One of the pioneers of the early internet world was the Mosaic browser. With it came the dawn of web interface. Since then, internet technology has flourished through at least two major economic bubble bursts, one in 2001 and the other in 2008.It is important that every business house and web developer know about the latest web development trends. Subsequent changes in the industry led to the birth of the mobile operating system. With it, the web page has gradually changed the shape to accommodate numerous new contexts.
We have come far beyond the horizon from static greyscale webpages to Javascript heavy magnanimously interactive website pages. It doesn’t matter if you have been actively involved in the world of digital disruption or not. Each one of us has experienced the transformation over the years consciously or subconsciously. We have been a part of this change willingly or unwillingly.
Before we could even realise, we adapted to change. From static pages to script heavy interactive pages, we gulped the change better than we’d know. There was no conscious effort needed to get accustomed to the changes that have happened over the years.
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In the last few years, the world of technology experienced changes at an exponential rate. Forget annual changes, we see state-of-the-art trends and contemporary modern solutions emerging every few months.
Carrying the legacy forward, we will be seeing more such web development trends and updates in web development in the coming years. Before you go ahead and hire web developer to start building a brand new website, look at some of the upcoming web development trends.
Latest Web Development Trends and Technologies
1. Mobile-First
Last year in 2020, Google rolled out mobile-first indexing. This move came in as a part of prioritizing content and links from mobile website pages. We can expect this change to be carried over to 2021. This will also require web designers to give priority to the mobile version of websites.
According to stats, more than 50% of global website traffic comes from mobile devices. This implies that SEO will not be the only factor which will dictate the priority of web design. Insightful visual effects and search experience for mobile users will be given priority.
2. Animated GIFs
When it comes to consumer experience and customer satisfaction, businesses today need to understand the importance of instant gratification. Customers instantly want what they are looking for and do not have the patience to wait. This gives business owners a small window of time to capture their attention and provide them with what they’re looking for.
To gratify this idea, animated GIFs are the best bet one can place. GIFs can convey complex ideas in a short period of time while being engaging and entertaining at the same time. These GIFs work seamlessly on most browsers and mobile devices, making them accessible to everyone.
In the coming years, we will see an increased use of GIFs in websites in order to explain products & services.
3. Push Notifications
Website owners have realised the use of push notifications and are encouraging their visitors to take an action. Traditional push notifications have helped websites to gain momentum and have proven as a pathbreaking component over the years. Push notifications today are worthy enough to replace the traditional email newsletters.
Push notifications to notify suggest users with new content, offers and promotions. This is going to be a trending feature web development as most of the websites will be looking to use it.
4. Typography Experimentation
Business owners and individuals have been experimenting to establish new fonts. Also, illustrations and animations are being added along with adaptability, various trends of website designing curbed to neglect the typography clearly.
5. Progressive Web Apps
Progressive web apps or PWAs have been around for a good number of years and have acquired immense popularity owing to the user behaviour study. Web development has shifted its focus towards a particular direction in a forward sense. Progressive web applications are traditionally based on CSS, JavaScript, and HTML. PWAs are designed to ease the overall interaction of the website users with the website. This has helped push the loyalty and conversion of customers in an upward direction.
PWAs provide complete adaptability to a plethora of smart devices, native user experience as well as autonomy; even where the applications are updated independently. These innovative web apps provide complete security through HTTPS as well as through automatic updates. These are provided via Service Worker API. These web apps don’t need any sort of installation. In order to stay ahead in the market competition and meet with the latest trends, partner with a web application development company.
6. Single Page Application
Single Page Applications is also known as a SPA. It offers an opportunity to the enterprises to launch their full website in a single HTML page. This technology ensures to improve the user experience by providing high performance, easy navigation, and they don’t have to interact with multiple pages or components.
Reasons to opt for the Single Page Applications
- The primary reason to opt for the Single Page Application is that it supports offline mode. Users can leverage this technology when they have lost Internet connectivity also.
- It is based on faster, responsive, and interactive UI based functionalities.
- SPA users don’t have to face hassle to reload the different pages.
- When it comes to the development process, Single Page Applications supports multiple and powerful frameworks such as Angular.JS, React, and MeteorJs.
- These types of solutions are easy to maintain as developers have to only work on the single page based development process. For them to focus on multiple pages can be turned as a complex process.
Undoubtedly, Single page applications have gained immense popularity and turned into a trend of the web development industry.
7. No-code and low-code
No code and low code reduces the coding complexity and helps to save both times as well as efforts of the developers. This is the modern approach to the development process. It ensures to overcome the traditional programming challenges.
How does No-Code and Low code modules work?
- It supports direct integrations as well as low code API accessibility.
- Allow developers to leverage the drag and drop functionality to integrate different workflow processes without any hassle.
- No and low code module also offers workflow testing/prototyping facilities to the web developers, which significantly accelerate the speed of the development process by eliminating the requirement of a large number of edits.
8. Voice Commerce
The high usage of voice recognition devices has turned into a game-changer for the web industry. Voice search empowers users to communicate faster as well as reduces time and exertion. They don’t have to put extensive effort into the typing process and also offer better results by excluding the human-based spell and grammatical errors.
Presently, voice-enabled devices have created a high buzz in the E-commerce industry. It is expected that in the coming years, Voice search will turn into a must-have feature in the websites. With voice command feature integration, business owners can enhance the user experience as well as ranking on the search engines.
9. Dark Theme UI
Dark theme is the new trend, which has witnessed in the website development. Undoubtedly, it has attracted the high attention of the users and developers. The dark theme ensures to reduce excessive digital strains. It helps users to save batteries, enhance visibility, and less energy consumption. This theme delivers an innovative and stylish touch to the websites. According to the Dzone, Biggest giants like WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Android, Apple, YouTube, Reddit, etc., have already jumped on the bandwagon.
10. 3D Visuals
3D animated visuals always attract users towards them. In the present days, it has turned into an important part of the designing. With the integration of 3D visualization services, designers are able to provide a unique user experience to customers and offer a next-generation approach to interact with the interface. In the past years, to integrate these attributes in the design was very expensive but now with AR and VR, it is making its way towards the mainstream. Undoubtedly, it has become an emerging technology of web development.
11. Cloud computing
Cloud computing is another feature that is booming in the industry. It helps programmers to manage data in an accurate manner. According to Gartner, The worldwide public cloud services market is forecast to grow 6.3% in 2020 to total $257.9 billion, up from $242.7 billion in 2021. Undoubtedly, it prevents data loss and overloading.
12. Artificial Intelligence
If you ever read or write about any list that mentions ‘upcoming’ or ‘future’, Artificial Intelligence will be there by default. The list is incomplete without mentioning AI. Today, it is one of the hottest technologies and is used as a core component in almost every digital transformation strategy. Enterprises are increasingly are implementing AI to automate their business processes, reduce costs and accelerate time to market.
Research predicts that Artificial Intelligence-derived business value will total $3.9 trillion by 2022.
In 2021, AI will play a major role, with significant focus in web development arena like never before. Companies will leverage the power of AI in web development to improve productivity and customer satisfaction.
13. Machine Learning
Machine Learning or shortly known as ML, is the next big thing after AI. Aided with artificial intelligence, more and more companies are inclined towards using chatbots or conversational bots on their website.
Thanks to the huge advancements in artificial intelligence and the capabilities of bots, chatting with bots has become common.
Companies are experiencing the benefits that these bots bring to their organization including like greater convenience by giving users instant responses, improved efficiency by allowing for easier and time-saving transitions between different cases.
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The Infographic Highlights Latest Web Development & Design Trends
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Conclusion
One crucial aspect which is inevitable but most businesses neglect is that of testing. New and updated features need constant testing. These features, if not handled correctly, can easily frustrate your customers and never bring them back again to your website. In order to provide a seamless experience, make sure you test them before onboarding; hire Qa engineer or make use of online testing tools if need be.
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