Top 5 Web Development Trends you should know

Web development has indeed come a long way since websites first appeared in the late 90s. There is something new every year, adding to the sophistication, aesthetics, functionality and ease of use of websites. As customers become more discerning, new trends keep emerging in web development; so let's take a look at the trends that are important for this year:

1. Real-time Web Apps:

Though not a new phenomenon, they are gaining in popularity, and are going strong this year. Web users today demand ever faster interactions - and real time web apps fulfill the need for instant information sharing. The client-server connection is not closed, so that the server can push new data as soon as it gets there. Ergo, clients don't have to manually check if new events or data has occurred, like before. It first became popular on Node.js, but is now popular on Ruby on Rails and other frameworks. Ruby on Rails is a platform that traditionally depends on server side rendering, without according much importance to single page Javascript based apps; but it has now been incorporated in the platform with the moniker 'ActionCable'.

2. Motion UI:

this website design trend shot to fame in 2017, and continues its dream run this year too. Contrary to what many users think, the whole idea with motion user interface is not cluttering the webpage with ads, popups, GIFs and animations - nor is it about keeping it minimalistic. The whole idea is about moderation: using animation to well, animate conventional content, and make it look lively. Savvy web developers can leverage motion UI even if they are not very proficient in Javascript or JQuery libraries. Motion UI is a method to make your website dynamic with animated charts, backgrounds, page header transitions, smooth hovers and modular scrolling - making for an interactive and fun information exchange sessions.

3. Blockchain:

This is an emerging technology which is seeing demand go up with every passing day. It is complex, and not many people really get it; as a consequence, it's true value has not been appreciated yet. Blockchain refers to an array of devices used to record transactions and assets (mainly cryptocurrencies) that are exchanged. Through this process, accountability, security and transparency can be ensured; your website will obviously deal mainly with selling products and services, and transactions - hence, blockchain plays a crucial role. Many segments like education, finance, telecom, retail, IT, and health are implementing blockchain today for enhanced security, and to keep fraud at bay. Clearly, this is one trend no web development agency can afford to ignore, if they want to stay in the game.

4. One Page Websites:

The web development trend of minimalism has been gaining popularity pretty rapidly these past few years; this has led to the demand for scrollable, single page websites. There is no clutter, and all the information you need is presented on the one page - no navigation, no confusion; no irrelevant information either. To a certain extent, this helps you to control the visitor's behavior - you're forcing them to stay on that one page. These sites also happen to be mobile friendly, and cheaper to develop, launch and maintain. Remember however, that this type of website may not be feasible for e-commerce sites, blogs, and so on. Yet, it will allow you to present your brand, products and services in an extremely engaging manner.

5. AI Enhanced Bots:

Manual interaction with visitors on websites has been steadily declining, and is said to slump to 15% by 2020. This means that a large number of visitors will browse a website with AI help through chatbots - and hardly any human assistance. Though they first made an appearance two years ago, it was last year, in 2017, that chatbots significantly enhanced the help accorded to visitors; you can bet that this year, the quality of chatbots and their services will improve even further. The thing is, one can never say for sure what queries a website visitor may have; ergo, it makes sense to have a chatbot to handle those. Chatbots are handy as they can engage with the customer during off-business hours, or when other customer service agents are busy. Chatbots can start conversing with visitors and attempt to resolve customer queries based on FAQs, and provides almost human interactions. We can expect to see an increased demand for online support in 2018; with chatbots, you can provide that support at lesser cost, and free your human resources for other important work.