The Mobile Web Development Trends You Need to Know for 2021

The Mobile Web Development Trends You Need to Know for 2021

We take a deep dive into the latest trends and advances in mobile web development that are shaping what is possible for the avid entrepreneur.

Keyword(s): mobile web development

There are over five hundred million active websites in the world at present. For this reason, it is very important to ensure that your own website is at the forefront of advancement. You should never fall behind in the world of web technology, so you need to know what is happening in the world of technology at all times.

With that in mind, this article will help you understand the world of mobile web development in 2021. By the end, you should have a good understanding of what you need to do to remain relevant in an always-changing arena.

The Primary Factors

Several things have caused major changes in how we engage with web development this decade. One of the main triggers has been, as with many things, COVID. So many businesses have needed to change how their operations work, and web development has followed suit to empower that.

2021 Mobile Web Development

Due to the increased amount of remote interaction in 2021, following the pandemic of 2020, more web apps are tapping into the cloud. This allows people to continue to perform the same tasks when away from their core network. Mobile apps are following suit in that regard.

More mobile apps are allowing people to perform the same actions as the original website, so are not limited in their functionality. Many of these are not standalone downloadable apps. Instead, they are responsive web apps that allow the user to make use of them straight from their browser.

These progressive web apps (PWAs) are often very fast to load and do not cost a large amount to develop. This is due to not needing a significant redesign from existing apps.

Another option many companies are taking is to invest in accelerated mobile pages (AMPs). These are the opposite end of the spectrum, they only allow for the most essential data to pass to the user. This is perfect for low-bandwidth use, blogs, or news stories.

The Blockchain

The blockchain is 2021's "great disruptor", with many web and mobile app experiences making use of it to great effect. The most recent breakthrough in blockchain web technology is the use of non-fungible tokens or NFTs.

Using the blockchain means that only one person has full rights to a single item sold as an NFT. This means that people can claim solitary ownership of art or other digital items.

Understanding how the blockchain works may be central in knowing how a lot of online security will work moving forward. It may have repercussions into 2021 and long into the future.

Personalization

Via ranking of personal choices, using specific areas of a web app, or leaving reviews a site can track a single user's habits. This means that through the use of artificial intelligence, the app can begin to personalize itself.

This form of predictive analytics gives the user exactly what they want to see before they even know they will see it.

One of the most famous examples of this that has existed for years has been Netflix, which gives show recommendations based on the user's history. But as more websites and apps take the same learning on board, we will start to see this pattern more and more.

Touchless interaction

Alexa, Siri, and other systems now put voice search in place as a normal thing, so we can expect to see similar efforts employed in web development. We already have chatbots on many websites that assist people in directing them around the site or to customer service. Web developers are now combining these, to allow people to engage with web apps using their voice alone.

According to Gartner, sites that make use of a voice search can expect to see a 30% increase in revenue by the end of 2021 alone. If this continues, voice activation may even become the default method for making basic or quick searches moving forward.

As this continues, voice chatbots will be able to resolve many more issues, even relegating menus to a secondary function. The user experience of the future is voice, so make sure you do not fall behind.

Micro Animations

As computing devices advance, you can program more complicated responses into applications. This will even be possible without them showing any amount of animation lag. You can create more detailed animations, allowing them to provide better feedback to the user interacting with the web app.

These "micro animations" can create much more intuitive interfaces. This is especially true when the animations occur in response to a micro-interaction. They can say a lot about what is occurring on screen while making use of the least amount of screen real estate.

Some of the best micro animations tell stories about what the user is doing or portray a very specific brand identity. This lets them have a lot of power over and above their functionality. They can also give users a sense of "place" in a website where a snap movement would not portray the same information when navigating.

Microinteractions

Much like micro animations being a method for a web app to give you feedback, micro-interactions are small ways to interact with the app. Examples you may have already used include "Pull to refresh" interactions on social media or autocomplete in forms.

In 2021, with the success of "reactions" on Facebook, more companies are looking for ways to incorporate hover functionality. Icons are starting to highlight on mouseover more often as companies use this tool. Also, buttons on mobile are more likely to have more than one function if the user holds their finger down on them.

What Else is Happening?

You should now have a strong idea of how mobile web development is changing moving into 2021. If you want to make the best use of these changes, you will want an application to suit your modern sensibilities, and we can help with that. If you have any questions about how we can assist you in this, we would be happy to answer them.

Our specialists are ready to talk to you about your development needs, as well as give you options to move forward with. So pick up the phone and get in contact today.