As many reports have highlighted, most people nowadays access internet on their mobile devices. The massive popularity of smartphones, tablets and phablets has completely changed the conventional methods of website designing and development. Nowadays, businesses need websites that can be accessed across a wide range of platforms, devices and browsers. At the same time, it has also become essential for modern enterprises to optimize the website as a powerful marketing tool to attract regular website visitors and convert them into customers. That is why; the developers have to make a complete plan to build custom websites according to specific needs of the client. In addition to choosing the right web technologies to enhance the website’s accessibility, the programmers also need to keep in mind top web development trends for 2015.
12 Trends that will completely Change Web Development in 2015
1. Auto-Generated Design Output
Most developers use web frameworks to build complex websites within a shorter amount of time. The libraries and resources provided by these frameworks further help programmers to accomplish common programming tasks without writing additional code. Many modern developers use specially designed tools to auto-generate design output. These tools combine machine learning and algorithm system to generate website designs automatically. They further allow users to make changes to the design to make it more customized. However, these tools cannot replace human emotional intelligence fully. More programmers will use the tools to experiment with different designs, while solving recurring design problems.
2. Responsive Web Design
As noted earlier, most modern users access websites on their mobile devices. As the choice of mobile device and platform differs from one user to another, programmers need to ensure that the website runs smoothly on a variety of devices. Most developers nowadays adopt responsive web design approach to create websites that responds to user’s behaviour and environment according to his device’s screen size, orientation, resolution and operating system. The approach helps programmers to create a single website without worrying about the user’s choice of device and platform. They can take advantage of CSS media queries create responsive website using flexible, images, layouts and grids.
3. Visual Design Tools for Developing Responsive Web Design
Most developers nowadays use specially designed tools to create responsive web design rapidly. They also have option to choose from a number of popular visual design tools like WebFlow, Froont and Macaw. These tools have become hugely popular among both professional web designers and theme users. The programmers mostly use these tools to check a website’s look and feel across many devices. However, some tools come with advanced features that help users to perform complex tasks like prototyping, version control, testing and collaboration. Many developers will take advantage of these tools to create responsive web designs quickly.
4. UI Animation
A gradual increase is being noted in the number of websites developed with user interface (UI) and interaction driven animation. Any programmer familiar with HTML, CSS and JavaScript can create innovative UI animation without putting any extra time and effort. At the same time, he also has option to use certain tools to create UI animation rapidly. A developer can further use his creativity to effectuate UI behaviour communication through these interactive animations. The UI animation will further surprise the website visitors, while keeping them entertained and engaged. Thus, more websites will be designed with UI animation to deliver unique user experience, and achieve higher conversion rate.
5. Card-Based Web Design
With more and more people accessing websites on their mobile devices, it has become essential for developers to adopt card-based web design. A number of reports recently highlighted that major web enterprises like Google, Twitter and Pinterest are moving to Cards. Cards make it easier for developers to customize the website for varying screen sizes, while taking advantage of both animation and movement. At the same time, they also have option to incorporate music, video, photos and multimedia content in to the card. More developers are expected to adopt card-based web design soon to optimize the website for mobile devices without putting any extra time and effort.
6. New Design Languages
Earlier, programmers have to design websites using HTML, CSS and JavaScript along with other server-side scripting languages. But developers nowadays have option to choose from several new design languages. The Material Design introduced by Google also makes it easier for programmers to design a variety of websites and apps rapidly. The web developers can use the design language build a single and unified underlying interface that delivers unified experience across multiple devices and platforms. The language further allows them to create more attractive websites using colour, grid, space, scale and imagery. Many programmers will gradually switch to the new design languages to create websites accessible on any device.
7. Ambient Video Background
HTML5 enables developers to easily embed audio and videos in the website. The audio and video can be further accessed by the end-users without using any third-party tool or plug-in. As the latest version of major web browsers support HTML5, it becomes easier for developers to use videos like other page elements. They also have option to manipulate the video, along with playing the video clip automatically. That is why; many popular websites have already updated their home page with ambient video background. Each time a user opens the website; the video will start playing automatically in the background, and convey the required information to him in a more engaging way.
8. Processing CSS in Advance
The new age web developers do not want to spend time in compressing CSS files manually for production. Likewise, they also avoid repeating the CSS again and again, and write vendor prefixes manually. That is why; they use a variety of tools to pre-process the CSS files. They also have option to use a variety of tools to automatically stitch and compress the CSS files for production. Some of these tools like Gulp and Grunt are command line based, whereas tools like Scout, CSS Crush, LiveReload and CodeKIt are GUI based. So the developers can use the GUI tools to easily make changes to the CSS files in production.
9. Improved Web Forms
Despite frequent changes in website designs, web forms still remains the primary tool for capturing and responding to user inputs. So the overall look and feel of the web form can have a huge impact on the user experience. That is why; most programmers explore ways to make the login, registration, contact and checkout forms more appealing. HTML5 help developers to create more appealing and fancy web forms. The developers can take advantage these features of HTML5 to make the web forms look distinct and modern. Also, they can use tools to make the data entry process more enjoyable by adding animation to the web forms.
10. Designing Websites like Mobile Apps
As highlighted by several studies, modern people prefer mobile apps to mobile websites. The enterprises have to launch both websites and mobile apps to attract more potential customers. The massive popularity of mobile apps encourages many developers to design websites just like mobile apps. Instead of designing web page templates, these programmers focus in individual components of the page. They further take advantage of HTML5 and AJAX to provide updated information to the users without reconstructing the whole page. At the same time, they make the web pages lightweight and simple by removing unnecessary services and options from it.
11. Growing Usage of RESTful APIs
The huge popularity of mobile apps further makes many programmers adopt API-driven website development approach. In addition to using RESTful APIs as a key component of the website, they also implement it on the server side. The RESTful APIs further allow developers to take advantage of certain mobile Backend as a Services (MBaaS) solutions on the Cloud platforms. The MBaaS services also provide RESTful APIs along with JavaScript SDKs for HTML5 clients. Thus, it becomes easier for developers to create websites that deliver user experience just like mobile applications.
12. Emphasis on Actual Usability Testing
Nowadays to get regular visitors a website must deliver rich and personalized user experience. But no business can decide the target audience for its website accurately. Many enterprises even use online tools to monitor the website visitors and their activities constantly, and make changes to the website to improve user experience. The modern web developers put more emphasis on testing a website’s actual usability to deliver richer user experience from the day one. They use a variety of tools and services to perform actual usability testing in an effective but inexpensive way. The tools further deliver more accurate and reliable results that help developers to make changes to the website in less time. So actual usability testing will very soon become an integral part of website development.
However, the programmers must not forget that the web development trends keep changing consistently. So they must keep track of the trends on a regular basis. They can even join various online discussion forums to understand how other developers are taking advantage of the most recent technology trends for web development.
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