21 min readDo you want to build a successful and viable web solution? Implement the most recent trends in web development for 2022 to increase engagement and grow your business.
The modern world is steadily developing, and new web technologies emerge every day. These trends offer a lot of opportunities for entrepreneurs to engage more users. They also ensure that companies stay competitive in the market.
In this article, we want to share the top 14 latest trends in web application development in 2022 that you should know about. By implementing some of them, you will be able to create modern web solutions. These may include a SaaS app or a minimum viable product that later will be turned into a fully-featured application.
1. Progressive web applications
Among the top trends in web development, we should mention the PWA technology. A PWA is an application that works as a website with an almost full native mobile app experience. It runs independently of the browser and interacts with the customer as a native application.
Let’s look into the pros of PWA development in more detail and see what positive changes they bring to both users and business owners:
- Reduced development and support costs;
- Quicker launch to the market;
- Easier distribution;
- Saving device power and storage;
- High speed;
- Offline usage;
- Better engagement and conversion;
- Seamless maintenance and updating.
Are you curious about this latest website development technology? Then check our thorough article to learn about progressive web application development costs.
Why should you care about progressive web apps?
According to Ericsson’s research, global mobile data traffic is projected to become 4.5x larger and reach a monthly amount of 226 EB in 2026. It means that people will start using their mobile devices more to satisfy different needs. Moreover, by 2026, 5G networks will carry 54% of total mobile data traffic that will provide faster and more responsive mobile services.
Although this technology is comparatively new, PWA development is not rocket science. At the same time, it allows businesses to stay competitive in the modern market. That is why all the web apps the Codica team builds are progressive by default.
For example, here is an activity booking marketplace built by our team. This platform is a progressive web app, which helps the client launch fast and save costs on mobile app development.
One of the important aspects of building a PWA is creating a UX/UI design that emphasizes user experience. Progressive web apps should be as close as possible to native apps in their look and feel. Also, it is vital to create intuitive UX and visually-appealing UI design.
Finding an extra way to engage with your mobile users is a sound investment in your relationship with potential or existing clients. Thus, the PWA is one of the most popular web development technologies.
2. Augmented reality (WebAR)
Augmented reality has penetrated our life. It is used in mobile devices, education, healthcare, and games. According to Statista, the global AR, VR, and MR market will rise from $30.7 billion to $300 billion by 2024.
Even though this may be a challenge for e-commerce website owners, they use AR technology to enhance user experience. Amazon, Sephora, IKEA, and MOSCOT are prominent examples of e-commerce brands that use AR.
Such AR experiences are available on a website via a browser, so the solution is also called WebAR.
Along with the latest web development technologies, AR solutions for e-commerce websites help to:
- Reduce time for service;
- Allow customers to try goods before buying;
- Enhance the user experience;
- Make shopping in online stores more tangible.
AR technology allows creating virtual showrooms, which gives the customers a real-store experience. Amazon applied AR technology that enables customers to look at how the furniture fits the room. Thus, buyers can choose from many styles and be sure about selecting the right product.
Source: amazon.com
3D products enable customers to get a virtual in-store experience and try-on items before buying them.
For example, Shopify implemented a solution that allows sellers to create 3D versions of the goods. Thus, customers may see realistic versions of the articles that they want to buy. Below you can watch a video that demonstrates how 3D models of articles fit the room space.
As AR/VR technology reduced the gap between ordinary and online stores, it improved the customer experience and will likely evolve in 2022.
3. Artificial intelligence (AI) and bots
AI assistants and bots can learn, collect data, or solve complex issues. This domain is considered one of the most influential technologies that shape the future of web development. Thus, the community demand for AI-enabled communication will become more widespread in 2022.
Nowadays, we can see dozens of AI chatbots, virtual assistants (Alexa, Siri, Cortana), and voice bots as the latest web industry trends. These technologies allow businesses to engage and upgrade human interaction. When building a marketplace platform, chatbots will help you enhance the customer experience.
AI chatbots help millions of people and lots of businesses perform operations faster by using text or voice chats. Nowadays, it is essential to consider the latest website development technology trends. And in view of the spread of AI chatbots, it is crucial for businesses of all sizes to provide continuous customer engagement.
Let’s look at the statistics that leave no doubt whether the future of web development will support AI-powered chatbots.
Source: kindly.ai
Do you want to know how to build a chatbot for your company’s needs using Vue.js and Ruby on Rails? You can check our article on how we created a time tracking Slack bot that helped boost our team’s productivity.
4. Voice search
Back in the day, information was all about the text. But as time goes, more and more Internet users prefer communicating with audio over using text information. That is why the Web uses audio and speech interpretation as one of the most rapidly emerging technologies in web development.
The voice assistant market is projected to grow from 2.8 billion in 2021 to 11.2 billion by 2026. 51% of consumers use voice-enabled devices to research products.
Recent web development technology trends stress the importance of voice optimization for websites. Most companies want to ride the wave that will shape the future of the Web. That is why they enhance their digital products with the capabilities of voice search.
Voice search optimization brings many advantages both for users and business owners. The main benefits of using this technology are as follows:
- Saving time and allowing a user to order more products;
- Serving as a source of customer behavior analytics.
You may wonder how to optimize your website for voice search. Below, we have listed the measures you can take to follow this latest trend.
- Use natural language with direct answers to specific questions.
- Draw on schema markup and rich snippets for better indexing by search engines.
- Optimize your website content by eliminating duplicate pages and updating important information.
- Control domain authority (DA) of your website and other traditional search rankings.
- Use the Web Speech API that facilitates the implementation of speech recognition to your website.
Voice search and navigation is one of the most exciting website technology trends you should not miss. It has already changed the Internet, and experts anticipate this technology to enhance its impact even more.
5. WebAssembly
WebAssembly is the most discussed new technology trend for 2022. Also known as Wasm, this tool allows developers to create high-performance applications. WebAssembly integrates with web browsers. It can be used for the development of various solutions, such as 3D environments and cryptographic computations.
Web systems are mostly written with Javascript. But running applications with complex logic makes it difficult to bring near-native performance. If the website runs multiple operations, it brings delays and slower loading and hinders the promotion of your web content.
It does not mean that JavaScript should be abandoned. Instead, these two instruments should go in parallel so that developers can win the best from both of them.
WebAssembly is the latest website development technology. It allows developers to create code using any programming language. The code is transformed into bytecode and launched in the browser.
The main benefits of WebAssembly include:
- Simplified and streamlined development;
- Better performance;
- Fewer interferences related to page loading;
- Using open development platforms;
- Lightweight;
- Compatibility with any hardware and language;
- Easy debugging;
- Security.
WebAssembly is a perfect choice when you create web applications with faster loading in mind. This latest trend in web development brings flexibility and speed for websites.
Source: arghya.xyz
All sorts of applications have used WebAssembly so far: gaming, port desktops, and the Web. Autocad and Figma are prominent examples of using this tool.
Such popularity makes WebAssembly one of the top web development trends as of 2022.
6. React is still on the rise
In 2022, React will be one of the most popular web development technologies. React is used by over 9 million websites. It ranks first among the most commonly used web frameworks, and its downloads see steady growth. This makes React an instrument that will be in demand in 2022.
Source: npmtrends.com
The reasons for this are:
- Wide range of tools;
- Stability and accuracy in work;
- Modifications for separate components;
- Fast rendering;
- Ease in testing;
- Shorter page load time;
- Suitability for high-load systems.
Many developers can work on the same code with React, and the app structure will be preserved. Due to its modular design, React code is easier to maintain. Its flexibility saves maintenance costs and time for businesses.
Recommended reading: Vue.js vs React: Comparison of Two Most Popular JS Frameworks
With React, you can modify a particular component without affecting other elements of a solution. The framework is versatile and allows easy customization. Thus, it enables building rich interfaces and improves the user experience.
Startups and branching businesses adopt React solutions. So, this framework will remain among the leading web development technologies in 2022.
You may also like: Top JavaScript (JS) Trends to Watch in 2022
7. Serverless architecture
2020 and 2021 were marked by the enforced work-from-home shift due to the continued spread of Covid-19. That is why cloud SaaS solutions have expanded even more recently. And the Web, as one of the most rapidly evolving domains, documented a significant increase in the demand for serverless architecture.
The State of the Cloud Report by Flexera states that 99% of enterprises use at least one public or private cloud. It only proves that cloud architecture is one of the main future trends in web development. You can see the illustration below.
Serverless computing, being one of the most interesting current web trends, can boast of many benefits. The main advantages of this approach are as follows:
- Enhanced scalability;
- Faster time-to-market;
- Cost-effectiveness;
- Delegated maintenance.
Do you want to know more about cloud computing? You can clear things up by reading our article on the main cloud computing models: SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS.
Serverless development implies that programmers build and run their web apps without a need to think about servers. In fact, these apps still run on servers, but they are supported by cloud providers.
This way, the business logic of serverless software systems is executed by the provider, and the same goes with server management. Among the serverless computing services providers, we should mention Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.
8. Core Web Vitals
As the Web becomes more sophisticated, enhancing your website as per new standards is essential. Core Web Vitals, provided by Google, are such a standard.
For a better user journey, a website needs to be well-performing, responsive, and visually stable. That is why Google has outlined and named them as follows:
- Largest contentful paint (LCP) shows the speed of loading the most significant piece of content on the screen, be it an image or a block of text.
- First Input Delay (FID) shows how fast the website reacts to the first action. For example, a click on a link or image.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) shows the stability of the website’s visual elements.
Source: searchenginejournal.com
Optimizing for these three pillars makes the website fast-loading and stable. This brings an enhanced user experience, which means customers will stay longer to look through your website.
The metrics don’t describe the user experience in detail, but they help developers remove the issues according to these data.
Here is the list of the essential tools to measure your website’s optimization for Core Web Vitals:
- PageSpeed Insights gives you data about your website’s performance and advice on improvements.
- Google’s Lighthouse monitors performance and provides SEO checks.
- New Core Web Vitals overlay visualizes and measures your page performance.
- Google’s search console gives you insights into how well your website performs.
As these metrics are a new technology trend, Google allows slow adaptation to them for businesses. Core Web Vitals standard aims to improve websites for users, thus promising to be a trend for 2022.
Recommended reading: Leading SaaS Trends for 2021 You Shouldn’t Miss
9. Mobile-friendly websites
Though this trend is not brand new, it is still worth noting. The rapid growth of mobile users explains why the mobile-first approach will affect the future of web development vastly. According to DataReportal, the number of mobile users worldwide reached 5.29 billion as of October 2021.
For this reason, the future of the Web depends on mobile-friendliness largely. It allows businesses to cover a larger amount of mobile users and boost conversions.
What does this latest trend of web technologies mean? In fact, mobile-friendly website content looks appealing not only on desktop computers but also on mobile devices. That means that the text is easily readable, links and navigation are clickable, and it is easy to consume the content in general.
Apart from the user experience boost, mobile-friendly websites rank higher in search results. Back in 2015, Google’s development team released a mobile-first indexing feature. This way, Google started the era of mobile-friendly websites to engage more users worldwide.
10. Motion UI
This web development trend falls within the design of web products. According to the Top Design Firms’ report, half of the customers (50%) consider the website design essential for the brand.
To a greater extent, web design is not about fancy pictures. It is about creating intuitive and responsive interfaces that your users will love. Motion UI is based on extensive research, and when you use it properly in your website’s design, it can boost page conversion rate easily.
According to the Chartbeat research, you have less than 15 seconds to grab the attention of your website readers. And Motion UI, being one of the latest web development trends, is great at coping with this task.
Source: ZURB
Motion UI is a powerful front-end library for the creation of customizable animated UI elements. With it, you can construct modular scrolling, background animations, or animated charts. All of these and many other elements will help express your unique style and keep your user entertained. Motion UI turns out to be even more helpful in progressive web app design.
Also, Motion UI helps boost your web app rankings in search results. This way, Motion UI is one of the most important modern trends in web application development that make the UI design process simpler and faster.
11. Single-page applications
Single-page apps (SPA) remain one of the most critical current technology trends in web development. A SPA is a JavaScript-based web application. It avoids loading separate HTML pages from a server to show a specific page to a visitor. Instead, a SPA loads only markup and data to dynamically render them on a single web page.
Using this latest website development technology, visitors feel like they browse a single page for all their needs. Among the most famous single-page applications, we can mention Gmail, Google Drive, Facebook, and Twitter. Besides, SPA technology can boast of great cross-platform nature as most devices support it.
The main benefits of SPAs include:
- Simplified and streamlined development;
- Increased performance;
- Reduced interferences related to page reloading.
It is a perfect choice when you create responsive websites with the support of mobile, tablet & desktop apps. The latest developments on SPAs are made using React library that makes it functional and suitable for hybrid apps.
All this made single-page applications one of the top web development trends as of 2021, and it’s likely to continue in 2022.
12. Internet of Things (IoT)
The Internet has changed education, management, healthcare, and even the way we interact with our friends. According to Internet World Stats, 93.9% of the population uses the Internet 81 daily in North America. Considering the business aspect, most companies made their operations digital.
The increased impact of the Internet on our lives made it possible to start an industry called the Internet of Things (IoT). What does it mean? Actually, it means connecting home devices, appliances, or wearable technology to the Internet. IoT makes lots of your devices accessible via your phone.
Why has IoT proved itself as one of the most powerful web development trends? The matter is that IoT-connected devices create constant data transferring. It allows companies to offer their services to engage with users as fast as possible, creating a personalized experience.
One of the most famous IoT device examples is Google Nest smart speakers. It is a smart IoT device that allows users to enjoy features like media, alarms, lights, and other functions just with their voice.
Does it make any sense for the web development domain? For sure, IoT will create advanced communication between website layouts and operational models. The trend has an overall intensity of things like sensors, cameras, and signaling equipment. It will ensure to solve client requests more effectively and offer the most relevant responses.
If you want to make sure that IoT is one of the most rapidly emerging technologies in web development, take a look at the chart by Statista. It shows that IoT-connected devices will reach nearly 38.6 billion by 2025.
IoT is one of the most powerful tech trends that will shape the future of web development. The technology offers the following benefits:
Scalability
It assures data distribution and collection but doesn’t depend on the volume of data.Reliability
Considering data collection and delivery, IoT provides accurate results without delays and errors.Support and security
IoT provides powerful security technologies that help protect both business and user data.
13. Blockchain technology
Put it simply, Blockchain provides a two-sided transaction event. It means that each transaction is verified by a decentralized distributed network. This way, you will definitely know what data is verified and clear.
Blockchain is one of the rapidly emerging technologies in web development, and it offers the following benefits:
- Decreases the financial business expense;
- Lessens the quantity of transaction contract;
- Enhances the cash flow provided by transparent records/data.
In terms of web development, Blockchain is one of the new web development technologies that provides such advantages as:
- Smart prediction system;
- High web pages interactivity;
- Data security;
- Safe transactions.
Do you want to know how to implement Blockchain technology in your web app?
For a new insurance web app, the Codica team needed to implement ultra-secure data storage and payment processing. For that reason, we integrated Blockchain technology.
Thus, the delivered solution assures that all the customer financial data is reliably protected.
14. Cybersecurity
Security should always be a concern, and in web development as well. With more innovations and data, the threat of cyber attacks grows day by day. As the pandemic carried on, hackers used new attack patterns.
Website breaches result in stealing users’ sensitive data, and customers want their data kept secure. Thus, companies aim to apply the best instruments to protect the data on their websites. Along with the latest web development technologies, web security tools ensure safety for users.
By 2024, organizations using cybersecurity will reduce the financial loss due to security incidents by an average of 90%.
So, it is essential to use technologies that will prevent your website’s vulnerabilities and protect your customers in 2022. This helps you stay safe and secure.
You may also like: SaaS Security Guide: How to Protect Your Product and User Data
Final words
In 2022, the current trends in web development will transform the way businesses can interact with their clients. In our article, we have discussed emerging technologies in web development that boost user engagement. Adopting the latest technologies, websites can stay competitive and offer a great user experience.
We have listed the top 14 new web development technologies that promise to proceed in 2022. Are you looking for a reliable custom software development partner to help you implement them? Our team will be glad to transform your ideas into reality and uplift your business.
Contact us to discuss your project, and our experts will help bring it to life.