Technology is constantly improving and changing, and therefore trends in website design and web development are also changing. Website design features and elements that were once the innovation, have now been done to death.

You don’t want people arriving on your website and leave. They lose interest because your site ignores important web standards or looks old. This also means losing a lot of conversions and hence revenue.

So what are the big web design trends for you to think about this year? Digital is a very competitive market and it is always evolving. Therefore, it’s crucial that you are able to predict these changes so that you can adapt to them.

Below I’ve listed the top 4 major web development trends for you to think about this year. Also, these trends may stay for the years to come.

1: Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)

One big web development trend is Accelerated Mobile Pages or simply AMP. The whole idea behind it is pretty much in the name. To enhance the speed in which pages load up, while viewed on a mobile device.

AMP technology, at its heart, is very similar to PWA. The major difference is that the acceleration of the pages is due to a plugin, developed by Google and Twitter.

AMPs are essentially pages that have been optimized, designed to load, and work quickly. They may have a simplified, yet, far more convenient design. This includes only the more basic features. compared to what you would expect from your typically full-scope page. These AMP pages are also always mobile-friendly, and their simplistic design makes them more readable.

Trends in web design such as AMP development, indicate that the internet is becoming increasingly more user-focused. Although 5G is the new technology, many brands now opting to create native apps to enhance the overall user experience. AMP plugins give the ability to cut costs on UX, while reaching visitors a much more speedily way.

As a result, we should witness smaller niche products being able to compete in a market amongst the biggest competitors.

Also Read: What Impact does a Full-Screen Smartphone have on Fingerprint Recognition?

2: Smart Content Load

A lot of us web designers may be guilty of having a slow website. This is due to heavily using resources, third-party integrations and graphic elements.

Fortunately, there is such a thing as smart websites. This ensures that the browser only downloads the content and images that are visible on the visitor’s screen.

Infinite scrolling and lazy loading are technologies that have been around for several years now. The biggest social networks have been using them for a considerable length of time now, especially infinite scroll. This approach is especially popular when it comes to large web pages.

Web designers need to think about implementing new technologies. This can help their site outperform or outrank their competitors in the search engines. These technologies are also designed to improve the user experience. It can improve ranking and overall conversions altogether.

Lazy Load feature is an amazing function that works with all major web browsers like Firefox, Safari, and Google Chrome. It ensures that only images that the user can actually see downloads on the web page. This in turn will save on server response and time in downloading unnecessary content.

A larger number of visitors, never get to the bottom of a website. So it makes very little sense to force the user to download the content at the bottom. The benefit to not loading such content is ultimately quicker load times. The best approach is to only load the content which is in your immediate view.

3: Voice Search Optimization

When we look at the future of web development, we can see that it is slowly edging towards the voice. It’s a lot more than just home assistant devices, such as Amazon’s Alexa, Siri and Google Home.

We can expect far more than half of the IoT and smart devices active on voice commands this year. These devices will also be able to remember speech patterns so that they can recognize different people. This means a personalized AI-based experience.

The most significant and noteworthy example of this technology has to be voice search. Voice search was first created more than 10 years ago. Research has shown that many users would rather prefer voice commands, when available, than typing.

It’s for this reason why so many companies are now thinking about and looking at ways of improving and optimizing their digital and physical products for voice commands and search. By the next year, we can expect close to 60% of all households globally, to have some kind of voice assistance inside it.

One of the latest trends in web development is voice optimization and voice-activated self-standing devices for apps and websites alike. This is further strengthened with voice search optimization and AI for both the owners and end-users.

The first thing it does is preserve time, allowing more orders, when shopping online. Secondly, it makes multitasking much easier. Thirdly, it increases loyalty, as it helps them better deal with routine. Lastly, voice usage is a very effective and powerful source of behavioral user analytics.

4: Chatbots Become More Believable

Chatbots were introduced some years back but have become increasingly more popular, in the last couple of years. They are only set to increase in popularity, in the years to come.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence are rapidly improving. So, we can expect chatbots to become commonplace for the average customer seeking support while shopping online.

As an example, if a customer was to stumble upon your site, looking for some way of contacting you, either by phone or email. If the chatbot knows that your company provides some form of free phone upgrade. Then it can let the customer know all about it. This can result in a positive experience for the consumer saving the company in costs. This otherwise would ordinarily be the result of a live person having to speak to the client. 

Conclusion:

These technologies in web designing and development are very useful in increasing user experience. They help to increase the website’s performance and hold users for a long time to give a rich & effective experience. If you are planning or developing a website, you must consider these technologies to make your website future-ready.

Are you are using any of the above 4 top web development trends on your website? Do let us know in the comments below.

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