Each year web development trends change, dictating new directions for business owners and web developers. The implementation of progressive web applications, Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things isn’t new for large companies such as Google, Amazon, or Forbes. To stay on the same level with such giants, it’s crucial for all businesses to analyze tendencies across industries and not to ignore the changes technology brings to web development.
Either your business is aimed at e-commerce, digital marketing or technology inventions, you should be aware of these top web development trends for 2021.
Progressive web applications bring a range of striking advantages: they can operate offline, send push notifications, create a user experience similar to native apps at the same time being much lighter and faster to download. The development process is also less challenging in comparison with native applications. PWA developers monitor only one codebase. Once the app is ready, you just upload it to the server without buying a license for the app stores.
A big number of outstanding companies, including Pinterest, Forbes, Starbucks and The Washington Post have built PWAs to provide responsive performance for their customers. Pinterest, for instance, reports that they experienced a 44% increase in ad revenue rate and their users spend 40% more time on their PWA compared to a mobile website.
Processing large amounts of customers’ data, AI enables a great level of personalization, showing the customers only the information that is interesting and relevant for them. It utilizes customers’ previous purchases, history of searches, top category pages, number of visits to the website, and more. With every visit, AI platforms collect more and more data about individual customers that enables this smart technology to make more accurate and relevant recommendations.
Through statistical and cognitive analysis the websites receive the capability to process information on any scale to find out customers’ requirements and serve their interests in a proper way. The technology is also reshaping web development by offering chatbots, ADI technology, and voice-based interactions.
The Internet of Things can be best defined as the interconnectivity of computer devices in everyday objects via the Internet. It’s estimated that by 2025, there will be 64 billion IoT devices worldwide, while in 2018 there were only 10 billion.
The Internet of Things deals with massive amounts of data that is collected from sensors, processed, and transferred through cloud networks which makes any delays in the system impossible. The technology assures high security of all data-connected processes, accurate results, and building a dynamic and interactive UI experience. Smart watches, personal assistants, chatbots integration in websites, computing devices with small displays, and predictive support on mobile platforms are just a few of the essential factors that IoT implements into web development. The role of the Internet of Things is growing continuously, and business owners are going to increasingly feel the need to deliver explicit web results with the help of the technology in 2021.
In the past few years, we have experienced a big increase in chatbots integration into websites. And the demand for automated communication solutions is predicted to rise even more during the next year. Integrated with machine learning algorithms, chatbots respond to the queries provided by users without any need for human assistance. They are able to provide smart solutions to some common queries themselves, and later pass on the issue to a higher authority if needed. This technology saves a big amount of costs for businesses replacing a number of customer service professionals and speeds up the problem-solving process. One of the brightest examples that combines intelligent NLP systems with machine learning technology to guarantee users quick and accurate experience is MedWhat. The bot is aimed at making medical diagnoses quicker, easier and more transparent for patients and physicians, preventing them from misdiagnosing themselves with life-threatening illnesses on medical websites.
The voice search technology is also gaining popularity day by day. TechCrunch reports that 66,4 million Americans own a smart speaker. Instead of spending time pressing buttons and typing, users can just speak, and the results of the search are immediately displayed on their screens. User experience is improved by making search engines faster, more convenient, and proving more accurate results. Almost a third of 3,5 billion searches performed daily on Google are voice searches. But not only the users benefit from the technology. If your website content is properly optimized, you could be the first company that Alexa or Siri come up with during users’ voice search.
According to the Google-released algorithm update “Florida”, integrated websites are predicted to rank higher than those not using voice technology. So, businesses should definitely pay attention to this trend while considering web development in 2021.
A lot of worldwide known companies as Uber, Facebook and Google have already started using single-page applications. A SPA or a single-page application is an app that works inside a browser and does not require page reloading while being used. One of the main advantages of single-page applications is their UX which provides the user with a maximally natural environment. Unlike in case with traditional web apps, there is no need to wait for the page reload as SPA loads a page only at the first request. The content changes but the page remains the same. It allows a user to enjoy easy and uninterrupted scrolling. Single page applications can also effectively cache any local data, therefore they are more convenient if a user has poor internet connection — the data gets synchronized with the server as soon as the internet appears. The top-rated SPA frameworks are React.js, Angular.js, Vue.js, Meteor, and Backbone.js.
A single-page website is a website that contains one page without any additional pages like Services or About. The content is fully loaded on the initial page which is navigated by links that allow the users to check different information on the page. Such websites are neat and comprehensive and largely contribute to an intuitive user journey.
By condensing the most important information into a well-structured single-page website, it’s much easier to retain the attention of visitors and control the order in which they consume the information in comparison to multi-page sites. What is more, the design and development of such sites require less time and money and is easier to optimize for mobile devices.
AMP is a project designed by Twitter and Google aimed at developing really fast mobile pages. It’s a type of open-source library for creating websites, web pages, and web apps with a so-called “diet” HTML that makes it super lightweight and fast loading. Accelerated mobile pages are extremely useful for e-commerce websites, as they help to sell more in comparison with non-AMP pages because of the main simple reason — most people can’t stand waiting. The study shows that even a 1-second delay in the speed of a web page can reduce conversion by 7%.
News websites like The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Washington Post were among the first to jump into AMP carriage as soon as they realized the magnified visibility in mobile news carousels. What is more, news websites that adopted AMP are rewarded with publisher carousels in mobile search engine result pages. They get an entire carousel of news in case they have a number of articles on a certain topic. Though AMP has proven to be a successful standard not only for news websites but also for lead gen and e-commerce websites that also benefit from its search engine rankings and improves the website speed.
The application programming interface is a software intermediary that enables communication among different software. API is widely compared with a waiter who takes our order to the kitchen and then brings us a meal that we ordered. In the same way, API takes our requests to a system and returns a response back to us through seamless connectivity.
API-first design brings a number of benefits for web development. It allows to recycle the code between the projects, therefore comes at lower development costs; increases speed to market as there is no need to redesign API architecture to add new features and possess a high level of stability. In simple words, API gives startups a chance to benefit from the technologies that would be too big-budget for them to develop.
Take the example of Twitter or Google Maps. Websites can use their API to display tweets or maps correspondingly. In return, both sides take advantage of this: Twitter receives more traffic as the users click on the tweets and get redirected to it, and websites that buy API from Google Maps, save a big amount of money and time not drawing a map and adding routing functionality themselves.
Animations, transitions, and graphics are extremely useful for developing attractive web pages, apps, and sites. Motion UI is one of the latest front-end technologies used to liven up the web interface. It’s a library with a big number of attractive animations that also allows developers to play them around and create new ones. The technology is especially helpful for increasing user engagement which leads to a great user experience and increases the time spent on your website.
The Google Translate team has been working on the minimization of gender bias for gender-neutral words and phrases. The team designed simple animations to focus the user’s attention on one piece of information at a time. As long as a user is typing, the text field remains compressed but when they finish — the box automatically expands to show you masculine and feminine translations.
Now, it’s time to realize that technology has redefined web development in the terms we used to know. Under the circumstances of the 2020 pandemic, the majority of businesses have learned how to operate remotely using all the advantages the latest web development trends offer. We hope that the tendency for rapid development and positive changes in 2021 will touch not only the technology sphere but also every aspect of people’s lives. In case, you still don’t have a website, web page, or a web app, or are looking forward to implementing one of the trends in web technology, don’t hesitate to contact inVerita.