23 Web Development Trends in 2023 — NIX United

One of the factors determining the competitiveness of a business is keeping up with trends. In turn, in the context of a business operating on the Internet, this statement boils down to “keeping up with the latest trends in web development.” You can read about twenty-three of them below.

If you are already at the stage of searching for software engineers to digitize your business ideas, please check out our web development services section.

Top 23 Web Development Trends for Businesses

So let’s find out what trends in web development should be expected in the coming 2023. Note that many of them are not new, but continue to be in demand in the development of websites and web applications.

API-First Approach

Being one of the most prominent web development trends, API-First is an approach to web application development where the API is the most important part of the product. This approach involves developing APIs that are consistent and reusable, which can be accomplished by using an API description language to establish a contract about API behavior scenarios.

It’s important to understand that “First” in the name of the approach means that the API is the first and most important product, but does not determine the order of tasks in the development process.

This approach has the following advantages:

• The possibility of synchronous development of tests, client web application, and the API itself
• Lack of binding to the programming language in which the client application is written
• Reducing the risk of hard-to-fix bugs during the development process

As a result, the time spent on development is reduced, and the budget of the web application becomes smaller.

Progressive Web Apps (PWA)

Let’s continue our list of trends in web development with progressive web applications (PWA). The concept of PWA has been around since 2018. In a nutshell, PWA is a web application, in other words, a website that looks and behaves like an ordinary mobile app. At the same time, they are smaller, enabling faster loading than native web applications and lowering the bounce rate. As for the end-users, they bring them certain benefits, such as:

• Short loading time
• Working in offline mode
• Good performance in poor network conditions
• Small page file sizes
• App-like features (add to home screen, offline mode, push notifications)
• Avoiding app aggregators (Google Play, App Store, etc.)
• Instant updates

As you can see, this concept can bridge this gap in the quality of the user experience and make it better. And this statement was confirmed by YouTube and Google (YouTube Music and Google News were already present as progressive web apps).

AI-Based Chatbots

AI-powered chatbots help users interact with web services or applications through text or speech. The work of the first is based on AI while chatbots from the second category use complex natural language processing algorithms which provide recognition of human speech.

In addition, with the help of predictive intelligence and analytics capabilities, AI-powered chatbots can identify user preferences and, based on this data, provide recommendations and predict the needs of business customers. In addition to helping companies complete workflows faster with voice or text chat, AI-enabled chatbots can also dramatically improve the customer experience.

Currently, many major digital business players are already using AI-based chatbots to serve their customers, and their relevance will only increase in 2023. It is expected that in the coming year, such solutions as leading web development trends will be increasingly tailored to the needs of users, as custom solutions adapted for integration will be able to analyze behavior patterns more effectively.

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is a Google development announced at the end of 2015 as a competitive project of Instant Articles from Facebook. It involves the creation of special versions of web pages that load quickly on mobile devices. In practice, this technology provides significant advantages at once:

• Faster page load time
• Improved UX
• Reduced data usage
• Increased rankings
• Easy implementation
• Better security

While AMP technology hasn’t been as mainstream in recent years ( since Google no longer prioritizes AMP-based websites in search results), it’s still the basis for about half of the top 10,000 websites. Therefore, why not define this technology as one of the main trends in web development?

Single-Page Apps (SPA)

Single Page Applications (SPA) are not new but are still one of the very current web development trends. In practice, such web applications are developed using various JavaScript frameworks such as AngularJS, Vue, and React, loading only one HTML page in a web browser and dynamically updating the content placed on it as the end user interacts with the interface.

When an end user opens a page, the web browser downloads all of the application code while displaying only the specific module, the part of the website that the user wants to see. When the user navigates to another part of the application, the browser uses the preloaded data, updates the previous version, and, if necessary, loads the appropriate content from the server without reloading the page.

As a result, such applications run very fast and provide less load on the server. But that’s not all. Here are more benefits of SPA below:

• Great caching capabilities
• Fast and responsive
• Debugging with Chrome
• Faster development process
• Enhanced user experience
• Conversion to iOS and Android applications
• Cross-platform compatibility
• Better search engine optimization (SEO)

NLP-Based Voice Search

You can integrate voice search powered by Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies to provide users with an even better experience with your digital products. In particular, such solutions are in demand to cover the needs of people with various physical disabilities who find it inconvenient or impossible to use a conventional keyboard or touch screen to enter a query or navigate a website or web application.

For the first time, this technology was presented by Google in 2011, and since then it has not lost its relevance. This feature was first implemented in voice assistants like Alexa and Siri, but over the years it’s become more widespread and will continue to develop in 2023.

WordPress Development

Being one of the trends in web development, WordPress, the world’s most popular website-building engine, has been updated to version 5.9 this year. In particular, in the new version, the developers have optimized the functionality of the Gutenberg block editor. With it, webmasters can now edit both the entire website and individual templates.

WordPress also added a new Twenty Twenty-Two theme, specially created for building block websites and having a ready-made set of templates and patterns, new blocks for full website editing, improved website navigation, more advanced typography tools, and extended markup functionality. For developers, there’s a block-blocking API and theme.json support for child themes.

In general, this update allows software engineers to bring development based on WordPress closer to custom.

Since interactivity in user interfaces has been one of the trends in web development and design for years, it becomes clear why the Motion UI platform has grown in popularity. In a nutshell, Motion UI is a Sass library for quickly creating flexible UI transitions and animations. This tool is ideally suited for creating smooth animations (for example, sliding, rotating, bouncing, etc.). As for the benefits for web designers, Motion UI built-in effects make animating the user interface a snap. In recent years, Motion UI has become even more convenient for web developers thanks to the support of SASS library technology.

Serverless Architecture

Serverless architecture in the context of our top trends in web development embodies the idea that developers and DevOps specialists do not need to deploy, configure, and administer servers-all of these tasks become the responsibility of the cloud provider. This concept is most relevant for services such as uploading file backups, delivering notifications, and exporting objects, and is therefore often used in the development of enterprise digital solutions.

As a result, serverless architecture will help businesses not only optimize the work of their IT department but also eliminate system overload, minimize the risk of data loss, and reduce the cost of developing and deploying new web solutions.

Mobile-First Development

Mobile-First can be considered one of the oldest web development trends. This is an approach according to which the UI/UX interface of the website is developed primarily for mobile web browsers. Subsequently, design layouts are scaled for tablet and desktop devices, contrary to the traditional approach of starting with a desktop website and then adapting it to smaller screens.

The Mobile-First approach allows web developers to work out the convenience of the mobile version of the website, and not in accordance with the residual principle when work on layouts starts from the desktop version. Obviously, its use will remain relevant as the audience that mainly uses smartphones expands. Also, from the business point of view, Mobile-first approach is a key ingredient to successful product design, as designing for the smallest screens first and then working your way up empowers designers to focus on the core functions of the product and allows them to provide a better user experience on mobile devices.

Dark mode is one of the long-lived web development trends. When it’s enabled, the background of websites and web services becomes dark, and the font becomes light. Many popular developers (for example, Google) implement this type of design to provide end users with a more comfortable perception of visual UI objects in their digital products..

There are also studies that dark mode reduces eye fatigue with prolonged use of smartphones and tablets, however, in reality, these statements are not so clear.

Improved Cybersecurity

Although digital technologies provide a higher level of security today than, for example, ten years ago, the skills of hackers also expand. That is why cybersecurity can be considered one of the invariant trends in web development.

To highlight the importance of adhering to both conventional and niche security policies and standards, let’s remember that back in the summer of 2021, scammers managed to hack into the accounts of 700 million LinkedIn users and steal their personal data.

Fortunately for web developers and owners of websites and web applications, today there are universal security tools that are adapted for integration with third-party solutions (for example, they include API for authentication from Google, Facebook, etc.). However, this is not enough for digital products that need to provide an increased level of security. In this case, you have to consider using non-traditional cybersecurity techniques, such as user behavior analysis, to prevent DDoS attacks and detect anomalous activity along the network edge.

Push Notifications

Push notifications are messages that a website or web application sends to its visitors through a web browser to the notification area of their device (PC or mobile).

To turn a specific web resource visitor into a push notification subscriber, the user needs to to click on the “Allow” button in the browser service window (it appears automatically). After clicking, the users enter the subscriber base, and the website owner gets the opportunity to send them push messages through the personal account of the chosen push service. Thus, the users do not have to leave their personal data.

Here are the main benefits of push notifications for businesses (that’s why we decided to include them in our list of trends in web development):

• They allow businesses to quickly invite visitors back to the website, including for completing targeted actions (purchase, registration, etc.)
• They maintain a constant interest in the web resource and its materials (products, news, services)
• They form the brand image and increase knowledge about the company and its product (informative function)
• They allow businesses to send individual messages, as well as alerts for certain groups of the target audience, which increases the conversion into a purchase and improves understanding of consumer needs
• They can be used to remind users of regular payments or important events — that is, they can perform the same functions as SMS, but for much cheaper
• They stimulate sales and inform users about promotions, new product releases, discounts, and bonuses

Low-Code/No-Code Development

Although at first glance, low-code and no-code tools are designed to provide ordinary PC users with the ability to create websites and web applications without the need to write program code-in fact, the use of such tools does not completely eliminate this. In a nutshell, low-code and no-code are two programming approaches where there is no fundamental need to write a large amount of code. Instead, developers are encouraged to use GUI tools. And this is exactly one of the leading web development trends.

At the same time, the need for traditional programming when using such solutions does not disappear. On the other hand, their involvement in the web development process entails an acceleration of the time to market and, as a result, a decrease in the project budget. Indeed, in this case, software engineers, instead of writing solid program code, mainly drag and drop the necessary elements and configure graphical controls.

AI-Based Personalization

Artificial intelligence is widely used not only in the implementation of smart search and voice assistants. Another way to use this technological concept as one of the main web development trends is to integrate analytic services that track user behavior within a website or web service and further personalize the interface and improve user experience as the duration of their interaction increases.

Similar characteristics have long been possessed by online platforms of such digital giants as Netflix, YouTube, Amazon, etc.

Internet of Things (IoT)

Let’s move to the next item from our list of trends in web development, the Internet of Things. In essence, this concept describes the connection of internet devices that transmit data to cloud applications and each other, from device to device. These smart devices can be anything from mobile phones, refrigerators, and washing machines, to wearables, medical equipment, and jet engines.

In the context of web development, the Internet of Things creates business value by collecting data and using it in real time. Some website development engines, like WordPress, already integrate with IoT solutions and can coexist in a sensor-machine relationship (where the website development engine is the sensor) to optimize performance, improve process efficiency, and analyze data without the need for additional complex mechanisms.

Development with Angular 15 and Newer Versions

Angular 15 presented two amazing features for developers: Standalone APIs (Components, Pipes, Directives) and the Image Directive. In addition, the latest versions of Angular allow web developers to take full advantage of JavaScript ES6 features and component-oriented architecture.

Also, even more ambitious updates are expected by 2023, which means that this framework will become an excellent foundation for advanced web applications and websites.

Static Website Generators

Typically, static websites serve to host documentation, presentations, forms, newsletters, and more. There are currently two ways to create a static website:

• Manually compose each page in HTML
• Use a static website generator

While the first method is very resource intensive, the second provides significant savings in the time required to implement such a project.

In particular, a static website generator is a software tool that turns the website content (with or without markup) into static HTML pages. Essentially, a static website generator automates the task of coding individual HTML pages and gets those pages ready to serve to users ahead of time. From a practical point of view, the tools of this type upload content, connect it with a template, and then send it to the hosting server.

Given the urgent need to get digital products to market as soon as possible (including static websites), static website generators can be a solution to this problem. That’s why we put them on our list of trends in web development.

Package Managers

JavaScript developers often use package managers to make it easy to install, update, configure, and remove code modules in their web solutions. This is achieved through automated interaction with the registry of program code modules and the management of dependencies between them.

Despite the existence of versatile and fairly handy package managers such as NPM and Bower, Meta, in collaboration with Exponent, Google and Tilde, has developed its own Yarn product, whose popularity will definitely grow over time.

In particular, Yarn aims to address the issues that developers have experienced with traditional NPM:

• Installation of packages was slow and inconsistent.
• There were security issues as NPM allowed packages to run code immediately after installation.

Server-Side Templating

In traditional client-server systems, most of the business logic is implemented on the client side. This means the resulting HTML gets rendered in the browser through the use of Javascript libraries. Such an implementation previously made it possible to reduce the intensity of data transfer over the network, which in most cases is an expensive undertaking (because it’s an order of magnitude or two orders of magnitude slower than data exchange between processes).

At the same time, the opposite server-side templating architecture means that the content gets rendered, that is, the resulting HTML code from the backend (i.e. the server). From a practical point of view, this approach provides faster query execution within the server.

IT provides the following advantages:

• Improved data security and Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) compliance
• Improve page load time with minimized network latency
• Predictable server-side processing performance
• Accurate user metrics
• Fewer browser compatibility issues

Caching acts as a database access middleware, and web applications and websites can use it to improve their performance. In particular, the cache saves the web pages visited by the particular user locally, and then, instead of downloading them from the internet, the browser retrieves them from the cache, significantly reducing the upload speed. As websites and web applications become content-rich, it will soon be good practice to add caching wherever possible.

Reducing the Number of Plugins

Despite the obvious benefits of plugins in terms of simplifying and speeding up the web development process, they pose a huge threat to websites and web applications that use them. If there are too many plugins, the webmaster may forget to update them in time and expose the web solution to the risk of being hacked or crashed. Also, sometimes plugins prevent compatibility with other more important third-party services and even slow down websites.

Device-Centric Approach

Last but not least, web development trends are device-focused decoupled tools for web development. Thanks to their use, the backend of the created web solutions is no longer tied to the frontend, which means that developers will be able to adapt user interfaces to specific devices even more accurately.

Final Thoughts

We hope that we have helped you understand the 23 latest trends in web development and now you will be able to sharpen your web project for the current conditions of the digital market. If you want to hire specialists who will implement any of the above web development trends into your project, please contact us. Also, you can learn more about the main benefits and risks of outsourcing web development.

Originally published at https://nix-united.com on January 6, 2023.