for the development of web applications that follow the MVC (model-view-controller) pattern. In March 2015, this popular web framework was regarded as one of the most popular PHP frameworks out there. This framework is extremely powerful and is designed to give the developer a way to keep their code looking clean and easy to read and comprehend.

Laravel Features: The following list are some of the top features that are most used and loved within the Laravel community. These features are what makes the framework stand out compared to others:

Bundles: Small packages of features that you can easily add to your web applications, ultimately saving code time.
Reverse Routing: Reverse routing makes it possible to change routes at a later time. URI’s are automatically created by Laravel.
View Composer: View composers are blocks of code that are run when a view is loaded.
Restful Controllers: An elective way for isolating the HTTP GET and POST request logic.
Unit Testing: Laravel makes it easy for developers to create unit test in order to prevent regressions in the framework. Tests can be ran through “artisan command-line utility.”
Inversion of Control (IoC) Containers: IoC Containers gives you a method for generating new objects in which you can access from anywhere in your code. With IoC Containers, you will rarely need to bootstrap external libraries.

Learning Laravel: The best way to start learning Laravel is to visit their website and read their official documentation of the framework, which can be found on their website here. Another way of learning more about Laravel is to read the book ‘From Apprentice to Artisan,’ by Taylor Otwell, the creator of Laravel. It is a great guide to advanced app development using the Laravel framework. If you’re more of a visual learner, you can also watch videos on Laracast– a great video tutorial site for developers.

About The Author:

This Article was written by Codal’s Writer. Codal is a UX design, web and mobile apps development company based out of Chicago.

Millennials and Technology: Adobe Summit 2016

At Adobe Summit in Las Vegas last week, many of the sessions revolved around technology and millennials, and how user experiences and digital marketing are changing because of the habits and ways of the Millennial generation.

Millennial’s possess values that are shaped by what is going on around them, which mostly consists of technology, smartphones, tablets, and laptops. The main sessions on millennials hit on three major points: 1) They are always ‘on’ 2) They want to be hyper engaged with your company’s content, and 3) They demand personalization.

1. They are always “on”
50% of Millennial’s regularly browse the internet with no intention of buying anything. They are ‘liking’ products on Instagram, retweeting an awesome sale they see, and checking out live events on Snapchat. None of these actions are conversions, but these actions make them more brand aware

2. They want to be hyper engaged with your content
Who are the content creators today? Mostly millennials. Content is being created and released so quickly, and millennials are used to that. They want to be engaged with the content that is being delivered to them, instead of just listing to the same 30 second advertisement, over and over again on the radio or television.

3. They demand personalization
Millennials are used to seeing personalized advertisements. They grew up in an era where everything is targeted to them, very specifically. This makes them not only want personalization, but it makes them demand it. If it is not personalized to them, they simply won’t care. Personalization makes them feel like they are more involved with your brand, and not just a customer.

Millennials are making brands change their strategies to reach millennial consumers. For an example, Coca-Cola’s ‘Name’ campaign was a huge success, and why? Because it was all about personalization. Companies must alter their physical products, as well as their mobile apps and websites to fit the needs of Millennials.

Looking for help to make changes to the UX and functionality of your website or mobile app, in order to cater to the needs of Millennials? Contact Codal for help today.www.codal.com

Why WordPress is The King of CMS’s

Cost Effective and Flexible
Since WordPress is open-source, you can download and install it for free, and use it on your own servers. This makes it fairly cost-effective, especially when comparing it to building a custom CMS (that will probably do the same thing as WordPress).

WordPress is also extremely customizable and flexible with what your needs. If you have a need that you don’t have a resource to code, chances are there is a plugin for that feature.

Large WorldWide Community
The WordPress community is massive. At the end of 2014, there were 74,652,825 websites that were depending on WordPress. Since there is such a huge community surrounding WP, finding a WordPress developer or designer to help you update it, back it up, make changes, etc, is never too difficult.

Easy and Simple to Use
You don’t need to be technical to learn how to use WordPress. If you know how to edit a basic Word Document, you can probably figure out how to update the content on your WordPress website. The backend administrator interface on WordPress is visually easy to navigate and very effective. It is organized well and you’ll easily be able to find what you’re looking for. In most cases, not everyone on your team will be technologically-savvy. And iff this is the case in your business, WordPress may be your best option.

As the frontrunner in WordPress development and support, Codal works with a lot of clients that require stable, advanced, and elegant websites. We believe that even the most sophisticated of web presences have to be fully usable by our clients, that’s why our platform of choice is WordPress.

Our WordPress development teams span the globe, and employ the most innovative technologies to recreate the exact vision of the client. This is done through both an agile sprint methodology, and a follow the sun approach, so that development is continuous, and always one step ahead of the client.

WordPress is powerful, but maximizing its potential is not easy. Often, there are too many things relying on the seamlessness and scalability of your web presence to leave it to chance—so rest assured that working with an advanced development partner is often the best move.

Why Your Website Needs a Massive Redesign

You have 10 seconds to leave an impression and tell them what they’ll get out of your website and company.
After these 10 seconds, and oftentimes before, they will leave. Your homepage needs to clearly state what your company does. In most cases the user will not navigate around the website to figure out what product or service they’re selling, they will just leave. Your homepage’s design and content must be strong.

40% of people will leave a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.
And once that page loads, users form an opinion in .05 seconds. That means, you have 3.5 seconds for your user to wait for the page to load and form an opinion. That doesn’t leave much time, so your home page better have a nice design, and your website better have a speedy load time. If it doesn’t, you’ll lose 4 out of 10 of your users.

88% of users are less likely to return if they had a bad user experience.
If a user has trouble navigating your website and cannot find what they are looking for, they will simply leave and find a different website that makes it easy for them to find what they need. Almost every business has many competitors. A bad user experience on your website can mean losing a customer to your direct competitor.

94% of people cited web design as the reason they mistrusted a website.
A good design on your website means a trusted digital experience. When the user trusts your website, they believe that the company is moral, that their product will do what it claims to do, that information will be correct, and that the product or service has quality and value. If the user doesn’t believe any of that, how can you expect them to buy your product or service?

Are your users not converting? Are your sales down? Are your bounce rates high? It is probably your web design.

On the surface- your interface design may appear luxurious and remarkable, but a website is more than just a visual piece to your business. It plays a much bigger role on the marketing and sales side as well. As a UX Design Agency, we understand the value that the design has on your business, and we reflect our knowledge on this while designing the experience for your website.

Statistic Sources: Econsultancy, Kinesis Inc, NN Group, IronPaper

5 Secrets of a Good Client-Developer Relationship

So you’ve got a stellar idea for an app, but you lack the technical skills to build it yourself: what do you do? Well, luckily for you, there are literally thousands of development shops across the world just waiting for your call—but be wary, not all tech agencies are created equal.

Who would have thought that picking a development partner would be the hardest part of building your own app? Sometimes, even after you’ve found a talented agency to work with, it is still difficult to maintain a healthy client-developer relationship.

1. What do you need?
It seems like an obvious question. I need an app, duh. Not so fast, what about features the app’s features? What technologies do you need it to be built with? What standards does it need to support? Unless you know all of this offhand, you ought to dedicate some time to research, lest you be taken advantage of by your tech partner.

2. Choose a partner that knows data.
A good software developer knows their data. Data is a critical component in crafting the perfect solution to a given problem. There are a few data types that a good software developer ought to fluent in: user data, industry data, and various analytics data sets.
Software development companies that know and rely on a number of data types are generally more successful and better equipped to build your app.

3. Know what you’re paying for.
Like any business, software developers need to make money. Naturally, they will charge you more than it actually costs to build an app. That said, it does cost a lot to build an app—you have to pay the developers, the designers, the QA specialists, etc.
Your best weapon when negotiating the cost of building an app is to know how much people usually pay for the features you want, and how much you are being charged specifically for each feature. In other words, demand an hour sheet from your partner.

4. Understand the software development lifecycle (SDLC).
Every company uses a different development lifecycle (ex: agile vs waterfall). Knowing the lifecycle will save you many headaches. It gives you insight into when you ought to be meeting with your partner, when to expect updates, and more.
The SDLC is important because it not only determines when you get your app, but also when you get each feature (if it’s an agile lifecycle). This way, you can use your time to develop your marketing and release strategy instead of constantly following up on the progress of your app.

5. Work with a company that cares about your business.
Perhaps the most important point in this list is to work with a company that cares about your business. You ought to pay attention to a number of things when making your decision about who to work with: culture, client relationship, how much do you trust the company? Who are you meeting with when you meet with the company? CEO? Or low-level staff?

Read up on some reviews beforehand. The company I work for, Codal, has a 4.5 star rating on Clutch.co, for example. As a result, we get many leads every month, because our clients know how important it is that we care.

Challenges of User Experience In The Internet of Things

Connected devices that are integrated with our smartphones are the next big thing, and it’s already beginning to take over. For those who are not familiar, IoT is the network of objects (devices, vehicles, appliances, etc.) that are embedded with technology, enabling them to communicate with each other.

Connectivity
Connectivity issues are one factor that can make a user have a bad experience with IoT. The Internet of Things is essentially nothing without a network connection. Most IoT enables devices today use WiFi, however, it is often when there is a bad connection when you’re trying to use a mobile application, or load a website. If connectivity is poor when a user is trying to get in their home, via an IoT device, that makes for a terrible user experience. One of the main purposes of IoT is to make people’s lives easier, but with a poor connection, this could mean the opposite. It is crucial for user experience designers and software developers to take this into consideration while working with IoT.

App Design
UX Designers need to keep in mind that there are already ‘dumb’ versions of these devices, and that they already have been a part of the user’s life before. So, the main focal point of an application must be the most basic purpose of the device. If the application doesn’t simplify a task, why would they want to use it? This may vary between what types of device it is, for example, a fitness tracker. An application that pairs with a fitness tracker just needs to display data (so designers may be able to have a little more fun with it.) But, an application integrating with a thermostat, needs to be more user-friendly, and give users a seamless experience when trying to change the temperature of the room from their couch. It is very important to partner with the right people when designing an app for IoT

Multiple Interfaces
Another factor that is challenging when it comes to IoT, is that there are multiple interfaces that a user may have to use, to connect with all of their devices. A user may have one mobile app for their smart car, another app for their FitBit, and one more for your smart home. This, could break the experience of IoT. There are few major companies that are currently trying to solve this issue, by creating an open standard where all IoT devices can communicate centrally.

Strategy | User Experience | Development
Mobile Application Development Company

Chicago - The Place to be for Web Development

Although Venture Capital funding is down in the recent years, Illinois still remains one of the highest rate of investments, due to the Chicagoland area. Chicago has accounted for more completed details than any of the states that are right behind Illinois.

A good portion of these deals could be because of 1871 Chicago, a local digital startup incubator, that has probably been one of the most major reasons for this increase in startups. 1871 was recently ranked first in the UBI Global list of top university-affiliated businesses. 1871 got Chicago to start talking about it’s technology scene.

Although 1871 is home to a few hundred tech based startups, 1871 itself is lacking on its technology, which is why Codal is overhauling their website, and building a custom mobile application. The new mobile app and website will help better organize 1871’s internal processes, and improve the communication between mentors, members and visitors. The web portal and mobile app will allow members to schedule mentor meetings, reserve a conference room, pay their membership fees, and view the events calendar. 1871’s members will have everything they need, in the palm of their hand to build a thriving business out of Chicago’s leading incubator.

Codal, based out of River North, Chicago is a user experience design and development agency that has been around for nearly seven years. Some of their services include:

UX Design: Information Architecture, Interaction Design, Graphic/User Interface Design
Application Development: Mobile Development, Full-Stack Web Development, Agile Methodology, Quality Assurance
Technology Strategy: Big Data Organization, Analytics, Technical Architecture, Code Reviews
Dedicated Teams: Onsite Teams, Near Shore Teams, Process Development, Agile Management, Training to Team