Web development trends have shifted significantly in the 2020s, with a focus on increased performance, improved user experience, and the use of new technologies and programming languages that help developers optimize these aspects of application and website performance.
Usability
As applications become a more significant part of our daily lives, there is a growing focus on performance and user experience to accommodate the large volumes and varieties of users. This brings the demand for techniques like lazy loading, which can improve the speed at which a website loads, and the use of responsive design, which ensures that a website looks and works well on a variety of devices.
There is also an increasing focus on accessibility in web development. This includes the use of techniques such as semantic HTML and ARIA attributes to make sure that a website is accessible to users with disabilities, and the use of tools such as screen readers to ensure that users can access content regardless of their ability to see or hear.
These requirements give rise to the need for specific programming languages, tools and techniques, and types of infrastructure to meet the numerous and strict demands of scalability which should be understood by every good web development agency.
Languages
One of the key trends in web development is the use of JavaScript frameworks such as React, Angular, and Vue. These frameworks, which make it easier for developers to create responsive and dynamic user interfaces, have become increasingly popular in recent years. Additionally, the use of JavaScript for both front-end and back-end development, also known as “full-stack” development, has become more prevalent.
Another trend in web development is the use of Progressive Web Applications (PWA). PWAs are web applications that can be accessed through a web browser but can also be installed on a user’s device to work offline. This allows for a more seamless experience for users and can also improve performance, given the increased localization of resources.
The use of GraphQL, a query language for APIs, is also becoming more popular in web development. GraphQL allows for more efficient data fetching and querying, which can improve performance and user experience.
There is also a growing trend in the use of Web Assembly (WASM) which is a binary instruction format for a stack-based virtual machine. This allows for the execution of code written in languages such as C, C++, and Rust within the browser, which can improve performance and provide access to low-level functionality that is not available through JavaScript.
Techniques and Standards
The creation and use of a wide variety of apps that provide different functionalities while relying on similar frameworks have given rise to Microservices Architecture, an industrial strategy that involves making use of small, focused services that work together as opposed to building totally bespoke, monolithic apps from the ground up. This enables more flexibility, scalability, and maintainability of the codebase while encouraging specialization within the broader software development industry that allows vital back-end services to be perfected by those who understand them best.
Another trend is the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning, which are becoming more prevalent in web development. This includes the use of natural language processing (NLP) for chatbots and voice assistants and the use of computer vision for image and video recognition.
The use of Static Site Generators (SSG) is also on the rise. SSGs generate static HTML pages from a set of templates and data. This can improve the performance, security and scalability of a website by using established code and trusted datasets to generate new websites.
HTTPS is steadily obsolescing HTTP, ensuring that content across the web is more secure and that inexperienced users can make use of the web without having to worry about the wide variety of threats that might compromise their own data.
There is a growing trend toward the use of design systems in web development. A design system is a set of guidelines and components that are used to create a consistent look and feel across a website or application. This can help improve the overall user experience and make the development process more efficient.
Another trend in web development is the use of headless CMS. A headless CMS is a content management system that allows developers to manage the content separately from the presentation layer. This allows for greater flexibility in the way that content is presented, as it can be accessed and displayed through various channels such as web, mobile, and IoT devices.
Infrastructure
Most new applications are built on serverless architecture, making use of cloud services such as AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, and Google Cloud Functions to run the code, without the need to manage and scale servers. Leaving cloud infrastructure to the experts allows smaller businesses and those with specialties outside of software to perfect their own business while relying on a “hyperscaler” to provide the digital infrastructure they need.
Most of these trends should continue into the next decade, as the primary concern of venture capitalists in the software industry remains a fast and reliable ROI, and users continue to demand snappy, attractive, highly accessible tools to make their daily lives easier and more fun. In this increasingly competitive investment environment, we can expect the demands on software development companies to increase, leading to further reliance on outsourced infrastructure and standardised code, with an increased focus on unique, specialised front-end development and increasingly granular niches. Just like any industry, as returns diminish and competition increases, specialisation will become more and more important – and established major players with broadly applicable infrastructure and code bases will become even more dominant.
