Back in early 2000, if I asked you if it’s essential for a business to have a website, you would brush it aside cynically. Cut to present times, you would raise eyebrows and may as well dismiss the idea if you were to engage with a business that operates without a website. We have come a long way since then.
From mundane requirements to the most critical activities, digital technology influences our decisions today. It also shows the remarkable pace of web development over the past decades to accommodate shifting tendencies and business demands. It becomes vital for web developers and businesses, small and big, to know the latest web development trends and leverage them to offer the best-in-class services for their clients and customers.
Why is it essential to keep up with these trends?
Web development is a dynamic world. The success of the web development process depends on the degree to which customer requirements are addressed handsomely through a performant product or solution. What’s new today soon gives way to more innovative technology.
Your website might appear as a speck in the vast sea of more than 1.13 billion websites existing today in 2023! How will your business that hinges on the website performance stand out? The pace of adopting these trends, which we will discuss, determines business success, brand recognition, and customer loyalty.
Let’s take a business example. Imagine you are a software solutions company, and your website development services have no way to include a simple AI chatbot, which the banking client demands. Don’t you think it is a severe business loss?
Similarly, as statistics suggest, a staggering 48% of internet users today judge a business on its web design. In that case, the website elements should include contemporary trends to attract visitors and retain them if it’s eyeing conversions.
Individuals and businesses must have a firm grasp of trends, industry insights, and updates and accordingly fine-tune the website to match these demands. The drift towards remote working, changing customer shopping preferences, and growing dependency on the internet is triggering rapid change and adoption in the web development space.
A closer look into the web development trends
In this article, we bring you the latest trends influencing web development. These web development techniques will guide most of 2023 and the year beyond it. We aim to offer insight into what’s happening inside the industry. Improvements in these technologies will dictate the future of the internet.
Who should know what’s changing? As a business, digital marketer, or anyone interested in web development, this is just the information you should read today. Let’s have a closer look.
1. Responsive site design
There are millions of devices today! How do you ensure your website offers a seamless customer experience, irrespective of the handset used? A smart way is to take a mobile-first modern approach early in development. It’s about designing a website where the pages adapt and respond dynamically to the user’s device or screen- desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
For the web designer, UI interface designer, and the web-developer, it saves tons of time and iterations for each device, short-circuiting development time.
Are you curious to know if your website has a responsive design? Here’s a quick way to check it.
- Open Google Chrome
- Type the website URL you wish to check
- Press Ctrl + Shift + I to open Chrome DevTools
- Press Ctrl + Shift + M to toggle the device toolbar
- You can view how your page looks on different devices.
Also, think about these stats. 60% of global internet users use a mobile device to access the internet (Source-Statista). Half the e-commerce purchases made in the 2022 holiday season were via mobile phone. The world will see an estimated 187.5 million active mobile shoppers in 2024.
These are big numbers and influence custom web design massively. The mobile-first approach is expanding to include precision-based technology like geo-location data to deliver a personalized experience, creative e-commerce web design, and e-commerce apps capable of sifting through massive content and products of all shapes and sizes.
You order your chosen product with a single click. The use of biometric authentications like fingerprint scans and voice recognition is on the rise. And these are just a few of the popular mentions. The drift towards responsive web design will pick up and dictate the future of web development.
2. AI chatbots
Today, if you are having a customer query, an intelligent AI chatbot typing effortlessly at the other end will bail you out. If things don’t work out, a human is always there at the last end of the resolution chain. You aren’t alone. Some 80% of the people have interacted with a chatbot at some point.
From banking, ed-tech, and e-commerce to government portals, web design and development seem incomplete today without AI-enabled chatbots, which are smarter, faster, and always “on.”
Businesses are harnessing the immense possibilities of AI through chatGPT. Funnily, actor Ryan Reynolds recently even composed an ad for his Mint mobile company using the versatile chatbot from OpenAI.
Enterprises are using it for SEO and driving conversions in the e-commerce space. By employing new age pattern recognition capabilities built on machine learning, natural language processing, and a host of information collection tools and techniques, chatbots study consumer behavior to offer better services.
Where can you use these features? Well, to suggest best buying choices in your FAQs, to solve common customer queries, to retain customers, and analyze user behavior to realign business. IBM Watson Assistant, a conversational AI platform for customer care, is easing business needs. Do you know that there are approximately 300,000 chatbots operating on Facebook alone, which allows companies to respond 24*7 and build a customer base?
As more people get used to interaction with chatbots, web development across the spectrum, especially e-commerce website development, will see a greater need to incorporate these AI features in 2023 and beyond.3. Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)
We agree. Progressive Web Apps aren’t new and have been here for quite some time. But the writing on the wall suggests it will continue to dominate web development trends in years to come.
What makes it an attractive choice for businesses? PWA is a website offering all the benefits of an app. Using a single code base and modern APIs, it is readily installable on any device and offers enhanced capability and reliability.
Moreover, users get a smooth web experience even when offline in apps like Google Maps, which trims bounce rates. These aren’t the only incentives. Besides guaranteeing a near-native user experience, it also ensures reduced web development costs. For most end users, it may still appear as a regular web page without compromising on the look and feel.
Uber, Instagram, and Forbes, some of the biggest business names, are leveraging the feature of PWA to drive business. From USD 1.13 Billion in 2019, the global PWA market is expected to grow to an impressive 10.44 billion by 2027.
As we advance into 2023, the web app development market will embrace PWAs in a big way. PWA is a good choice if you are a small and medium-sized enterprise. The surge in mobile users constantly needing a refined user experience will push more companies to tweak their web applications into PWAs.
4. Optimized Voice Search
Next on our list is Voice Search, which is poised to gain momentum as we move ahead. “Hey, Alexa! Play my favorite song”. That’s our obedient virtual assistant making lives easier. Alexa and Siri, intelligent virtual assistants, have become household names, redefining how people interact with technology in their daily lives.
People are using the voice search option for literally everything. E-commerce business owners are integrating voice search into their websites, cashing on the hype. Amazon’s brainchild Alexa is available on 100 million of its own devices and also on third-party device manufacturers. As the trend catches up, other manufacturers offer voice features in their digital products, such as watches, wearables, TVs, and home appliances. Call it ease of technology or simply access to services.
Today more than 71% of people today perform a simple query using voice search than typing it. The other human angle of the massive rise in voice search options is the ease it brings to the disabled community and those with visual impairment- an ennobling aim of technology.
And if these stats are not enough, think about the 8 billion units that will have voice assistants this year alone. So whether it’s about finding weather updates or information on local businesses, voice search dictates consumer behavior. It is here for the long haul. Pay attention to these web development trends to take your business places.
5. Motion UI
The website is the first touch-point in a customer's journey. It can make or break a business if the web design is lackluster. An engaging, intuitive website is a business's fulcrum and can potentially convert casual visitors into buyers.
Motion UI, a front-end framework gaining popularity for its ability to offer fully responsive websites and mobile applications, takes the user experience a notch higher. Motion design is usually accommodated in the UI/UX design stage to add meaning to the user experience.
Motion UI allows the developer to play around with animation and add dynamism to elements. As the interactive elements make the flow between screens seamless, user focus remains undisturbed during transitions while the page loads in the background—the result is smoother, easier, and more engaging navigation.
The subtle use of Motion as a branding tool and longer imprints of visual cues in the customer's mind helps reinforce a specific brand image. Visual storytelling in the digital age delights and engages the user. All this makes Motion design a much-talked-about topic in web design and web development trends in 2023.
6. Augmented reality
Not long ago, Pokémon Go was a rage. Or you would have tried digitally fitting the furniture into your new bedroom before buying. In both cases, you are using augmented reality or simple AR. Primarily used in addition to virtual reality (VR), together, the two are known as Mixed Reality. The AR technology superimposes the digitally generated image in the real-world view of the use, enhancing the user experience.
Conversely, VR takes people from their real world and allows them to fully immerse themselves in a virtual world via a head-mounted display or headset. E-commerce business apps use augmented reality which users install on their mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets, for a better buying experience.
Consumers can make better purchasing decisions more confidently by virtually exploring a product or experience. This will automatically decrease returns, refunds, and customer grievances, boosting the brand image. With AR headsets still not popular, AR functionality in mobile devices will dominate future web development trends.
7. Strengthening cyber-security
Even as our lives and businesses get intricately woven into the web, offering us a wealth of knowledge, business growth, and communication opportunities, it also creates points of vulnerability.
We are talking of cyberattacks that scrape billions of dollars each year. It’s estimated that by 2025, cybercrime will result in losses to the tune of $10.5 trillion every year. Cyber attacks have spiked since the pandemic. The memory of the biggest cyber-attack in 2013, launched on Yahoo, which resulted in a breach of 3 billion accounts, is still fresh. In April 2020, some 500,000 Zoom accounts were sold on the dark web, and still closer in June 2021; hackers stole away personal information, including full names, emails, and phone numbers, of 700 million LinkedIn users.
Also, small businesses are the preferred choice for attacks. As hackers find newer ways to launch sophisticated cyber-attacks aimed at crippling vital services and denting brand reputation, companies are waking up and smelling the coffee. Vast company and customer data repositories must be protected, and enterprises are ramping up investment to fortify themselves.
As the threat perception becomes real, web development agencies worldwide are incorporating safety measures in web design and development to secure businesses, a trend that will continue to see an uptick in 2023 and the coming years.
Final thoughts
Top web development companies are working towards incorporating these trends to remain ahead of the curve and offer the best customer satisfaction. These are not the only web development trends in 2023, but we have picked the most impactful ones as per our research and industry insight.
Most often, web development needs to catch up with the ever-changing trends. But it’s crucial to know which ones are worth pursuing from a development viewpoint. Some of the best web development agencies follow this approach to cater to diverse customer requirements and improve service quality.
Proquantic has long been in the business of churning out top-notch software solutions for businesses across the spectrum. We would happily lend our expertise with the right mix of emerging trends and traditional best practices to improve your business gains. Get in touch for anything you would like to discuss.
