Change is just a normal part of life. In the tech world, change is very difficult to keep up with. Web developers often find themselves caught between current best practices and integrating new technology in their web projects.
How can you prepare your site for the future and use what’s already working? By staying on top of the web development trends. You can then develop a website that is built for long-term success, not just something that works for the next few months.
Want to know the best web development trends to put to work in your next project? Read on to find out what they are.
1. Design for the User Experience
Too often you’ll see web developers create a website for search engines. They get the technical aspects of the site down, but they don’t remember to consider the most important part of the equation – the user.
When you design for the user, you create a better experience which then turns into brand loyalty, sales and referrals. A poor website experience can spell disaster for your site before it launches.
About 57% of people won’t recommend a business if the site design is poor.
How do you design for the user? Put yourself in their shoes. Understand what they’re looking to accomplish on your site. Design your site in a way that makes it easy to get the information that they need.
Your site should also be mobile friendly and fast. This past Black Friday and Cyber Monday, 68% of online traffic came from mobile devices. They also accounted for $4 billion in sales.
If you really want to target your customers, you can work with a developer who specializes in your industry. This service for contractors is a good example.
2. Don’t Forget About Security
Website security is more important than ever for developers. The average ransomware attack costs companies $5 million.
Cryptomining is also becoming a major security threat for developers along with fileless attacks.
There are a couple of things that you can do to protect your site. The first is to make sure that your software and web platform are always up to date.
The second thing you can do is to restrict access to your site. You can restrict the number of users who have access to the site and ensure that the passwords are secure.
3. Less is More
Do you know what whitespace is? Whitespace is a design term that means unoccupied or empty space. It’s used in design to draw the eye towards a focal point, whether that’s an image or a headline.
For many novice designers, they see whitespace as something that’s bad and needs to be filled up. That can create a chaotic website for users.
You can incorporate whitespace throughout your site. On your home page, you can keep it very simple with an image that indicates what your business is about. You can then invite site users to click through to the next area of your site, like a blog post. Take a look at some of these sites for inspiration.
4. Symmetrical Website Design
Symmetrical website design is an emerging trend as developers get more creative with their sites. In the past, sites were designed using the rule of thirds.
This is a concept borrowed from artists and photographers, where a page would be divided into thirds vertically and horizontally. The main focus of the frame would be off-center.
Web development has evolved from the rule of thirds to the rule of twos. The page is divided in half, making the overall design more symmetrical.
5. Bots and Artificial Intelligence
In a number of the best web development trends, the user is the driving force of change. That includes the use of bots and artificial intelligence in web development.
Consumers expect a lot out of websites these days. They expect to have a good website experience, they want companies to anticipate their needs, and they want 24/7 service.
What that means for developers is that they need to use bots that can answer common questions. That will give customers 24/7 service. AI can be incorporated to give customers an additional level of personalization.
6. Progressive Web Apps
This emerging trend takes the best of a mobile app and website to create a simple and fast website. In a sense, a progressive web app functions like a mobile app that you don’t have to download.
They’re a series of JavaScript files that are stored on your user's browsers. Your site’s users can then access those site files without relying on a data connection.
Google is a big fan of progressive web apps and is encouraging developers to use them on their websites.
They have seen early success, with some sites reporting an increase in time on site, conversion rates, and sales.
7. Interactive Web Design
Remember when Flash was all the rage in website design? It just screams 2009, doesn’t it?
People loved the interaction that you can have with a Flash website. The motion graphics and animation added another element to the design.
The problem with Flash is that it didn’t help with SEO. Google’s bots saw flash animation as a blank page, and developers stopped using it.
One of the top web development trends is Motion UI. It can serve a similar purpose as whitespace. You can use motion UI to direct the user’s attention to a particular part of the page.
You can incorporate Motion UI in your call to action buttons, background animations, or create motion charts to highlight a particular point in a blog post.
Best Web Development Trends for Today and Tomorrow
It’s hard to stay on top of technology trends. The digital world changes so quickly, you could wind up developing a site that’s obsolete within the year.
With the best web development trends, you’re building a site that’s not ready for today’s world, but for the future as well.
The main thing to remember is to always keep your users in mind. When you develop a site that’s fast, secure, and simple to use, you create a better user experience. That will result in brand loyalty and sales.
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