Regardless of the business, you’re in, it’s rather significant to follow trends in all areas to keep up with innovations and thus attract customers and maintain good business continuity. The website is the first place where potential customers will look for information about you, and that’s why it needs to be modern, accessible, and easy to use. All this is achieved by constantly introducing innovations and implementing the latest trends by your web developer.
Web design novelties are continuously changing from year to year – something that was completely cool two years ago will probably be considered obsolete this year. Indeed, this sphere is constantly evolving, which is why the future of web development is unpredictable and demanding. As time goes on, new ideas come up on how to better adapt the whole system to users, including those from vulnerable groups, how to make it more understandable and how to make everything quickly and easily accessible with a few clicks.
Some manufacturers market their products through websites, while some of them require a well-programmed application for making it easier to make purchases, as it’s the case with clothing or footwear retailers. In both cases, a professional programmer is a must – the one with innovative ideas, and as Fyresite says, with a lot of specific skills and attributes.
If you’re planning to start an online business or in case you’re simply involved in web development, we bring you some ideas for 2024 that can help you keep up with the times.
1. More environmentally friendly hosting
Awareness of environmental protection is growing among people. Everyone’s aware of the consequences that human actions leave on nature, and everyone wants to contribute to reducing the negative impact in some way. There comes the need for green hosting, which, according to experts, will become increasingly popular in the years that will follow.
Green hosting is a concept that includes blogs and websites which are hosted through servers that are more environmentally friendly and energy-efficient. It also requires more energy-efficient storage, so it’s assumed that cloud data storage will take on even larger dimensions than before.
2. Loading time reduction
Loading time is something that can be quite annoying if it takes too much time. People generally don’t have much patience – what they expect is quick information. Websites in most cases have an average loading time of eight seconds – however, given that the Internet’s increasingly being accessed via smartphones, this time is now considered too long.
What can developers do about it? Their task involves new designs, which are less burdensome and thus allow easier and faster loading. On the other hand, it must be attractive enough to keep the visitor on the page and satisfy the information needs they came for. This is a pretty complicated aspect, so some developers focus exclusively on that.
3. A single page
A website with a single page is something that can be seen quite rarely. There are usually a few pages that sometimes tend to turn into a pile of chaotically arranged information and make readers leave in no time. In addition to the financial benefits that are achieved when you stay on one page, this concept helps you achieve a certain simplicity and the exact amount of information you need to expose.
In fact, the main reason for applying this trend is the mobile responsive website. It’s much more adapted to the screens of mobile devices, and with a simple scroll up and down users can find out more about what they’re interested in. Catering companies are increasingly adopting this idea, making menus accessible and clear at all times.
4. Gif animations
A few years ago, the video gained great popularity as an animation element. For website visitors, the text became insufficient to get a true picture of what they were reading, so they fell in love with this type of graphic display.
The biggest enemy of videos is slow loading which often causes readers to give up and switch to another page. This leads to the loss of visitors and potential buyers, which is why an alternative solution was necessary. Thus, in the popular graphics of motion, animations begin to take the position that videos had once. This includes gifs, integrated animations, custom illustrations, etc. Gifs send an attractive animated message that’s shorter than a video and less burdensome for software but catches attention just as effectively.
5. Voice searches
The fast pace of life leaves so little time for everything, which is why the Internet search has started to compensate for this. Just admit it – how many times have you thought it would be easier for you to simply say the question you wanted to ask the search engine instead of typing!
All drivers, cooks, or other people whose hands are often busy and who need the help of the Internet at that same moment will simply love the sites designed in this way. Voice commands are a feature that every internet user would like to possess, and this trend is also expected to start growing from 2024.
6. Websites tailored to users with disabilities
Health vulnerable groups should be able to function in the same way as all other people. One of the mandatory functionalities of the sites should be their accessibility to everyone. In this way, people who have a sight or hearing problem, as well as those who can’t use the keyboard and mouse, may be able to use all those sites.
The ideas that keep going in this direction can be rather useful for such people, but they could also bring certain benefits to positioning the page on Google. With this arrangement, it reaches the very top of the search and can expand the number of potential readers and users quite easily. Tools like Speech Navigation and screen readers are just some of the technologies that can help.
7. Customer support via chatbots
Pop-up chat windows in one of the corners of the screen are another trend that was sought after for a long time. It’s believed that from this year it’ll become even more popular, especially in the customer support service field. Artificial intelligence enables the solution of various user requirements through the ability to analyze data. What makes them even more advanced is the possibility of cognitive “human” actions, such as empathy and common sense.
The greatest thing about chatbots is that they’re available to customers 24 hours a day, adapting the service to people from all time zones.
The need for new trends in web development is constant and regardless of whether you’ve been doing your job for a long time and have enough clients or are just planning to enter the market, you should keep up with them. All the details that’ll make your website more accessible can result in a position at the top of the search and attract more potential users. Suggest to your developer some of these seven trends and consult with him – we guarantee it’ll be a step ahead of everyone else!
Kim Marks 
Nicola Holder