Web development trends every technology leader should expect in 2021

Posted by olivia cuthbert on April 29th, 2021

Technology is constantly evolving as people find new ways to innovate and do things faster and more skillfully than ever before. There aren't many industries where this innovation is as prevalent as it is in web development.

Developers are always looking ahead to find new technologies that can catapult them into a better future. For many businesses, keeping up with these developments can prove problematic. Fortunately, we have outlined some key trends that will be relevant in 2021 and beyond.

1| No-code and low-code will drive application development

No-code and low-code emerged in the hope that they would make our lives easier. Experienced developers can use these tools to streamline workflows and reduce workloads to focus on other tasks.

These tools have also made it easier for middle-class developers to create valuable apps without writing complex code.

No-code tools lower the threshold for entry with visual programming interfaces and drag-and-drop tools for those who have never written a line of code. Despite these advances, decoding is not yet fully established.

"I think no-code will be a big trend in 2021. In 2020 it has already grown a lot, but it's still a pretty fragmented ecosystem where there is no clear winner yet, and most of the promises are still ... Promises" - Massimo Chieruzzi of AdEspresso

As potential market leaders Bubble and Airtable grow in popularity, one or more of these tools could emerge as clear winners in 2021.

What to do next

Take a look at your product development lifecycle and identify the time-consuming manual tasks your IT team is currently doing.

Incorporate low-code tools into your workflows to streamline them and limit wasted time.

Equip your less technical team members with low-code tools so they can do some tasks without being burdened by IT.

2| Use AI and machine learning to speed things up.

AI has been woven into our digital lives for a few years now, but the more companies invest in the technology, the more significant leaps we could see in the possibilities. In particular, natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) have evolved from theoretical concepts to full-fledged use cases.

Luis Muñoz Villarreal of Traaktion.ai will describe some of these use cases:

"Or how Google Analytics uses ML to better understand how a website user behaves, or how Alexa uses VR and ML to have a full conversation with a machine."

Can find the other examples of AI growth in chatbots, recommendation engines, and SaaS tools that make employees' lives much more accessible.

What to do next

Evaluate your current business processes to determine if there are opportunities to start implementing AI and ML. Many of your existing business processes can be automated through AI, freeing up human resources for other tasks.

Implement AI-based analytics tools into your marketing campaigns to gain new insights that help your customers.

Use AI-powered chatbots as part of your internal operations to answer employee questions, speed up onboarding processes and recommend resources.

3|Voice search is exploding thanks to the IoT.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has long shown promise, but 2021 could be the year we see precisely what's possible. Two areas, in particular, voice search and intelligent speakers, could be responsible for this growth.

It estimates that 8 billion digital voice assistants will be in use by 2023, and 163 million smart speakers are expected by 2021.

The growth of both areas will impact how everyone, from developers to users, interacts with search engines, which means developers and marketers will need to adapt their approaches.

Paul Thornton of Digital Hothouse explains

"Schema markup and structured data will become increasingly important in web development to help search engines fully understand and display your business, products, and services in search results. The options for schema markup are almost endless, among the common.

4| Progressive web apps (PWAs) will replace native mobile apps.

PWAs are nothing new, but their influence expects to grow in 2021.

PWAs offer some benefits that will lead to an increase in their use. The user experience that PWAs offers is unique, and as mobile device usage increases, brands should continue this trend.

PWAs allow websites to load quickly and still function offline. They replicate the in-app experience in a browser and make it easy for developers to create native apps for any device.

What to do next

Creating native mobile apps is a much longer process than creating a traditional website, especially if you need to include personalization elements.

If you're considering revamping your desktop web app, you'll also need to optimize it for mobile devices. Instead of creating two apps, develop your website as a PWA to better customer experience on mobile devices.

5| Smaller businesses will prefer SPAs for app development.

Another already established concept that will continue to gain traction is single-page apps (SPAs). Waiting for pages to load while browsing the internet can be annoying for the user. For this reason, SPAs that allow interruption-free scrolling are becoming increasingly popular.

Large companies like Google and Facebook provide the clearest examples of how a SPA should work. With JavaScript-based frameworks and more and more users, SPAs can expect to be adopted by other companies.

Google's product range, from Gmail to GDrive, are prime examples of SPAs in action.

What to do next

One of the main benefits of SPAs is that they offer faster load times, as only the required content on the page updates, rather than reloading the entire page. They also offer offline caching.

If you have a smaller business, consider building your website as a SPA to reduce development time and improve the user experience 

6| Cybersecurity will become more important

In October 2020, hackers managed to launch a malware attack on Germany's second-largest software company, Software AG, claiming nearly million.

According to Cloudflare, the number of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks doubled quarter on quarter in 2020. In a DDoS attack, hackers flood a targeted server with a torrent of malicious web traffic. The result can be hours of downtime and lost revenue.

As more businesses and employees move online from 2020, it expects that companies and individuals will invest more in cybersecurity to protect themselves.

What to do next

Protecting your company's and your customer's data will be critical in 2021, especially at a time when cyberattacks continue to increase. Here are some steps you can take to prepare:

1| Conduct a vulnerability assessment.

Conduct a vulnerability assessment. While you can start with general measures like installing firewalls, a security assessment can help you identify your current vulnerabilities.

2| Secure your remote access

Ensure all staff use VPNs and that all data is encrypted to prevent leaks.

3| Introduce roles, permissions, and multi-factor authentication.

Restricting access to certain areas of your website or digital platforms can improve your overall security. Require a level of verification other than usernames and passwords for access.

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