Our top 10 web development trends for 2019

1.Motion UI

Web Users are becoming more inclined towards interactive and captivating graphics on web pages. Static images along with flash-based graphics are on the decline while evocative motion UI that is becoming the hot trend today. Graphics that are more captivating on web pages, are required to combat the diminishing attention span of average internet users.

There used to be high popularity for videos previously, but since mobile devices hardly displayed website, they faded into the background. Also, the load speed being minimal, accelerated this problem. Today, a lot of developers are trying to combat these issues.

There is a growing preference for motion UI among web users. To grab attention of users and keep them engaged, we would probably see more efforts regarding motion UI from developers around the world. It would be interested to see how effective this strategy would be in coming years.

2.Voice Search Optimization

As per reports, voice search was multiplied by 35 times from year 2008 to 2016. Today Siri is being used by 19% of population at least once per day. It is estimated that 50% of search queries would be done with voice by 2020.

Voice search is on the rise that is taking its place in search engines everywhere. And technologies like Google Assistant, Siri, Alexa are not only increasing the fame of voice search, but also making consumers comfortable with the feature. Infact, 2 out of 5 people say voice activated devices play major role in their lives. So what would this mean to the developers ?

First, it signifies the importance of making the website mobile responsive. Secondly, there should be a provision to integrate voice search into your website. Fortunately, voice search recognition API can be integrated into your website. The technology is supported by Firefox and Google Chrome, which are world’s largest web browsers. Not only they can search for what they want, but also in the way they need the domain.

3. Single page websites

Single scrolling page websites are on the rise this year. Due to their ease to navigate , their popularity would only be on the rise. They are gradually making their way into website users due to their speed and simplicity of design. Single page website is a long webpage that has no complex menus and torturous navigation. Single page websites run without any problem on both mobile devices and desktop.

Single page websites are accessed with the help of a web browser similar to other websites, but they additionally have the power to deliver user experiences that are more dynamic. They differ from other websites in a way that they significantly reduce the amount of refreshes per page which is done with the help of AJAX. It is a tool that enables the website to transfer information with servers on back-end and render data without the need for executing an entire page refresh into application.

Single page website transfers most of the work that is to be processed towards the client side. This helps the user to load a single HTML webpage and update content on the page dynamically as they interact with the application without having need to refresh it.

4. Chatbots

Chatbots have been around for sometime now but it is finally expected to make a breakthrough in 2019. Thanks to the advancement in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, which has helped them make more efficient and intelligent.

It is predicted that by 2020, over 85% of interactions with customer will happen without a human on the business end. TechEmergence predicts that chatbots will become number one application for all consumers across AI integration in next 5 years. By employing bots instead of humans, businesses could save a lot of money too. Around $23 billion in customer service sector, Chatbots with higher level of customization will be shown up more and more on webpages. The addition of bright colours could only make them more prominent and inviting.

5. Minimalism and Translucent buttons

Minimal design along with translucent buttons is becoming more relevant and functional from the perspective of trends. A modern person is used to structurally and clearly receive information in the kind of form that wouldn’t bother him. Minimalism is one of the most classic and timeless web design trends. Your audience will have to think less if there are less content and fewer elements on a website. The website will show the user exactly what they are looking for, if it is designed in the right way.

The digital landscape will typically be dominated by minimalism in 2019. The webpages will be given freedom to space out their content with the help of animation and fade-in effects that make scrolling more engaging. In turn this would result in more whitespace, clear typography and contrast, without too many distracting elements.

6. Natural-Organic Shapes

Designers are inclining towards smooth lines and natural shapes, despite the fact that webpages are usually setup for systematic grids. Geometrical structures like rectangles, squares and triangle do create a sense of stability with the help of their sharp corners, but trends of 2019 are more concerned with acquisition of comfort and accessibility.

Since geometric shapes are asymmetrical and naturally imperfect, they could help with providing depth to a webpage that would make elements in a page stand out. Although they are nature based (similar to curving forms of trees and hills), but elements that are free-drawn can capture the vulnerability of man-made accidents such as the paint splatter. To feel human and alive through movement illusion is the ultimate goal for web designs. The use of various geometric shapes in web design first began to appear around 2016, and then gradually gained popularity and continues to do so in 2019. As stats show, web users are very friendly to websites that are designed in this way. Although modern effects are also getting recognition, this is not so expensive but this simple decision would be the best option. A skillful display and design of organic shapes would pleasantly surprise the users.

7. Push Notifications

Push Notifications are an effective way to keep the user engaged, and is commonly used by Facebook and Twitter. If there is new content to be viewed on applications or websites, the user is reminded of this by these push notifications. In order for your website to keep generating continuous activity, integrating push notifications into your app or website is an effective method and could also go a long way in generating clientele for E-Commerce platforms.

Due to the tremendous amount of success that they have bought to mobile apps, push notifications have now become important aspects of most websites. Email newsletters are now being replaced by push notifications owing to their easier manageability on both ends of manufacturers and users. Today, they are being used in most websites keeping users notified about newly published content. Their accessibility and usability will be the prime factors in driving their trendiness in 2019 and beyond.

8. Typography

There always has been as eagerness to learn to develop fonts on computer since the days of Steve Jobs, but it turned out very uncertainty and slowly. When illustrations, adaptability and animations were added, the design trends stopped to neglect typography. Typography is the beautiful art of making the text more appealing on being displayed.

However it could be risky depending on your inability to choose :

- Font size

- Perfect fonts

- Proper spacing in-between each character and vertical space between each line you type.

- Textblock width if optimum reading experience is required.

- Deciding the font hierarchy. The hierarchy could be defined with spacing, colours and font weight.

The variety in use of fonts has become bolder, although the law of limited number of fonts still being valid. In 2019, the digital typography collections would continue to be replenished with new letters.  

9. Cinemagraphs

Cinemagraphs are often confused with usual gif animations, but these two effects are not the same and there are tangible differences. Cinemagraphs are basically pictures that are static in nature and only contain a single element that is dynamic. As an example, it can be a composition of coffee house with a table in, both being static, and having a window outside of which a taxi goes. Using modern computer effects, other similar interesting ideas could be implemented, keeping in consideration the psychology of web design.

In addition to cinemagraphs, animations also called as gif, which is also innovative and invariably effective, could catch the visitors attention and help them familiarize with the contents of the site. Another hot trend is 3D Graphics, which are considered to be fashionable, cling and encourage the user to pay close attention.

10. Progressive Web Apps(PWA)

A Progressive Web App is a website that has same functionality as that of a native mobile app. Most brands have experienced significant amount of increase in their user engagement and conversion rates, on making the switch from websites to progressive web apps. They are expected to remain a leading trend in 2019 since they convey the best of mobile apps and websites.

PWAs are easy to install since they don’t require user to hop over to App Store or Play Store in order to download the native app. The users are prompted with message ‘Add to Home Screen’ on the website. On clicking on the prompt message, the PWAs is loaded into their homescreens just like an app. Google is pushing websites to adopt PWAs in order to keep improving user experience and also promising enhanced conversion to businesses. AliExpress is one of the major brands to have benefited hugely from PWAs, which is said to have increased conversion rates for new users by 104 percent with their new PWA.