There are more than a billion websites in the world as of today. Websites fall in to many categories like social networks, search engines, wiki, blogs, ecommerce websites, business websites, news sites and there are thousands of other categories of websites. Some websites are very popular like Google, YouTube, Facebook, Wikipedia to name a few and some are being created now as I type this sentence.
There are more than 350 websites which are created every minute. There’s a lot which is happening in a typical Internet Minute. There are thousands of frameworks and Content Management Systems to create websites.
Being the popular one, WordPress is used by around 25% of all the websites in the world. That means every fourth website is built on WordPress as the CMS.
Rather than predicting what will happen in the future of web designing and web development, I would like to take you on a tour on what is happening now which is really innovative, has the potential to disrupt the current web design technologies and will probably be a game changer in the future of web design and development.
1) AI meets Web Design: The Evolution of the Smart Sites
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning will impact web design in a big way. Now, you don’t need a web designer to design your sites. Your websites will design themselves. That’s what The Grid is all about.
All you need to do is to select the type of site which you want to create. You don’t have to choose templates or code or drag and drop elements to design your site. Based on your inputs your site will be created automatically and optimized according to your needs. You just need to upload and create your content. You can upload content and make changes to your site from your cell phones.
They do have iOS and Android apps for you to easily modify your site on the go. The website layout will be adjusted by the AI as per your content and inputs you provide. These Smart Websites will look great on all types of devices and browsers and are fully responsive.
The best part is that your website will be unique in every way. You can add any number of web administrators for your site. That way, your entire team can contribute to your website.
2) One Page Website Design: The Art of Storytelling
Pageless design or one page design or single page design as the name suggests has just one page. A user has to scroll the website for the information rather than clicking on links to navigate to the next page. One page design may not work for all types of niche. But there are certain advantages like intuitive scrolling, provides a creative storytelling experience to the visitor and is highly creative.
It is easier for a visitor to understand what services you offer in your website when they scroll seamlessly because a one page design has a lot of interactive elements. Since it is easier for a user to grasp all the information in a one page site, it performs better in terms of conversion rates as compared to regular websites. Clear Call to Action buttons help in increased conversion rates and feedback rates. Thus increasing the profits for your company.
Also, one page websites are easier to create than any other websites. Although, one page sites may not work for all types of genres, it works best for small and medium-sized businesses and for personal and websites to showcase your story.
One page website designs are one of the most popular and hottest trends and we are seeing more and more single page websites getting created not only by SMBs and SMEs but even by big brands.
3) Responsive Web Design: Customer Experience Redefined
Responsive web design means that your website should work on all types of devices like desktops, laptops, tablets and cell phones. The website should respond to the user’s screen size. Gone are the days where you have to create separate versions for your website for desktops and laptops. If you opt for a responsive website, you don’t have to worry about your visitors devices, orientation, screen size and platforms they are using.
The idea is simple, we don’t know who will access our website and from which location, what are the devices would they be using, what is their screen size? If the website is not responsive and it doesn’t loads well on the visitors screen, we would be losing a potential customer. Hence, all the newly websites design nowadays are focused on responsive website design.
Even the search engines like Google rate responsive websites higher as compared to non responsive ones. A serious online entrepreneur will always opt for a responsive web design. This website, all my websites, my friends’ websites, websites of my clients, websites of my colleagues and the sites of people I follow on Twitter have a responsive website and I recommend everyone to have a responsive website.
So, responsive website may not sound like a futuristic concept? In fact, it is! According to this study, only 11.3% of top 100, 000 websites are responsive. More than 82,000 of top 100,00 websites are not responsive! That’s a lot of non responsive sites out there! Responsiveness is definitely the way forward for the web.
4) Virtual Reality and Web Design: Interactive content and VR on Websites
Virtual Reality is most definitely the next big thing in website design. And that’s what WebVR team is working to achieve it. Now, you don’t need to download any apps to experience VR on the websites. You just need a headset and a compatible browser to experience the Virtual Reality websites.
VR on websites is not just experimental anymore. They are live and kicking. For Example, here is a website that uses VR. To experience VR, you need to click on the enable VR button and put on your headset.
Just like this VR website there are many awesome VR websites showcased at WebVr Experiments.
You can easily create and edit the VR websites from your browser. Below given is an example VR patch by Vizor. Services like Vizor lets you create VR websites by as simple as drag and drop interfaces. You can see how easy it is to create and edit a VR website by using a Vizor browser-based editor interface.
By using Virtual Reality you can can create truly immersive websites, interactive games, architectural visualizations, interior visualizations, interactive advertisements, 3D scenes and art, 3D trailers, 360 degree photos and images, product visualizations and much more! The possibilities are endless!
5) Google Material Design: Rise of Minimalist Websites
Google Material Design is a design language and system which focuses on minimalist design approach. Entire design concept of material design is mobile centric which makes sense as more people are browsing internet via cell phones and tablets as compared to desktops and laptops. Basically, Material Design creates a visual language bridge between the users and the content on the website.
Google Material Design has been widely used by startups and by big brands because of its simplicity and efficiency. By using Material design concepts you can easily create high quality, fully responsive, cross browser compatible websites in no time.
The best part of Material Design is the collaboration tools and components for website designers like toolbars, themes, lists, typography, menus, grids, animations, buttons and other components which you can incorporate in your websites and apps.
6) Web Graphics Library: Incorporating Interactive 3D Graphics to Websites
WebGL is a JavaScript API for adding 3D graphics and 2D graphics to your websites. You don’t need any extra plugins for WebGL. WebGL is incredibly fast and is great for adding complex visual effects in a website.
It is generally used for creating complex 3D and 2D visualizations, 3D video games, 2D video games, 3D and 2D demos, 3D and 2D product visualizations, 3D and 2D presentations and much more! 3D elements looks great in interactive motion and provides a high level of customer engagement and attention.
For Example, here is a classy 3D website of La Haute Societe created by using WebGL.
7) Bootstrap Framework: Create Responsive Websites Faster
Bootstrap is one of the most popular front end frameworks to design responsive websites. Designing your website with Bootstrap is easier, faster, flexible and highly customizable. You don’t have to crate your websites from scratch.
Bootstrap comes with various types of pre designed and developed design elements and components like panels, lists, media, buttons, dropdowns, navigation, pagination, labels, page headers, alerts and plethora of other elements which you can use in your web projects.
Because of these advantages Bootstrap has become the number one choice for web designers and developers for their projects. Right now, there are thousands of Bootstrap contributors who are consistently making it better and it would be interesting to see where it leads to. Currently, Bootstrap is used by 19.5% of top one million websites.
8) Motion UI: Create CSS Animations and Transition in Websites
Motion UI is a Sass stylesheet based library which you can use to create CSS animations and transitions in your site. CSS animations and transitions are trending and it provides an intuitive user experience.
Animations and transitions, if applied correctly helps a user to easily understand the UI. Users can connect with the interface instantly and the experience is far more immersive than the static designs. Animations are also a classy way to grab users attention.
Motion UI is flexible, robust, has a collection of predefined CSS classes, comes with a JavaScript library and has easy customization options.
9) Internet of Things and Web Design: Connecting Website with Smart Devices
IOT is definitely the most futuristic concept for web designers and developers. Now, the websites will be integrated with all your smart gadgets and devices and you can access your connected devices from your website. A smart gadget could be a car, sensor, watch, security camera, industrial machine or a home app. Currently there are hundreds of types of smart devices and more and more IOT smart gadgets are getting built daily.
Companies like Bug Labs have already created successful IOT based tools like Dweet – a tool for connecting and communicating with smart devices and Freeboard – a tool for creating interactive visualizations, control panels, dashboards and widgets for connected devices.
10) Static Site Generators: Create Simple, Fast Loading Websites
Website loading speed is an important factor in user retention and user experience. Nobody likes a slow loading website. In fact, according to this study, 47% of visitors anticipate a website to load in under 2 seconds and 40% of your visitors will leave your website if its taking more than 3 seconds to load.
Website loading speed is too critical a factor which can’t be ignored by web designers and developers. Not just humans, search engines like Google also consider website speed a ranking factor.
That’s where Static Site Generators comes in! A static website does not have a database, it simply has static HTML files which acts as web pages which are served instantly to the website visitors. A static website focuses on content, is highly secure and requires little or no maintenance. Companies like Jekyll helps you to create static sites instantly. Not just the startups, even big brands are adopting the static sites.
Conclusion
Apart from these top 10 trends that I have mentioned above there are plethora of disruptive web design technologies and trends like Ruby on Rails 5, parallax scrolling, asymmetric layouts, big bold typography, package managers, chatbots, Angular JS, use of SVGs, use of grids, use of illustrations, use of videos and many more! It would be interesting to see which technologies and trends will make a bigger impact on the future of web design and development.
Over to you!
Please feel free to let us know what do you think about the future of web design and development? Which web design technologies and trends you think will grow and which ones will eventually fade away? We would appreciate your thoughts and opinions!