Top 10 Web Dev Trends: What's Hot & Happening in Web Development In 2024

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AI swept the scene in 2024 and disrupted (many would say wreaked havoc on) many fields, especially content writing, web development, and digital marketing. Chat GPT was followed by Bard and Gemini. But AI took many other forms including chat bots. 2024 also saw the expansion of tools like Server less Architectures and PWAs. It also saw the rapid phasing out of older technologies.

Many of these trended this year. Yes, the year is a little over halfway over, but it’s time to explore 10 trends that will remain popular this year. You’ll learn how you can leverage these trends to your advantage and what the expected learning curve for mastering these tools is.

Apps Now Come With AI

Chat GPT and other AI tools are becoming more and more popular with many larger corporations, marketers, and content creators. It helps them create more decent text and image-based content faster. This trend will continue and expand this year. Expect to see customized AI-powered chat bots replace more conventional forms of support. These include, but aren’t limited to support portals and documentation pages.

So, support staff will need to learn how to use AI when assisting customers. They need to learn how to program AI functionality into these chat bots as well.

How To Ride the Trend

You must familiarize yourself with the different and popular AI platforms on the market. You need to learn their APIs and SDKs. That knowledge will assist you in integrating the tools into different platforms. You can start with the documentation of AI platforms. A great candidate is Open AI.

It takes about 1-2 months to master the basics of these AI tools.

AI-Based Developer Tools

Many marketers have started using standard tools that have been revamped to have an AI-core integrated into them. Examples are Cursor (IDE) and Ray cast (Launcher.) Both increase marketers’ efficiency and productivity by allowing them to perform routine (and often repetitive) tasks using AI. An example is debugging coding, which you can do faster with one of these tools.

You can even use these AI-based tools to write code for you. And that’s why many developers are using tools with ID Eextensions like GitHub Copilot. These tools provide developers with detailed suggestions to make writing code faster, effective, and more efficient.

How To Ride the Trend

The best way to ride the trend is to learn how to use these tools. You can integrate some of the tools mentioned above with your current workflow. Once you’ve done that, experiment with them to understand how they can make you more efficient and productive daily by improving your workflow.

It will take you about a week to master these tools.

Server less Architectures

Many cloud providers have found that more and more entities and marketers are adopting their server less services with each passing year. These include AWS, GCP, and Azure. That trend doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down any time soon either. People are probably flocking to server less architectures because they’re much easier to use. Also, they don’t have a server, so there is little physical infrastructure to manage.

It’s not surprising that many applications are emerging that can run these back-end services. SaaS apps are a great example of these.

How To Ride the Trend

It helps if you spend some time learning how to use a cloud-based server less architecture. You should learn how to use them in the various apps that you use as well. You should start with AWS because it is the most popular server less architecture and has lots of documentation. It also has lots of easy-to-follow tutorials if you’re a more visual person.

It will take about 1-2 months to gain basic proficiency in server less architectures.

Jamstack

This static site generator was introduced on the market in 2015 and has remained highly popular since. Jamstack adoption grew by30% last year. The same trend is expected to continue this year. So, if you haven’t started to familiarize yourself with Jamstack, it’s high time that you did.

How To Ride the Trend

You should explore static site generators and Headless CMS providers to understand how they work. Good examples of static site generators include Next.js and Gatsby.

You can learn the basics in a few months. However, it will take you about three months to fully master Jamstack.

Animated UI and Engaging UX

Humans now have a severe case of ADHD. The stats support that. The average human attention span declined by about 25% from 2000to 2015. The average human attention span is now less than 8.25 seconds. Since people are easily distracted, you must make your website more engaging from the start.

A good way to do that is to use animated interfaces. You can also use transitions. These will keep users on your websites for longer by engaging them. You can use many web development tools and libraries if you need help. A good example is Framer Motion. This tool lets you add smoother transitions, animations, and even 3D elements with a few clicks of the mouse.

How To Ride the Trend

You should experiment and practice using popular tools and libraries. That will help you develop your knowledge and skills base when you do build engaging sites.

It will take you less than a month to master these skills.

Dark Mode

Developers have long loved Dark Mode. But its popularity has skyrocketed recently. However, even non-developers are falling in love with Dark Mode.

How To Ride the Trend

The best way to familiarize yourself with Dark Mode is to implement its designs into your brands. You should also experiment with different tools and frameworks that make implementing Dark Mode much easier.

It will take you a few days to master Dark Mode.

TypeScript Adoption

TypeScript has many useful benefits and features. So, lots of people want to use it. Some of these include improved error detection, improved collaboration, and improved productivity. Developers now prefer to use TypeScript instead of Java (which used to be their go-to script when developing brands.) TypeScript is now the third most popular programming language for open-source projects.

Its usage is only expected to expand and accelerate as more and more developers embrace it.

How To Ride the Trend

Take the time to learn TypeScript now. Also, familiarize yourself with its features by using it in your projects from now on. You should also integrate it into new projects. It works well with popular frameworks like Next.js.

It takes 1-2 months to gain basic mastery of this programming language.

Component-Driven Design and Development

Year-on-year frameworks and corresponding libraries like React and Vue recommend component-driven design and development practices. So, it’s not surprising that these types of practices have gained popularity in recent years. But component-driven design and development has been gaining popularity for other reasons like improved collaboration, simplified communication, and less code duplication.

How To Ride the Trend

You need to really learn  how component-driven design and development work to master it. You also need to learn how they work with your projects and can improve them. You need to learn how to integrate them into your projects as well.

It takes at least one and as many as two months to gain basic proficiency in component-driven design and development.

Headless CMSs With a Visual Experience

People are starting to fall out of love with traditional CMSs like WordPress, and they are starting to embrace Headless CMSs. that’s especially true for Headless CMSs with a visual editing experience. A good example of that is Prismic.

How To Ride the Trend

You can and should experiment with and thoroughly explore various Headless CMSs. try building your latest projects on them. Integrate various tools into them to understand how they can create better design and experiences for users.

It takes 2-3 weeks to master Headless CMSs.

API-First Development

These types of structures have skyrocketed in popularity as Headless CMSs and Jam stack architecture have. You can easily create bespoke applications with these tools that integrate many tools themselves. That helps you create great desktop experiences that also deliver content across all channels.

How To Ride the Trend

You need to learn how to implement API-first development into Headless CMSs. you must also be proficient in REST and Graph QLAPI’s work to serve data. That’s because these are the foundation of the API-first model.

It’s best to practice designing the API model before you create the content.

It will take you two months to gain basic mastery of API-first development

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