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9 Web development trends you simply cannot ignore in 2018

Grabbing your target audience’s attention is not going to cut it anymore. With competition becoming stiffer with each passing day, you have got to keep them interested for long enough as all those websites hit to turn into conversions. Web developers have also got a crucial role to play when it comes to catching and keeping the user’s attention, and they can do the same using some smart tactics.

In keeping with the times, here are 9 trends in web development that every developer should watch out for, and ensure the implementation of the same for better conversion rates. Exceed your customers’ expectations by dishing out something extra, and these 9 web development trends can tell you the ways to do it!

9 Next-Level Web Development Trends to Watch Out for

1. Revamped landing pages
Landing pages have gone through an unending process of transformation. Moving past the text-heavy landing page formats, we have come to light landing pages that focus more on the information being readily accessible to the user. Since Internet users do not care to read even a third of what you write as content, it is best to keep the text to a bare minimum when it comes to designing your landing pages. Use riveting web design templates and features (and tonnes of CTAs) on your landing page to cater to the streamlined queries and problems of your users.

Read more: 9 Web development trends you simply cannot ignore in 2018

 

The Art of Web Design

Websites have grown bland in the contemporary digital age. Template-driven and generic, homogenised by the frameworks of big-name content management systems. The internet is a place of dry technicality; portals seeking to convey information or to market a product to a specific audience, often afraid to break out of the norm.

Mammoth marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay are utilitarian in their layout and design, and countless smaller brands follow suit. Perhaps blinded by the success of those giants, maybe fearful of confusing potential customers. However, we must also keep in mind that computing technology and processing power has still been in relative infancy—something that has forced designers to adopt a ‘bare bones’ approach, simply so that the pages would not an age to load.

The advent of 4G wireless connectivity, processors associated with light-speed calculations, and network providers dishing out generous data packages has to some extent served to lift these previous constraints. Slowly, but surely, we are beginning to witness websites which mirror works of art.

A breed of disobedient designers are redefining the art of web design by bucking the visual conformity that has oversaturated our digital age—whether it is harnessing the avant garde approach of web design brutalism, the tongue-in-cheek throwbacks to the disagreeable design of the mid-1990s, or using the latest technologies to bring the progressive aesthetics of high-end fashion magazines to life, there are pioneers ready to bring a new visual language to the world wide web.

Be it culturally-engaged design brands or experimental musicians, simply creating a free web store or the birth of another personal blog, designers are taking notions of creativity to a whole new level. It is vital to create a sense of bespoke branding that will be memorable long after the visitor has left the page, to consider a human audience as opposed to a search engine. Sure, we want to provide a website that is easy to navigate, but too there should be an emotional, human connection that extends beyond homogenisation.

Read more: The Art of Web Design

Know about the current trends in web development

In case of web development, you may have probably heard that the only constant is the change. It is an industry-defining statement as web development keeps on changing. User expectations are evolving rapidly, and it is quite essential than ever before to create digital experiences which are more engaging, intuitive and fun.

Custom web development is evolving rapidly. Content needs to be easily accessible from anywhere, in real-time and also on mobile devices. New programming languages and frameworks are coming into foray to facilitate this requirement.

One of the key reasons for all these years of change and latest trends is that, in order to succeed, you need to play along with the current trends rather than ignoring them. You can easily do this by exploring the recent development and seeking ways to integrate these trends which apply to you, sooner than others.

Mentioned below are the current trends in web development.

1. Rise of Chatbots
Being directly connected to users has become quite significant. Chatbots, whether they are oral or written conversation software, allow the websites to be easily contacted at any time. They allow to continuously maintain the customer service. The evolution of chatbots has provided with brilliant capabilities like answering the most common queries, redirecting the customer to information pages, and even assist them in completing a transaction.
As the customers are getting better accustomed to their presence as well as ways of interact the emergence these chatbots, they will be expecting all the websites to have them. Web development services need to work more on including chatbots on their web development projects.

2. Emergence of Progressive Web Apps

Mobile phone usage has increased significantly with apps accounting to be the consuming prominent portion of the time spent on the smartphone. It would be logical that the use of a particular format which is similar to web application will be welcomed by the general users.
The progressive web apps are essentially applications which take advantage of a plethora of features of an internet browser which has a mobile application interface. This technology has many inherent advantages like the ability to work offline, good reliability, virtually no load time and the ability to receive notifications. Progressive web apps can easily be designed much faster than mobile applications, easier to deploy and maintain as well as work for all users, that makes it good for both the user and the developer.

Read more: Know about the current trends in web development

 

Enjoy web development success with the best UI/UX design

Without an excellent UI or user interface, a website fails to deliver a better user experience that is crucial for the impending success of any business. However, keeping up with the latest and best UI and UX design trends as well as implementing them in web development, custom website development services face various challenges. They have to adapt according to changing realities and demands of the users. Now they have to visualize the importance and scope of UI and UX design in business websites. To obtain better results, web designers have to make significant efforts to create an entirely new and appealing website.

They have to look for best UI/UX design trends as well as layouts in mind to meet the needs of the customers. Here we present the best tops for web development with best UI/UX design.

1. Mobile friendliness

Well, you have certainly heard about responsiveness concept. It is the most significant part of offering a better user experience. As a UI and UX designer, you need to follow certain UI design principles and also consider the preferences and choices of the users. However, it isn’t necessary that all of the users can only access your site from their own desktops. They might access them on their mobile devices like tablets and smartphones. In this mobile age, the users like to access almost anything on their smartphones. Hence, when you are deciding to design a business website, you need to create mobile-friendly features. With this important addition to your own website, you can certainly see significant changes in the business results.

2. Using appealing images to attract user’s attention

We are quite aware that attractive layout, as well as content, significantly improve the user interactivity with the website. Images are another aspect which plays a vital role in achieving the user’s attention at first look. Hence, having unique images is among the best ways to get users attracted to your website. It also enhances the visual hierarchy as well as increases the users. You can easily manage it by inserting relevant text on the images that clearly mention the actual purpose and meaning of your business service.

Read more: Enjoy web development success with the best UI/UX design

When Should Web Development Teams Invest In Speed? 

When should dev teams start investing in speed? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.

Answer by Angela Zhang, Software Engineer, on Quora:

As much as I’d love to say “you should invest in speed starting from day one!”, speed is just not the highest ROI thing to do when you are still looking for a product-market fit. The answer to this question really depends on the product you are building and the user base that you are building for. Some signs that you should probably start thinking about speed are:

Your users started complaining about speed. If you get bug reports that your site isn’t loading, that’s a pretty straightforward sign.
You are expanding your user base outside of urban centers in developed countries. Most internet users in the world do not have ultra fast internet connections and, as developers working in Silicon Valley, it’s difficult to build empathy for how users with slow internet connections experience your app.
You have a lot of users on mobile phones. in his talk at Google I/O 2016, Ilya Grigorik makes a very compelling point that speed and resilience matter a lot on mobile even if you think your users are all on 4G LTE connections. Even in urban centers, people are rarely on 4G internet all the time, and frequently lose cellular reception all together when they go into subways and elevators. On the other hand, in rural areas, people might only have 2G internet but tend to go offline less often. Build for speed if you want those users to have good experiences. For his full talk, see Building Fast & Resilient Web Applications.
You are paying a lot in server costs. Often times this is an indication that you are fetching too much data, or doing too much work that is either unnecessary or can be optimized.
If you have decided to invest in speed and are looking for a good place to start your performance work, take a look at this answer (shameless plug): Angela Zhang (張安琪)’s answer to What are simple ways to monitor and improve web performance?

Read more: When Should Web Development Teams Invest In Speed? 

Chris Coyier on the Future of Web Development 

Three months ago, Chris Coyier and Media Temple flew all the way to Whitefish Montana to visit the winners of the CSS-Tricks contest, the ZaneRay Group. Our days with the ZaneRay Group were action packed, as we visited the pristine Bowman Lake, biked up the Going-to-the-Sun Road, and, most importantly, spent several hours talking about building and maintaining bleeding-edge websites and web apps. Hours were spent digging into the dirty details of developing massive e-commerce sites and the behind-the-scenes activities that power them. We truly thank ZaneRay not just for their hospitality but their camaraderie, making this a trip to remember.

Fortunately, we have some visual souvenirs from the trip to share.

Read more: Chris Coyier on the Future of Web Development 

7 Things To Consider When Hiring A Web Development Company 

When you realise that your business needs a website or mobile application, it’s time to hire one of the many web development companies around today. It may sound easy since a quick internet search will provide you with thousands of companies offering such services. But, wait a minute, is it really that easy? Can just any company do the work, and do it well? How do you know you will receive quality work? How much should you pay and how long will the development process take? These are questions, among many others, that need to be answered before you make your decision.

1. Know What You Want
Web development is more than having an address signifying your name and business. It is more than displaying the services you offer and leaving contact information for potential clients to get in touch. Web development involves building a unique interface that links the customer to your products and entices them to work with you. The corporate platform should provide a convenient and clear way for the customer to buy your goods or order your services. To understand exactly what you need, begin by evaluating your business process and structure. Consider the products on offer and your target clientele. With this in mind, order a web solution that simplifies the interaction with your clients. The end result should make it easier for you and your team to receive orders, process, send and track the progress of each request. This means a customer facing platform that is user-friendly and a backend solution that is functional for your business.

2. At What Cost?
Different developers will provide a wide range of price quotes for the exact same job. Many business make the mistake of simply choosing the lowest figure. However, the old adage that “cheap is expensive” also applies directly to software development. When you want to hire a web development team, focus less on the price and more on getting the features you desire. Crucial elements like a quality of the website or web product, the quantity or features and delivery timeline will be affected by a low bidding company. A company with expertise that has invested in appropriate tools will only commit time and resources where the returns are commensurate. Be prepared to pay the proper amount for a quality product. Seek quotations from different developers and compare their prices based on the features offered. Consider the quality of customer care, availability of support services and the standing or reputation of a developer in the industry. Never sacrifice quality because of money as it will quickly kill your e-commerce dreams.

Read more: 7 Things To Consider When Hiring A Web Development Company 

Get in on the web development gold rush with this complete front end to back education

Learning to program for the internet is the way of the future in an increasingly connected world. Getting started, however, can be intimidating. Take the pain (and tuition) out of getting a complete web development education with the Pay What You Want: Web Hacker Bundle, a 7-course collection of everything you need to start programming like a pro.

Here’s how it works. Beat the average price and you’ll get seven complete courses, and over 73 hours of content covering everything from Python to Ruby on Rails. Pay below, and you’ll still get a crash course in the fast-growing virtualization technology Docker, and the data management system, Apache Cassandra. Either way you win!

At the end of the day, though, it’s just a few dollars more to learn to expedite website construction with Bootstrap, master the web’s most popular language, JavaScript, increase web interactivity with PHP and MySQL, and much more.

The Pay What You Want: Web Hacker Bundle is currently available at the BGR Store, and includes all 7 courses if you can beat the average price.

Read more: Get in on the web development gold rush with this complete front end to back education

21 Steps to Becoming a Successful Web Developer

This is important to ask, because so many people around the world are web developers, but how many of them are successful at it?

My goal for this article is to equip you with the mindset, knowledge and skills to stand out from the crowd and make a success of your web development career — whether that’s at a company or freelancing for yourself.

This article is intended for aspiring web developers and web developers who are struggling to break through the “barrier of mediocrity.”

These 21 steps will help you succeed in web development and beyond.

1. Is This Something You’re Truly Passionate About?
“Passion” is a word so commonly used that the actual meaning gets distorted. It actually means “a strong and barely controllable emotion.”

Passion is not passive: it’s a pursuit to act. Most people hate their 9–5 jobs, but few do jobs they love and are passionate about.

It’s important to ask yourself these three questions:

    1. Does the thought of creating websites and web apps excite me?
    2. Would this be an exciting career for me to do?
    3. Would becoming a web developer be in line with the lifestyle I’d like to have for myself (and my family)?

If you answered yes to the above questions, you’re on the right path to becoming a web developer.

Read more: 21 Steps to Becoming a Successful Web Developer

 

Is Web Design Dying?

Web design isn’t dying. It’s just being folded into full stack development.

There are several design specializations that are relevant to web development, such as user experience design and visual design.

Web design is no such specialization – it’s a more general term that’s traditionally associated with building static websites, or dynamic websites built on top of an off-the-shelf content management system like WordPress or Drupal.

But web applications are becoming more complicated. This complexity requires additional skills. Hence the rise of the full stack developer, who is comfortable with front end development tools (like React) and back end development tools (like Node.js).

Also, the term “web design” has generally fallen out of favor – at least here in San Francisco. Plenty of laypeople still refer to the act of building websites as “web design” but far fewer practitioners refer to themselves as “web designers.”

This question originally appeared on Quora. the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, and Facebook. More questions:

Read more: Is Web Design Dying?

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