What makes a great user experience in gambling and in general? The smoothness of interaction with whatever it is. If we talk about online experience, everything must load fast and require only the minimum of clicks to do the necessary action. In the old days of web development the tools for creating web pages were very limited. If we talk about online casinos, smooth user experience motivates users to stay longer and play more. Anyway, this can be said about any other type of site, but for online casinos it’s especially important. Nowadays, the whole casino site can be developed in the form of a single page. That’s called the single page application (SPA).
What is a SPA
A single page application is a web application or web site, that fits on a single web page with dynamic actions without refreshing the page. It interacts with the user and rewrites the current page dynamically, not requesting anything from a server. This way it acts more like the desktop application - users don’t get interrupted between successive pages, they don’t have to wait, and it makes them like the site more. In a single page application, all necessary code, written in HTML, javascript, or CSS, is received with a single page load. You are using this type of application every day. For example, Gmail, Google Maps, Facebook, Trello or Slack. Alternatively, all necessary pieces are dynamically loaded to be added to the page, in response to actions of users. Scripts allow to imitate the natural environment in the browser, that doesn’t require extra wait time. The page loads the scripts and the scripts afterwards load all other content. In case of a gambling site, these additional pieces are the additional games. Anyway, the interaction with the web server always happens behind the scenes, without the user noticing. Also, a single page application, or even a multitude of them, can be included within a larger traditional web application.
SPAs are all about serving an outstanding UX, trying to imitate a “natural” environment in the browser — no page reloads, no extra wait time. It is just one web page that you visit which then loads all other content using JavaScript — which they heavily depend on.
Single page can interact with users without using server side. It can improve user experience in several ways, it has faster loading time, easy navigation. The AJAX technology allows creating pages with content filters and complex yet simple navigation. The most popular AJAX frameworks, which are used in most single page casinos are AngularJS, Ember.js, Meteor.js, Knockout.js. AJAX allows requesting the markup and data independently and renders pages straight in the browser. That allows keeping the user in one comfortable place, where the user receives all the content they need.
On the other hand, multiple page applications work in a “traditional” way. Every change eg. display the data or submit data back to server requests rendering a new page from the server in the browser. These applications are large, bigger than SPAs because they need to be. Due to the amount of content, these applications have many levels of UI. Luckily, it’s not a problem anymore. Thanks to AJAX, we don’t have to worry that big and complex applications have to transfer a lot of data between server and browser. That solution improves and it allows refreshing only particular parts of the application. On the other hand, it adds more complexity and it is more difficult to develop than a single-page application.
Slowly, single page apps replace the old desktop applications, because they are easily accessed and are more convenient, do not require installation. Of course, the mobile devices, and mobile applications begin to dominate the market, but the amount of single page applications is still growing. Why? Here is the list of their pros and cons.
Pros
- SPAs are good for making responsive websites, which support mobile, tablet and desktop resolutions.
- They allow creating the complex scenarios of interaction with users.
- No extra requests to the server, so the server load is definitely lesser in SPA case
- Allows to create user friendly applications
- Improvement of performance. Single page applications require all HTML, CSS and JS scripts to be loaded only once.
Cons:
- Users must allow the execution of javascript applications in their browsers, so if it’s disallowed, an user won’t see the app. At the same time, in all modern browsers javascript is enabled by default.
- Single page applications are less secure compared to regular pages due to cross-site scripting (XSS).
- Memory leaks in javascript can cause the most powerful systems to slow down. This can happen even with the small scripts in casino games.
- It’s hard to optimize it for search engines, because they require multiple pages to be indexed in order to appear in search results.
The examples of successful SPA sites
winkslot.com
Winkslot is a popular casino based on SPA technology. All games can be accessed without loading additional pages. It offers a long list of games, including blackjack, roulette, poker, slots, and a set of more casual games. Also, Winkslot has a wide selection of scratch cards available. The interface is very user-friendly and fast. The casino requires a registration to play, and it’s available in most countries. Every player gets 30 free spins after registration. The casino also offers a lot of promotions and special events - its players get rewarded during daily challenges just for playing.
Considering its technology, it’s a complex site, because work really fast, which means its code is well-optimized. Transition between games is nearly instant, and players have a feeling that they interact with a desktop application.
casinoeuro.com
Another mostly one-page casino. It pays a jackpot of 6,000 euro daily, and features a multitude of gambling games, including various slots games, reels, poker, blackjack and roulette games. After registration, users can add all games to their favourites, and access them even faster. The casino doubles the first deposit of every player, allowing to win twice as much. For example, if you deposit 300 euros, you receive 600 euros, if you deposit 3,000 euros, you get 6,000. That’s pretty convenient, if you want to try your luck and win money fast.
leovegas.com
The third casino of our choice. It has the same set of games, as the previous two, such as regular slot, blackjack and poker games, but in addition, it offers an interesting mechanic, accumulators, allowing to receive more rewards for winning. Also this casino has personalised offers, offer cards and many more prizes for its players. On this site, some pages work as single page applications, and some work as regular pages with redirects.
Conclusion
Overall, the single page application technology is becoming more popular with the development of the new framework, new browsers and the increase in power of the regular home computer. All web sites can be improved by switching to this technology, especially casinos, those profits heavily depend on user engagement. In the future, in addition to the dominance of mobile applications, we’ll also see many more single page applications in our daily life.
The author is not associated with any of the projects mentioned.