Technology trends to watch as Front-End Developer in 2024 🚀

Photo by Tom Dahm on Unsplash

Yes, AI is one of them.

TL;DR:

Buckle up because it’s 2024 and we’re embarked on a wild ride through the tech wonderland! AI wizards conjuring digital magic 🔮, Web3 whispering tales of decentralization 🧚‍♀️, and Elon Musk soaring on his visionary escapades 🚀. With React, Next.js, and a sprinkle of TypeScript, we’ll craft digital dreams that defy gravity 🌝. So, grab your virtual reality goggles, because in this playground, software development isn’t just rocket science — it’s the rocket itself! ;)

1. Setting sail with AI

AI-algorythms are enhancing user experiences, optimizing performance and unlocking new realms of creativity.

We have seen ChatGPT as the harbinger of a burgeoning wave of AI integrations within various systems. Now, developers have a plethora of sophisticated options like Gemini, the anything-to-anything (multimodal) model reasoning, unblocking the possibility of a hybrid human-computer collaboration.

While ChatGPT has marked the inception of AI-driven solutions, we have now unblocked possibilities and powerful resources to integrate into our solutions to enhance user experiences, optimizing workflows by including AI models into web applications without relying on server-side processing.

Experiences that we will continue seeing:

1. Digital humans (virtual assistants, virtual agents) that sound and feel as natural
2. Personalized content and search results
3. Sentiment Analysis

AI is now allowing those who had never programmed to be able to create workable code, but all of us who have been legitimately doing so as of today can extend our own capacities by integrating it into our work either by partnering with these tools to get things done quicker like Copilot or to build our own solutions through the language that still moves the internet, JS.

Tools: Copilot , Tensorflow.js, Dialogflow

2. Anchoring in Web3 Waters

Dominant internet platforms, the giants of our internet age, are built by aggregating users and user data, and as these giants have grown, the more their ability to provide value. For example, Meta and Amazon, fine-tune their algorithms to master ad targeting and optimize delivery logistics respectively. In this context, users and their data are the key to gain this competitive advantage, as result, making it difficult for users to carry their own data and leave.

But there are blue oceans still to deep dive, and that is decentralized protocols (blockchain), that change the way data is stored so users are empowered to take their data from one platform to another… if they wish.

This creates a new paradigm so companies can compete for a better user experience.

What’s in it for us, the FEDs? Right, you can integrate blockchain networks in your Front-End code that will allow your user to have a better experience, more secure and trustworthy.

Tools: web3.js, LooksRare, Truffle Suite

3. Augmented Realities on the Horizon

Technology at times, might take some time to take off despite their obvious potential. Augmented Reality (AR) is one example.

More than 10 years ago, with the release of Google Glasses, AR captured prominence and people’s imagination… Were we on our own Black Mirror episode?

Perhaps we’ve been on it for a long time, since the invention of computers and the Internet we’ve seen the demise physical locations.

Google Glasses. Image: Tech Crunch

…And although we’re humans and we naturally look for a personal connection, the pandemic made us more selective on the physical experiences we’re willing to engage with, and companies perceive that and see the value it sums to test services and products in the AR world before they’re materialized.

Nothing compares with the social and multi-sensorial experience of a concert… While nothing compares with the ease to visit museums virtually from the comfort of your sofa…until you decide which one you want to visit in person.✈️

AR/VR/MR/XR can’t beat Sir Paul McCartney being Sir Paul McCartney live from Foro Sol, Mexico City.

Amazing pieces of art that you can visit from the comfort of your sofa. Images: Google Arts and Culture.

Museums are one of the places that include most AR in their experiences.

Through AR, organizations have the unprecedented ability to see how something is performing right now and simulate or predict how it might perform soon, and we, as FEDs, play an important role in bringing those to reality on web platforms.

Tools: Meta SPARK, Unity, AR.js, Wendyverse, Google Arts and Culture

4. Forging Front End Development tools of Tomorrow

The curtains rose on the stage a couple of months ago when StackOverflow released its 2023 developer survey. What are we, as devs, more excited to work with? (and why is jQuery still popular? 🥲😁)

Image: Stack Overflow. Web frameworks and technologies popular within Professionals, Stack Overflow 2023 developer survey results.

-React

The dominant Javascript framework, is not only between learners and communities but it is the highest market-in-demand technology.

PS: Amazing projects you can do to start in Scrimba. OOOOOR, you can reach out to our Professional Development team for course recommendations or capstone projects to work on (**Not sponsored**)

-JAMSTACK

A modern approach to architecture and design projects. It stands for Javascript, APIs and Markup, and it decouples the web layer from backend services.

In other words, as FED, you are able to build a full-stack application with serverless functions and fewer performance concerns.

Found this cool insight (from 2022, 2023 hasn’t been released) of usage in the official website

-Next.js, the new cool kid on the block

Our journey to Full-Stack development begins here.

-Typescript

TypeScript stands out as an ally for writing code that is both more readable, cleaner, and easier to maintain.

Image: Stack Overflow. Programming, scripting and markup languages popular within Professionals. Stack Overflow 2023 developer survey results.

Not the top language this year, but we all know it has gained popularity thanks to its integration of strong typing, object-oriented features, type checking and compilation.

-Web Components

Using the same web standards of front end development frameworks, Web Components use 3 main technologies:

1. Custom elements
2. Shadow DOM
3. HTML templates

What’s in it for us? You can write reusable UI components that can be plugged into any CMS and / or integrated within any app, it’s framework agnostic and very well supported by browsers.

Like all the technologies mentioned in this point, it deserves its own entry, in the meantime you can read Brad Frost’s (Design Systems Guru) opinion.

5. Navigating Complexity: Software Development meets Rocket Science

Photo by SpaceX on Unsplash

NASA treats each rocket launch as a one-off customized project, that’s the traditional approach to space exploration. The problem with this approach is that the components and systems involved can’t be reused from one project to another. But our star of point 6 😁 is taking a different approach by treating rocket systems as platforms and every component involved can be reused and replicated, enabling them to start small and scale up.

Pretty much like what we do in Agile.

As humanity faces massive worldwide risks like climate change and financial crisis, our ability to meet these challenges depends on our capacity to develop scalable platforms in order to build big problem solutions, so the next time we’re fixing on that floating left div, it might be worthy to think about the big scale impact…

Think big, start small.

6. The Musketeer of Innovation (Elon Musk) 👀

He might seem like the Lex Luthor of our timeline, but in truth he’s a smart (and at times, hilarious) guy.

As Front End Developers, what we can learn from Elon Musk’s strategy themed by 3 areas:

• What fits into his vision for problems to solve
• How he designs an org as the solution for those problems
• Why can he mobilize resources toward those solutions

The easy answer might be: He’s got a lot of money. But what he’s doing with this approach, compared to what we’ve been taught, is he focuses on the problem, not on the solution.

Navigating scale and overcoming complexity by picking the problems to solve. Consider SpaceX’s mission: “Make humanity interplanetary”.

The bet is big, so the risk is.

What we can learn from that? To push the boundaries of what is possible by setting ambitious goals fueled by motivation.

Each one of these topics deserves its own conversation, but now we’re approaching to the end of this ride, it would be worthy to conclude that as technology empowers people to do and achieve more and with the game changers we’re watching grow and mature, for us as FEDs it is our opportunity to diversify the portfolio and skillset and open up our horizons of where are we standing and where are we going.

Bon voyage! (and happy learning)