Websites are the driver of revenue for every business. With rapidly transforming trends in software development, it has become imperative for web and mobile app development companies to apply the latest frontend techniques and come up with innovative solutions. Speed and versatility stand as the two prime factors when it comes to web application development. Whether it is low-code or no code, frontend development today offers exceptional benefits keeping the entire site scalable and tightly bound with the brand value.
The latest enhancements in the frontend development techniques offer a number of benefits.
This article will walk you through the top frontend development trends to watch out for in 2022. Let us begin by understanding the meaning and significance of frontend development.
Frontend Development in a Nutshell
Frontend development is the process of building a graphical interface for a website by using certain languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It refers to the area of web development that concentrates on how users see a website at their end. It is the process of converting the code created by backend developers into a graphical user interface to ensure that the information is presented in a visually appealing and comprehensive manner.
A frontend developer is responsible for creating all the elements you see on a website, including buttons, links, animations, and more. It is the frontend developer’s responsibility to understand the vision and design concept from the client and implement it by using different frameworks and coding languages.
Frontend developers are in charge of a website's entire look and feel. It includes every element of the website, from the logo to the search bar, buttons, overall layout, and how a user interacts with the web pages. They have to ensure the website is responsive across all devices, including smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers.
To clarify the concept of frontend development, let’s have a quick look at the major differences between frontend and backend development.
Frontend Development V/S Backend Development
What Constitutes Good Frontend Development?
Data: Frontend development is on the front lines of creating and managing a user's experience. By bringing the design together and bridging the path between the backend data, frontend development creates the building blocks that control how users feel about the content they are reading or their actions on a site.
Language: Selecting an appropriate language that is easy to use and enables creating a responsive design is crucial. The most common languages used for frontend development include HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React, TypeScript, and Swift.
Technical Support: It is important to choose a framework with solid backup and support in the coming years. For example, well-known frameworks like React and Angular have the backup of eminent global tech leaders like Facebook and Google, making them more suitable than others.
Business Solution: The end-users seek easy-to-use applications comprising modern, robust, intuitive features. Depending upon the type of business solution and intent, the frontend of a website should be customized. Customers should immediately connect with the website and know what they can use it for.
Below are some other factors that support the notion that frontend development is essential for corporate success.
Importance of Frontend Development
Creates an Enhanced Impression: Frontend, which establishes a web portal’s first impression, aims to astound customers right away with the help of its styling, color schemes, images, and graphics.
Improves Branding: Your logo, colors, fonts, and theme are a few examples of branding elements. When you start establishing an online presence, you must make sure that the branding is consistent. You must apply the same branding elements throughout your frontend development procedures as you do elsewhere in your firm.
Enables Better Navigation: To keep the bounce rate under control and satisfy website visitors, it is crucial to focus on navigation. It is all about making it simple for a visitor to navigate between pages and links so they can quickly discover what they are looking for. With the help of frontend development, the user experience on your website can be greatly improved.
Helps with Visitor Retention: Your visitors will inevitably leave your website in search of more suitable alternatives if it is difficult to navigate through, does not function properly, or is confusing. On the other hand, a good frontend can make people want to come back again and again.
Enhanced Security: Cybersecurity is now a priority because cyberattacks have recently been a major source of worry. Frontend development is important in this case as it guarantees improved site and app performance while also enabling you to protect your products from potential cyber-attacks and data leaks.
Faster Product Development: A huge advantage of frontend development is the ability to build the product faster by using JavaScript frameworks. With the help of top web development companies, you can develop features and programs for your web portal in no time.
More Responsive Features: Frontend development tools help create responsive and fast-loading websites. This ultimately leads to improved customer experience, increased user retention, streamlined buying experience, and better website visibility.
Given the importance of frontend development and the necessity to keep your website updated for the best user experience, below are a few most promising frontend development trends you need to watch out for in 2022!
Frontend Development Trends to Watch Out for in 2022
#1 The Growing Popularity of React, Angular, and Vue.js
When it comes to the most important programming languages for frontend development, JavaScript has always been a staple. In 1995, when the internet was only starting to play a significant role in people's lives, we saw the development of the JavaScript programming language. Since then, the language has changed along with the community and the tech stacks that have been created for it.
The most popular JavaScript frameworks include the following:
- React: The React framework, developed by Facebook, popularized functional, declarative, and component-based approaches. It increases the speed of the development process, is easier to maintain, provides high performance, and holds the potential to reuse components.
- Angular: Google created the Angular framework, which was officially launched in 2016. Unlike other frameworks, the Angular framework provides two-way data binding and comprises features such as highly optimized bundle sizes and faster component loading.
- Vue.js: Vue.js is now one of the most straightforward frontend frameworks. It is versatile and lightweight, incrementally adaptable, and takes all the best features of both Angular and React.
The most popular Cross-platform framework include:
- Flutter: It is a software development kit designed to assist in expeditious Android and iOS app development. It offers apps that run on multiple platforms easily with uniformity and dynamicity. Flutter app developers can create beautiful, high-performance, and exceptional apps that fit businesses' custom needs and requirements.
- Xamarin: It is a streamlined framework utilized to develop apps for Windows, Android, and iOS with the help of C# and .Net, instead of JS libraries and HTML.
- Node.js: It is an open-source environment that aids the creation of server-side and scalable networking apps. Node.js cross-platform apps are extremely dynamic and efficient.
#2 Headless CMS is Maturing and Growing in Popularity
According to Insight Partners, the market for headless CMS software will expand at a CAGR of 22.6% between 2020 and 2027. Companies are gradually changing their content management strategy to adopt a hybrid approach in order to provide consistency and uniformity across different platforms as the user base of online apps grows.
A headless CMS, in theory, is a central store of content that independently operates in the background and uses a web service API to push material across many devices. To understand the term in a simple way, it facilitates entering content and holding it, and the usage of the content is decided later as per the requirement of the developer. The intention is to save API development time. Strapi, for example, is a headless CMS. The strategy lowers a large team's maintenance and production costs while enabling scalable prospects.
In essence, headless architecture is business logic that is provided by backends, packaged in a set of APIs, and made available for any frontend channel. Flexibility is something that headless architecture offers that standard monolithic design cannot.
#3 Responsive Design Methodologies for Mobile-First Websites
To handle development responsibilities on devices with various screen widths, app development companies invented responsive web design. Today, an increasing number of its techniques function in "mobile-first" layouts. Some most common UI design principles are:
- Create meta viewport tags that allow browsers to alter the size and scaling of pages.
- Layouts that may be readily modified to match the viewport should be created using several layout techniques, such as Grid, Multi-Column, or Flexbox.
- Change the size of objects based on the capabilities of the devices using CSS media queries.
- When developing for mobile-first, consider vertical scrolling as an alternative to landscape orientation.
- All UI components should be positioned so users can access them with their thumbs.
- Instead of focusing on tasks that require a cursor, concentrate on those that can be completed with a touchscreen.
#4 Use of Micro Frontend Architecture
A micro frontend architecture was created as an alternative to the monolithic frontend structure, drawing inspiration from microservices at the backend. It is a dissection of the monolithic framework into autonomous parts that resemble independent programs.
Development teams can collaborate on specific parts of a single codebase to create the full frontend by giving them separate components to work on. According to the State of the Frontend report, 24.4% of web app developers have profited from micro frontend since it has increased effective, error-free development and sped up production.
By dividing your huge frontend into manageable chunks, you get:
- Incremental updates and upgrades
- Autonomous, self-contained app components
- Maintainable codebases
- Tech stack freedom
- Independent deployment
Agorapulse is a well-known example of a company that switched to a micro frontend architecture to scale its application. When autonomous teams handled end-to-end feature architecture, the application's multi-threaded delivery process improved in clarity, speed, and user experience.
To scale and enhance the UI/UX, other businesses, including Spotify, IKEA, American Express, Starbucks, and SoundCloud, adopted the same architecture.
#5 Low Code/No Code App Development Tools
The most intriguing development in frontend development trends is the use of low code platforms. While taking care of boilerplate code, these visual app-building tools concentrate on the most important elements—frontend design and logic. It takes time and manual labor to build an app, from problem analysis to conceptualizing, designing, and coding.
Low-code platforms enable more customization in both areas and aid in reducing frontend and back-end economic effort. These tools offer a simple drag-and-drop user interface for building front ends with pre-built UI components that link to databases and third-party apps with ease to get data and perform actions on it. They make it possible to concentrate on the user experience and the underlying business logic.
In brief, platforms for low- or no-code app development are visual environments for software development where Android and iPhone app development companies connect UI components by dragging and dropping them, then build enterprise-ready mobile or web apps.
#6 Rising Dominance of JAMstack
A framework that makes use of JavaScript called Jamstack (JavaScript, API, and Markup) makes it easier to create websites and apps. It offers a user-friendly platform for building cutting-edge, high-performing single-page applications. Jamstack operates on the pre-rendering and decoupling tenet. It divides the frontend user interface and pages from the back-end database apps.
The frontend can easily be deployed globally to a CDN once it has been liberated from the backend servers. The entire frontend is prebuilt into highly efficient static pages and assets before deployment. Pages can be improved and customized by the global frontend, which communicates with the backend services via Javascript and APIs.
#7 Monorepo Approach
With a monorepository, it is possible to manage all the isolated pieces of code in one large repository rather than having to manage several smaller ones, such as one repository for websites and mobile apps. An architectural concept known as a monorepository essentially expresses its entire meaning in its name. All of the discrete code pieces are maintained inside one repository rather than in several ones.
Some advantages of the Monorepo approach include:
- One place to store all configurations and tests
- Easily refactor global features with atomic commits
- Simplified package publishing
- Easier dependency management
- Re-use code with shared packages while still keeping them isolated
- Unified build process
Some businesses keep all of their source code in a single public repository. Monorepos can reach enormous sizes. For instance, Google is considered to have the largest code repository ever, with daily commit rates in the thousands and a size of more than 80 TBs. Microsoft, Facebook, and Twitter are other companies known for operating large monorepos.
#8 AI in Frontend Development
Frontend development needs careful usage of multiple tools and platforms to build an engaging and appealing website. The use of AI in frontend development is important since it can automate repetitive tasks involved in the process. Some of the benefits of employing AI in frontend development include:
- AI can be utilized to increase developers’ productivity by reducing their workload.
- AI can be used to identify effective testing techniques and speed up bug fixes, improving the standard of development. Even bugs that are undetectable by other compilers can be found using AI.
- The most important factor that every frontend developer keeps in mind while creating a website is the user experience. To achieve that, nowadays, AI-based chatbots have become common. They make the communication process comfortable and quick, and can even decrypt human emotions, thereby making the communication look natural.
The benefits of AI in frontend have clearly put this as one of the top trends that developers or development companies should follow.
#9 Employing GraphQL
Facebook introduced GraphQL in 2018 to address the ever-changing requirements of sophisticated applications and problems with RESTful APIs' lack of flexibility. A modern tool that makes it possible to retrieve data precisely is the query language. GraphQL returns a JSON object with all the required data from various sources rapidly as opposed to fetching a single piece of data from numerous sites. GraphQL enables one to query data and mutate it or use it without the interference of back-end developers.
Even the number of requests made to the server decreases via the procedure, lowering programming errors. GraphQL has been used by organizations including Airbnb, Atlassian, Audi, Coursera, Facebook, GitHub, and Lyft for their mobile apps, websites, and APIs.
Some advantages of GraphQL include:
- Businesses can federate their entire API using a single graph for query retrieval.
- Reduces misunderstandings between the client and the server by providing an interface and carefully defined data types for better client performance and effective error handling.
- Enables an application API to develop without interfering with already-running queries.
- Many open-source extensions for GraphQL are available, offering functionalities not found in REST APIs.
- Does not mandate a particular application architecture and can be added on top of an already-existing REST API.
#10 Motion UI in Web Development
An application's performance, receptiveness, and user safety would be useless if it lacked the aesthetics to satisfy its demanding users. Utilizing distinctive designs that stand out from the competition is the best method for businesses to improve user experience and enhance click-through rate. Motion UI facilitates web application developers to create motion within the native app settings.
A new movement that will shape future trends is the integration of motion designs, web animation APIs, and CSS animations in the frontend. The purpose of employing animation is to draw attention to a specific action and make it easier for users to traverse a web application by providing them with eye-catching data.
Motion designs, for instance, can be incorporated while switching between pages, forecasting, displaying graphical changes in a chart, or even as easy as clicking a button to obtain discounts and prizes. Because motion graphics emphasize activity and enhance clickthrough rates for a favorable user experience, Google used them for all of their product lines.
Almost all of the applications we use on a daily basis, like Uber, Facebook, Google Apps, Instagram, CRED, Snapchat, Spotify, and numerous others, have motion animations.
#11 Static and Single-Page Websites
One of the newest front end technologies is static webpages. Static websites, in a nutshell, are those that don't need databases to store data. It implies that a frontend developer may design a static website without the help of a backend developer. They have witnessed a comeback as static websites are far faster, safer, and less expensive to create than dynamic ones.
Additionally, even though single-page websites are nothing new in the world of web development, they are included in the list of frontend trends that 2022 has in store for us because of their advantages. Single-pagers are faster and cheaper to develop, and they are not over complicated with navigation and tons of content to search through. As simplifying everything we do is the main trend in today’s digital world, they are guaranteed to stick around and grow in popularity.
#12 Progressive Web Applications Development
A cross-platform web application known as a "progressive web application" makes use of both conventional progressive enhancement techniques and new browser features and APIs. As a result, it gives a native-like interface with lightning-fast performance on numerous devices.
PWAs were created by Twitter, Instagram, Uber, Forbes, and Pinterest to serve a portion of the population that avoids using their services due to network issues or smartphone compatibility issues.
Embracing the architecture has a wide range of benefits for businesses. For example, PWAs are network-independent apps that can operate without a constant internet or mobile network connection. Through platform-specific characteristics, they offer an experience similar to a native program and are extremely fast to load. What matters most is that these HTTP-based applications are well-secured.
#13 Frameworks with Server-Side Rendering are Gaining Popularity
Server-side web frameworks, also known as web application frameworks, are software frameworks that make writing, maintaining, and scaling web applications easier. They offer tools and libraries that make it easier to complete typical web development tasks, such as sending URLs to the right handlers, interacting with databases, formatting output such as HTML, JSON, or XML, and enhancing security against web attacks.
Frameworks with server-side rendering are gaining popularity because of the following benefits:
- They enable pages to load faster, ultimately improving customer experience.
- As content may be rendered server-side before the page loads, it is excellent for SEO because search engines can easily index and crawl the content.
- Because web browsers favor pages with faster load times, websites are correctly indexed.
- For users with sluggish internet connections or outdated devices, server-side rendering makes it easier for web pages to load quickly.
Demystifying the Myth: Frontend Development is Dying
Frontend development is changing but definitely not dying. frontend development as a discipline is far from dying, and job prospects for individuals looking to enter the area remain promising. However, people fear otherwise as frontend development has evolved massively over the past ten years.
If you were to contrast a frontend developer's daily tasks today and those from ten years ago, you might not believe the two professions ever held the same title. Except for the fact that frontend developers build user interfaces for websites, and the core technologies of their work are JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, everything else has changed.
The foundational technologies have been built upon by a large number of new technologies, libraries, languages, and frameworks to offer fresh and more effective ways to interact with them.
Some reasons why frontend development is here to stay include:
- The demand for frontend developers is growing - BLS has reported that the demand for frontend developers, as compared to 2020, is going to increase by 13% by 2030.
- The majority of the time, website builders are only capable of on-page optimization and offer little to no support for technical SEO adjustments. It is also more difficult to evaluate the technical performance of the sites because they don't enable you to create a custom website structure. Custom-built web solutions are the best course to follow to increase your online presence over the long term.
- Custom web development provides unmatched speed as page builder solutions come with incredible amounts of bloatware and can slow down your website’s overall speed.
- Website builders have little to no customization abilities. Using such builders, getting a website with a unique design or structure is almost impossible.
- The number of frameworks and projects in related industries is increasing - and along with it, the demand for knowledgeable web developers is also increasing.
The Future of Frontend Development
Many people believe that the demand for frontend developers is dwindling because we might eventually do away with screens. Rapid technological transformations have led to the rise of more media that include technology, including virtual reality (VR) and voice-activated assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Home.
However, the goal of frontend development will still be to create user interfaces, but they won't necessarily be graphical. Despite the fact that currently developing forms of technology don't have graphical user interfaces, they still have interaction points for their users. Frontend development deals with these interaction points - graphical or not. Thus, developers still need to figure out how to provide an easy-to-use, accessible user experience with the next-generation web development and web design services.
So, maybe in ten years, frontend developers won't be developing code for web browsers and will be known as UX Engineers—but the discipline won't be going away any time soon!
Conclusion
Besides all the above-discussed frontend development trends, simplicity is the trend that is here to stay. Although we all love attractive websites with animation, it should be noted that your website visitors have low attention spans. So, having an intuitive and easily accessible website that provides great user experiences is necessary.
In this cut-throat competition having a business website is just not enough. It should be scalable, get downloaded quickly, and easily accessible to attract more visitors, eventually resulting in increased conversions and accelerating revenue generation. Thus it becomes crucial for businesses to consider enhancing their frontend projects and follow the latest trends to gain a competitive advantage. The above list of frontend development trends will help your business stay one step ahead of all competitors by incorporating top-of-the-line innovations into your strategy.
If you are looking forward to creating an intuitive, progressive, scalable business website with a futuristic approach, you can get in touch with expert iPhone and Android app development companies and explore the possibilities of building a unique frontend for your application!
