With 2016 coming to an end, the question in many designers’ minds is: what will define web development in 2017? In the recent years, the worldwide web has become an integral part of life for many. People use it for almost everything including reading news, banking, and shopping just to name a few. The demand for web development is only going to increase, and this means that the scope of what web designers and developers can do is limitless. That said, here a few of the latest trends in web development that will be big in 2017.
1. Internet of Things (IoT)
Internet of Things has taken web development, and according to Technavio, its expected growth between 2015 and 2019 is 31.72%. IoT allows for the exchange of data in a manner that was never possible before by linking smart objects to the internet. Web developers will come up with solutions that are upgraded and which will allow users to control as well as communicate with their daily equipment and gadgets.
2. Material Design
Material Design is a conceptual design philosophy by Google that outlines how an app should perform and look on wireless devices. It deconstructs everything ranging from style and animation to layouts. Moreover, the material design provides guidance on patterns, components, and usability. When it comes to the development of websites, it has become a leading visual philosophy that will come in handy for developers in the coming year particularly when layered interfaces are involved. The apparent usability of material design, as well as its design, has had an enormous impact on how people view and interact with various interfaces.
3. Static Website Generators
These create websites from the plain text that are stored in files rather than databases. Static website generators allow for benefits such as handling of traffic surges, ease of deployment, security as well as increased speed. The main downside is that they do not have room for user content or real-time content like comments, which have become a must in today’s world. With APIs and Content Delivery Networks becoming more of a way of life of the web and making deployment of templates as well as content easy; many developers are confident that this area is one of the latest web development trends to watch in 2017.
4. One Page Websites
Gone are the days when websites had several pages and tabs for users to get confused over. One page websites have become the preferred choice for many companies as they look great on handheld devices like tablets and smartphones. Many web development companies use the one-page design to develop sites for single services. The main challenge here is improving SEO as they only have one title tag and one meta description. Workarounds for these are, however, expected to emerge in 2017.
5. Yarn Package Manager
Package managers are a very popular tool, more so in JavaScript communities. They make it so easy to configure, update, install as well as uninstall code modules within applications. This is achieved through communication and management of various dependencies of code modules. Bower and NPM are the most popular JavaScript package managers. There is also a new package manager known as Yarn that has been developed by Facebook in collaboration with Tilde, Google, and Exponent. Its popularity is expected to rise tremendously in the coming year. This manager is designed to address issues like consistency, security, and performance that Facebook has experienced with NPM.
6. Videos, Animation and Motion UI instead of static images
Over the past few years, the popularity of static images in website development has decreased considerably while that of Motion UI, video and animation has increased. Motion UI is one of the three sections of Zurb’s Foundation for Apps. Many developers prefer it for creating animations and CSS transitions as it allows for richness and smoothness with pre-defined motion. The latest version Motion UI comes with flexible CSS patterns that work great on all JavaScript animation libraries, an animation queuing system and more options that allow for robust transition. It allows website developers to integrate prototypes of animated elements into websites seamlessly. Motion UI will, therefore, be an efficient way to do away with static images in the New Year.
7. Angular 2 and Beyond
This year saw the release of Angular 2, which came with plenty of changes. Such include Google’s JavaScript framework that was redesigned completely. The new Angular takes advantage of the features if JavaScript ES6 and the applications are written in TypeScript that allows for a more component is driven architecture. The company also cites in this post that Angular now has a more flexible release schedule and that one major update, as well as three minor updates, should be expected every six months. It is safe, therefore, to say that 2017 will see many changes in this framework.
8. Open Cart for E-Commerce Websites
E-commerce has tremendously changed how people shop and every year brings design improvements that make the shopping experience more seamless. Traditional platforms will be replaced by Open Cart in 2017 as many companies will use it as part of their branding strategies. Opencart combines robust functionality and easy usage of e-commerce into one affordable package. The ease with which it can be set up has made it popular among web developers. You can download it for free and integrate it with support as well as free software upgrades. Also, the platform is lightweight, easy to download as well as host. More importantly, you have several payment gateways including SagePay, WorldPay, PayPal, and Web Payment.
9. Virtual Reality
Another issue that always seems to come up among web developers is that of virtual reality. This trend is incredibly popular, especially in the gaming industry. Vive and Oculus Rift may have brought new possibilities to the world of gaming, but that doesn’t mean that it will stop there. Global companies like Mozilla and Google are already working on APIs that will help Virtual Reality transition smoothly to the web. More applications will be probably with this technology as the standards increase in the coming year. Virtual Reality is one of the web development future trends that will be seen in many applications in 2017 including virtual real estate tours and news coverage.
This article is written by Yazi Jepson. She is a Sydney-born creative content marketer and a writer for Orange Digital. With her background in business management, she has been writing about small business, startups, and self and career improvement since 2009. Currently, she has become interested in tech and website development. Follow her on Twitter.
