The web development industry is a constantly changing mechanism that adapts to new trends and technologies. Every year, dozens if not hundreds of new trends in website development appear, and each of them brings something new to an already established process.
Keeping up with trends is extremely important because if you ignore them, you risk losing your competitive advantage. In this article, we have collected the most promising web development trends of 2021, so you will be on the cutting edge of technology. Without further ado, let’s get started.
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Trend #1. Progressive Web Apps
Progressive Web Apps, or PWAs, are set to be the most important web development trend in 2021. All thanks to perks that significantly improve Internet surfing for users. The main idea of PWA is to approximate the use of websites to the experience of using native mobile applications. It sounds confusing, but let me explain.
Progressive Web App is basically a website, but it offers various features that are inherent in native mobile applications. These can be push notifications, offline access, and more.
Research from Сomscore shows that mobile devices are largely dominated over desktop devices. In addition, mobile devices account for over 80% of users’ time. Thanks to a set of benefits, PWA can easily fix various problems of regular sites, such as slowness, lack of offline access, and so on.
Trend #2. Accelerated Mobile Pages
We all know that Google loves fast websites and rewards them with higher rankings. In addition, Google actively contributes to improving the user experience of browsing the Internet through mobile devices and introduced the Accelerated Mobile Pages Project back in 2015. And already in 2021, this is one of the main trends in web development.
In simple terms, AMP technology allows websites to load ten times faster. For example, if your site used to load about 22 seconds on a mobile device, after implementing AMP, you can expect to load in just 2 seconds.
Trend #3. Responsive Websites
Despite the fact that responsive design is a fairly old technology, but as the proverb says, “Old but gold.” And it really is since responsive design is still an important trend in web development. The only thing is that before, it was a nice addition to the site, but in 2021 it is already a necessity. This is due to the changed rules of Google indexing, which is now more focused on mobile devices and how sites work on these devices. The better your site is optimized for mobile devices, the higher you will be in the search results.
Trend #4. Voice Search
Voice search has long ceased to be an object of dreams. This function is already being fully implemented in everyday life, making it much easier. According to Gartner’s estimates, the number of voice searches in 2021 will be 30% of the total number of searches. Such a huge amount cannot be ignored in any way. So, you should start to actively optimize your site today and add voice queries to your SEO strategy. Pioneers get the edge.
Trend #5. API-First Development Process
This trend may not be visible to the average user, but it fundamentally changes the usual outdated website development process. Without going into details, API-first development allows you to create flexible websites compatible with other applications. However, why is it better than the usual development method? For example, API-first development is many times faster and less labor-intensive. Besides that, the less time the development takes, the lower cost to build a website will be.
For a clearer picture, let’s take a look at the normal development process:
- R&D team makes a website design.
- Back-end developers create a prototype.
- When a prototype is ready, the Quality Assurance and the front-end team receive access to it.
- When a malfunction is found, or there is a need to add a new feature, the sequence starts again.
Looks tedious, right? Meanwhile, API-first development is a simultaneous process that means that one team doesn’t wait until the other team finishes its work. As a result, development goes much faster. You can see the API-first development scheme in the picture below.
Trend #6. Push Notifications
Push notifications have long been one of the main ways for native applications to interact with the user. Now, this feature is gradually moving into web development and is becoming one of its trends.
The main way to use notices in web development is to deliver various personal messages to the user. For example, it can be a notification about a new blog post to which a user is subscribed or a message about a product that has appeared on sale that the user has followed. A huge plus of such notifications is that these notifications can work without registration, opening new marketing opportunities.
Trend #7. Chatbots
Any business that works with clients needs a well-established support service. And the higher the sphere of influence of your business, the harder and more expensive it is to do this. The difference in time zones and lack of staff can become a serious problem. In such situations, AI chatbots come to the rescue.
This solution allows you to shift some of the routine tasks onto the shoulders of artificial intelligence. For example, it can be answers to frequently asked questions or support ticket processing.
Trend #8. Motion UI
In addition to good functionality, the website should have a great look and feel. The latest web development trend of 2021 – Motion UI can help you with this. This library is full of various tools that are great for creating attractive websites. Smooth animations, interesting transitions, it’s all available out of the box. In addition, this library is compatible with any JavaScript framework.
As you can see, 2021 is full of new web development trends that can make both users’ and developers’ lives much easier. Don’t hesitate and begin to adopt them to not lose the competitive edge and stay ahead of your rivals.
