Let’s move back a decade ago. The web was a starkly different place. Smartphone, (as we know them today) was yet to see the light of the day. Internet Explorer was still the dominant player in the domain of browser. Development methods were far distinctive than they are today.
Since that time, we have noticed the emergence of Smartphone and tablets. The usage of the mobile browser has already outmatched the desktop. Development methods have also transformed considerably to keep up with the trends of web development.
So, let’s explore these significant changes and the impacts it had on the domain of web development. The following are some ways in which the development has taken place.
1. The growth of HTML and CSS
HTML5 became popular in the web development industry during 2014, and since then it has gone through many transformations. Various new features and APIs are incorporated frequently. While there is confusion over the implementation of HTML5, it’s transforming the process of web development in a major way: HTML5 is offering the functionalities that will prompt web applications to behave like native apps.
But, it doesn’t just end there. HTML works in tandem with CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) which are also encountering some pretty exciting transformations. CSS is used for enhancing the layout, look and feel of a page. It’s the technology that presents a responsive design and enhances a web application’s capacity to appear in differentscreen sizes anda diverse range of devices.
2. The emergence of Google.com
Today, you cannot imagine the Internet without the Mountain View search engine. For any layman, Google is basically synonymous with the internet itself. Every individual has at least used Google services once in his/her life.
However, until some days ago, surfing the web was equivalent to driving a carwithout the assistance of a navigation system. But presently, 80% of searches across the globe are carried out via Google. In 1998, when Google search services were initiated, rarely anyone had the inkling that it would completely reshape the way we perceive internet today,and that it was the beginning for something huge.
3. Changes in the frameworks for web applications
The rapid growth of open source and commercial frameworks has absolutely transformed the Web development industry as a whole. Given below are some of the changes that revolutionized the sphere of web development.
• Development speed boost. The time for the whole web development process has decreased significantly, owing to the utilization of open source frameworks, such as Apache Spark, Bootstrap, Spring Boot, and so on.
• More development of components and tools. Unlike a few years ago, today, developers have the option to choose from a wide array of development tools with a huge number of media components and visualization tools that are instrumentalin the development of sophisticated web apps.
• Stringent quality control. All the components of these frameworks are built in accordance with the industry standards. The quality of new web applications has starkly enhanced, owing to a much more unified and controlled framework modules usage.
• The initiation of cross-platform mobile app development. The amount of cross-platform mobile app development resources and tools are on an upward swing. These days, there are a variety of frameworks that developers can select from.
4. Shifting away from Javascript
In the age of frameworks and scripts (like Angular or jQuery), the Internet is basically sold on JavaScript. It plays the role of a new lease of life into the websites. Although imagining the internet without this framework is impossible nowadays, until a few years ago, computers were not as impactful (and JavaScript engines were nearly half as potent).
So, it was not unusual for websites to freeze. It only took one simple mistake of a developer for Internet Explorer to bombard the users with alerts of bugs in the scripts. When scripts became common, the developers felt the need tothink about users that don’t have JavaScript (and there were plenty of them).
5. The progress of user experience
After the mobile technologies were innovated, the significance of User Experience is basically mounted up to a great level. While many developers have warmed up to this change, there were some organizations that still haven’t fully absorbed the necessity of UX.
“The user experience can make or mar a mobile app, and that’s transpiring to web applications as well”, says Alan Cooper, a senior programmer atMyassignmenthelp.com. Consumers today are rooting for simplistic approaches. So, the web application should come with an intuitive experience, keeping in mind the consumer’s needs.
Now, fulfilling user experience is not the same as having a good design. It is associated with a particular action that a user performs when navigating your web application. It is associated withthe application speed. It’s about how the application reacts to the consumer. This area has seenan immense amount of growth over the last few years, and the process of change is going to continue.
6. The fading out of Flash
According to the industry experts, the technology that supported various ads, web games, and even entire websites, are slowly fading into oblivion. Although we could still watch videos and browse animated websites, thanks to this technology, people no longer perceive websites as just a collection of static texts, but consider it to be rather a dynamic medium. Flash will soon be turned off or eliminated from today’s web browsers. Over the years, Flash has become outdated, and the loopholes in the plugins make consumers vulnerable to cyber attacks.
So, people who are still hung up on this technology need to switch to more efficient and advanced technology that is available today.
7. The rise of the single page application
As discussed earlier, the development of mobile devices is transforming the web application development. Riding the wave of this change is the popularity of the single page app.
In the past, a website or a web application comprised of several pages,all linked together. The issue with this approach was that pages took too much time to load on mobile devices. Navigating an intricately designed site used to be a harrowing experienceon a mobile device, as the consumers had to wait endlesslyfor pages to load. With time and the proper growth of mobile technology,we’re witnessing applications moving to a single-page approach.
8. The replacements for MYSQL & PHP
Even a few years ago, PHP along with MySQL was the undisputed champion in the realm of Back-End Development. No one even imagined that this technology could someday become irrelevant. Nowadays,MongoDB and Python are receiving more attention from the developers. The significance of JavaScript has refined to the extent that some websites are entirely dependent on JS frameworks.
In conclusion,
The above-mentioned transformations came in with a lot of promises, generated a buzz, and created an impactful multiplier effect, which has taken the web development industry to the whole new level. With time, the newer and more advanced technologies are turning out to be worthy alternatives for the older ones.
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