An app stack is a suite or group of related applications that help in performing a certain task. The applications are linked together so that data can easily be exported or imported among them. It, therefore, helps to ease workflow and management of task since you can place your favorite lab applications like spreadsheets, word processing, email utilities and databases among others in one app stack.
It is a new way of interacting with important applications that you use every day in your lab in a simple, smart and user-friendly manner. When you bring all your important applications into a single interface, you can switch seamlessly from one to the next without having to leave.
While app tech is making everything simple, the problem comes when choosing the right application stack for your lab.
The following are considerations that you should make when choosing one:
The nature of your lab/project
Laboratories are many and diverse, and no single tech solution is a fit for all. The size of your lab also matters a lot when it comes to developing an app stack because small, simple labs will require simple tech app stacks that can be delivered within the shortest time possible compared to mid-range and complex projects.
Sometimes, all you need is just buying existing software that is tailored to your kind of lab or project. For instance, you can visit a site to buy lab animal management software or any other software that you might need for your specific lab tasks.
Simplicity
Simplicity is the key to success in any application development although it is always very difficult to achieve. A simple app stack is easy to use by everyone in your lab, and this is necessary if you want to bring your staff easily onboard. The visual appearance of your user interface is the first point of judgment. However, simplicity is not only about choosing the color palette, font size and navigation placement but also in the UI and UX design.
Productivity
It is important for your lab team to adjust to your new tech solution easily and not take a long time to learn and use it efficiently. For instance, when you are changing from excel to these spreadsheets, you will not experience many problems when adjusting to it, unlike other complicated tech. The only impact that this will have on your productivity and that of your team is to increase it and not the other way round. It is therefore good to choose an app stack that will easily gain community support, maturity, and stability.
Scalability
Scalability is the ability of your application to handle work especially when the number of users or amount of work spikes whether seasonally or permanently. When choosing an app stack for your lab, you should consider the future growth of your lab in terms of programs that you might need to handle more data or increase in the number of users or traffic.
Maintainability
What is the ease of maintaining the lab app stack that you are about to choose? This depends on the nature of codebase, the language that it uses and the basic software architecture. Choose an app stack that is easy to maintain even when scaled as a result of more users or features.
Other considerations to make when choosing an app stack include the time to market as well as the overall cost of development. There are a number of popular app stacks that you can choose from, but you need to consider their features and then match them to your needs.
