Web development, Internet standards, the software industry as a whole and application developments evolve over time in order to address the needs of modern businesses and those of advanced tech consumers. Digital consumerism escalates at tremendous rates with the global internet penetration growing by 10% for the 2015-2016 period and equating to almost 50% of the world’s population. As the web grows in complexity itself, web application developers and website creators need to think beyond the code all together. They need to take into account things like responsive web design, search engine optimization, current software trends, usability, motion user interface (UI), progressive web apps, online and offline website builders, user experience, accessibility, and more. The constantly changing digital world requires mobile-first websites and optimized user-friendly interaction which generate not only increased revenue but much better online experience.
TAKING A LOOK AT THE FUTURE: WHERE IS WEB DEVELOPMENT GOING?
When it comes to web development market around the world, USA demonstrates significant growth. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics, for example, forecasts around 20% employment growth for web developers in the years to come. This is not surprising, taking into account the employment rate of 148, 500 people in 2015, and the predicted 188,000 employment growth number by 2024. In addition to this, the Swedish IT sector hires about 3.9% of the whole workforce in the country. In Finland, the technology and web development industry is reported to have directly employed almost 300,000 programmers on average by the end of June 2016. In order for the web development industry to keep flourishing, regions keep investing in modernization of tools and development platforms, while developers improve their skills.
Currently, the successful web development process largely relies on responsive and adaptive solutions that deliver better UX. That often requires changes in web design, content and programming methods. Firstly, we have the content. Having a highly systematized, well-structured and concrete text is more likely to gain more page visitors. What is more, it can eliminate bounce rates and retain or even increase the number of returning page viewers. Then, there is the overall appearance. Creating a website outlook which is flexible, adjustable and compatible to any device, resolution and screen size becomes a priority to web developers and web designers. After all, according to the Digital in 2016 report, the number of unique mobile users has reached 1.97 billion around the world. Which equals 27% global penetration.
CONTENT, DEVICE COMPATIBILITY, RESPONSIVENESS AND WHAT ELSE…?
Moving away from the engaging content, responsive design and device compatibility, another key factor that has a major role in website and web-based app development are single page apps. They are reported to have become extremely trendy in the Australian and global software development. Such page apps are easily loaded as a single HTML page in the browser, eliminating the need for page reloads, while visitors play around with the application. A good example is Facebook which uses such flexible single page app design. What is more, with JavaScript still on the rise, it remains the future of websites and web-based apps. Its front-end libraries Angular, React and the cross-platform library jQuery, become essential to the simplification of the client-side scripting.
Lastly, a new advancement in the field of web development is the use of Integrated Development Environments (IDEs). Not only are they practicable alternatives to desktop IDEs, but many ensure maximized productivity and performance with tight-knit components.
WHAT IS THE CONCLUSION?
The IT and web landscape is developing really fast. From coding websites through designing and redesigning web pages, the development of web-based products turn into extremely client-centric. With the escalating demands and users’ expectations, the industry has no other choice but to respond to those requirements and adopt innovative approaches. Such factors lead web app developers down the path of applying agile principles and approaches to contemporary web designs and programming. And such principles often result in single page apps, the use of browser based IDEs, intensified reliance on JavaScript and more.
