According to Internet Live Stats, there are almost 1.8 billion websites today. Most users will never visit the lion’s share of them. However, each site makes its contribution to new web development trends in 2021. In addition, the number of IT workers grew a lot over the past several decades. That makes to keep in touch with the latest changes and trends in order to remain a competitive employee.

It’s noteworthy that web development standards sometimes change faster than they can be implemented. And developers have to be one step ahead. For that purpose, it’s necessary to keep up with web development trends. What does the future hold for this sphere?

Progressive Web Apps (PWA)

Progressive web apps are not the phenomenon of this year. However, the technology gained modern developers’ and investors’ attention due to its capability to perform a high-quality user experience.

What makes PWA a good thing? Their main task is to allow users browsing websites in the mobile browser with the same speed and convenience as on the computer.

A distinctive feature of PWA is an opportunity to send push-notifications without downloading additional apps. Thereat, push-notifications are one of the digital marketing trends.

PWA have improved the quality of the following services:

• Uber;
• Twitter;
• Smashing Magazine;
• Pinterest;

Progressive web apps are changing the way we use the Internet. They not only are fast and load instantly, but they also allow users to use services offline, while performing all the functions of a native app.

Artificial Intelligence Development

Artificial intelligence mimics human behavior at a high level. It can perform a lot of such cognitive functions as:

• learning;
• data collection;
• analysis;

Many users aren't even surprised that AI is involved to some extent in most sites. It created a new dimension in the sphere of web development.

So, weeks of brainstorming don’t need to be carried out during the functional website development. AI simplifies most processes herewith providing high-quality service.

The most common way to use AI today is by adding chatbots to the website. But this specifically relates to the functionality and user experience. During the site development, AI is used almost at each step – starting with deployment and ending with a test.

WebAssembly

The first thing that shouldn’t be compromised when developing a web application is performance. But JavaScript limitations make heavy calculations slow. That significantly worsen the user experience.

This became one of the reasons for WebAssembly appearance. With this technology, the code in any programming language can be compiled into bytecode, which runs in a browser.

WebAssembly has the following advantages:

• it’s independent of programming language and platform;
• independent of hardware;
• executes code fast;
• provides a high level of security.

It all comes down to the triangle – small footprint, cross-platform scripting, and speed. All three of these components are the key ones in modern web development. This is why a lion’s share of web development cases is not without WebAssembly today.

Voice Search and Navigation

Most devices, which are around you now, can hear you. They include smartphones, watches, laptops, tablets. A lot of automobile functions can also be controlled with voice. It all comes down to the fact that we don’t need to physically address the device so often to perform a task.

A habit is formed in such a way. Each user on the subconscious level expects that all services will provide this opportunity. Web developers have to react to that.

Voice search and navigation through the web page are:

• ease of use;
• high speed of task execution;
• great user experience.

People prefer to spend less time typing commands. This is why they increasingly use voice search. Therefore, web development will be closely related to the implementation of such functionality.

Mobile-First Approach

Adaptability has been a top web development trend for a long time. But nowadays it’s the automatic component of every site. Because without it, not only user experience worsens but also the indexing rating in search engines lowers.

The mobile comes to the fore today and not the desktop. Therefore, one of the web development trends is the development of functionality of site or app primarily for a smartphone.

PWA are one of such approach implementations. Another option is AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages). These pages are downloaded significantly faster than HTML, herewith they make it possible to saturate the site with the rich animation content.

AMP are used on all web apps, users of which actively use smartphones to access the sites.

Motion design UI

Motion design is one of the main web design trends. Minimalistic design coupled with sophisticated interactions look good and draw user attention. Due to motion design, these elements will be implemented:

• page header transitions;
• charts;
• pop-ups;
• pull-down menu;
• scrolling;

All of that will help you display your unique style and entertain the user, improving behavioral factors, and helping your web app rank higher in search results.

With the help of AMP, motion design can be implemented without loss of download speed. Therefore, if you want to hold the user on your page, then start thinking about the animation today.

Serverless Architecture

Serverless technologies are the result of searching for the possibility to avoid system overloading, data loss, and expensive development. Consequently, one of the solutions became cloud computing, which can replace regular servers.

How will it help the web development?

• it reduces development and ongoing support budgets;
• strengthens app architecture;
• increases flexibility.

The most common tasks that can be very quickly executed due to serverless technologies are downloading files backups, notification delivery, and objects export. Stated differently, serverless architecture is one more trend, which will dramatically change the approach to web development.

RAIL Model

Like most trends of this list, RAIL wasn’t created today. This concept first appeared in 2015, but it gained popularity only in 2019. It implies faster page loading time and provides exceptional performance of the site.

What does it include?

1. Response. Every input will get an almost instant response. The feedback will be provided in 100 milliseconds.
2. Animation. The animation is provided by two elements: scrolling and dragging. The goal is to complete every frame in 16 milliseconds.
3. Idle. Not all elements need to be loaded at the same time. During the initial load, the most critical elements of the page, which the user wants to get access to instantly, should be loaded. The rest of the blocks can be loaded after and in the background.
4. Load. Main page elements, such as navigation bar and the home screen should be loaded in the first second. This will provide the experience, during which the user won’t be distracted and won’t go to another site.

This concept implies instant feedback, a feeling of seamless animation, and quick execution of all actions. The longest period in this concept is 1 second, which is needed to load the initial screen. All other actions will be executed during milliseconds.

Single-page Apps

Nowadays, there is no need to be stuck on an approach where every action made on the page (like clicks on various buttons) leads to one more web page downloaded from a server.

SPA is one of the trends of recent years that helps to avoid seamless communication with the server. It shows better page performance and provides a high level of data protection.

Why do single-page apps gain popularity? As JavaScript frameworks in 2021 will actively rise. And SPA use this language for the content loading. These apps don’t require additional waiting time providing the users with instant feedback.

MEAN-React-Vue-Flutter

Most of the listed above trends can’t be implemented without a certain technological stack. But nowadays there are hundreds of frameworks and libraries. Which of them will be used most often?

First of all, it’s MEAN stack, which includes:

• MongoDB – database management system;
• js – framework, which provides great functionality for mobile and web apps;
• js – front-end framework;
• js – runtime environment, which allows working with both front-end and back-end.

Additionally, the React library plays a major role. It’s frequently used as a replacement for Angular in MEAN stack. It enables the faster and easier implementation of changes, so more and more developers choose it over Angular.

Relatively young framework Vue has already taken its place on the global market after such giants as Xiaomi and Alibaba switched to it. This is a very compact front-end solution. And it frequently becomes a replacement for Angular in MEAN as well.

And the last popular solution is Flutter for Web. It helps to provide high-quality work of web apps on any device, so it stands high in web developers’ ratings.

Conclusion

It can be hard to chase trends since they change so fast. However, the majority of current trends weren’t created today. So why not try them on your site?

Remember that despite the changing approaches, technological stacks, and ideas, the main task of web development is to provide a high-quality user experience. It is this trend that will remain unchanged.

Future of Web Development: Top Web Development Trends 2021 key takeaways:

#1. Progressive Web Apps (PWA)
#2. Artificial Intelligence Development
#3. WebAssembly
#4. Voice Search and Navigation
#5. Mobile-First Approach
#6. Motion design UI
#7. Serverless Architecture
#8. RAIL Model
#9. Single-page Apps
#10. MEAN-React-Vue-Flutter
#11. Conclusion