5 Essential Web Development Trends You Want to Follow
Web development is constantly in flux, with new trends emerging all the time. Developers are forced to reappraise their old ways of working and change to accommodate new usability standards and improvements in performance. This continual change is expressed with some great results.
Let’s take a look at some of the more recent web developments:
1. JavaScript
JavaScript, the go-to programming language, remains a key player providing back to front-end processes. It’s flexibility is key and the latest development following on from Angular is the lightweight (30kb) Vue.js. Utilizing HTML, it is dynamic, has fast reactions to code change and is a fantastic tool for reactive programming. JavaScript’s excellent web components: Templates, imports, custom elements and Shadow DOM components are all easy to integrate across all JavaScript-based web frameworks.
If your company is using any JavaScript framework it is well worth looking at Vue.js. It takes a day to master and because it is a lot easier to use than other JavaScript frameworks it will increase productivity by reducing coding time.
2. Mobile Usability
Mobile usability has become increasingly important and is now an essential — if your app is not mobile-friendly the business stands to lose around half of its target audience.
User demand for high mobile usability is at an all time high and the technology has kept apace with new mobile devices hitting the shelves forcing evolutionary changes to web apps, necessitating developers to respond to the challenges their bring.
Mobile apps are more discoverable in search engines but installable apps have the edge when it comes to user engagement and retention. It is a good strategy to use and promote both by enabling the web app to be installed on a mobile device by adding it to the home screen.
3. Single-Page Web Apps
Single-page apps give enhanced mobile usability. Having all the information on a single page means a user can simply swipe leading to greater engagement. On the flip side, there are greater SEO benefits to be gained from a multi-page web app. Single web pages are a real SEO challenge so an organization should consider how essential this is to their company. Adjusting a single-page app with rendering server side can alleviate some of the issue.
4. Progressive Web Apps
Progressive web apps have been around since 2015 but are gaining popularity as developers embrace their performance-enhancing potential. The main draw for users is their availability offline. Using HTTP/2 protocol these apps enable rapid data exchange offering consumers a fast, stable experience with push notifications tailored to their own interests.
5. AI-Based Chatbots
Chatbots are increasingly seen on business websites and provide a quick way for customers to interact with a company. Bots reduce labour costs by being available 24/7 and in addition they can help reduce stress and fatigue among customer service workers by removing the needs to give elaborate answers to constantly recurring questions. Chatbots are a good first responder but cannot understand context or account for spelling or grammatical errors so a need for human customer service operative still remains, however, they can be focussed on answering the more complex enquiries that the AI bot cannot cope with.
Web development is rapidly changing and can seem confusing but there are always logical reasons for new trends; keeping updated can help you predict what is likely to come next. All of the technologies mentioned are likely to continue development, leading to greater benefits for businesses and their customers.
