The new year has just begun and, like every year, it not only brings new opportunities and challenges - trends are also knocking on the door, sometimes quietly, sometimes louder, and want to make themselves heard. Which trends should we look out for and listen to this year? Let's take a look at this for the web development sector.

The trends for 2024

Trend no. 1: Sustainability as far as the eye can see 

No wonder, not just a trend for this industry and also great, because we need more sustainability. It is also becoming more and more prevalent in web development. The CO2 footprint is also being taken into account more and more by developers. Codes are being adapted and the choice of server and hosting providers is also shifting towards green so that we can all contribute to minimizing the environmental impact. What this means for all of us: focus on energy-efficient coding and think carefully when choosing a web host.

Trend no. 2: Serverless architecture or function-as-a-service 

This trend is set to experience an upswing in 2024. The serverless approach makes it possible to run programs on cloud-based servers and eliminates the need for developers to manage servers. Instead, you can focus entirely on writing code and providing functions. Ergo: an opportunity to improve scalability and cost efficiency. Such services are already offered by the big players such as AWS, Microsoft and Google and bring about some changes in cost efficiency. This is because the costs for such services usually depend on the actual resource utilization. This approach is already being used in some companies for chatbots, data collection, IoT apps and image recognition, for example.

Trend no. 3: The integration of AI and machine learning (ML) 

By now, almost everyone knows that we are no longer talking about buzzwords here, but about powerful tools in the developer's arsenal. 

AI and ML play an important role in the back end in particular, as they can be used to automate tasks and perform better and, above all, data-based analyses, which in turn leads to the possibility of data-based decisions. 

For this trend - which is actually not a trend, but a change in the industry and almost all companies - we expect to see innovations in automated (or semi-automated) code generation, personalization and also in the area of predictive analytics. Security can also be improved - for example, AI-based code review tools that can identify potential errors, security vulnerabilities or quality problems very quickly. 

AI and ML also enable better applications in the area of recommendation systems, thereby increasing the chance of better engagement and conversion rates.

Trend no. 4: JAMstack, JAMstack, JAMstack 

JAMstack is based on the idea of pre-rendering and decoupling - in simple terms, it separates the front end from the back end. The result: faster, more secure and more scalable websites. The JAMstack architecture, which stands for JavaScript, APIs and Markup, is changing the way websites are built. It simplifies the developer experience, improves performance, lowers costs and increases scalability and has been adopted by companies like Netlify, Contentful and Gatsby in the web community. Or even by us - Flank 7 - because our WebDev team builds JAMstack sites for our clients every day. 

It's a fascinating trend that we naturally like to keep an eye on, with static site generators and headless CMS at the heart of this trend.

Trend no. 5: Internet of Things 

This trend is also not entirely new and is a rapidly growing trend in software development as a whole. The idea is that there is an interconnected "network" of physical devices that collect and exchange data via the internet - communicate, if you like. These devices can range from simple sensors to complex industrial machines. Anyone who has an Alexa at home, for example, is already following the smart home trend. According to estimates, there are currently around 15.14 billion connected IoT devices, all of which generate huge amounts of data. 

It's an exciting trend and we're sure to see a lot more that will knock our socks off. For example, the topic of digital twins, i.e. the digital image of the connected, physical IoT devices (but also beyond that - a customer or sales process can also be digitally mapped), will certainly bring a lot of new things with it.

Trend no. 6: Virtual and augmented reality

This trend is also nothing new and is also on everyone's lips in other sectors and areas. With VR and AR, we will be able to create and offer users an even more vivid experience, especially in the front-end environment, by seeing, touching and appealing to other senses. The possibilities for interacting with websites will also change and leave us more than amazed. 

It is definitely worth staying on the ball here, as we are expecting big news regarding augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality, especially in e-commerce. Top brands such as Amazon, IKEA and MOSCOT are already showing us a lot here and where the journey will take us. The rest of the world will follow in their footsteps.

Trend no. 7: Progressive web apps 

Progressive web apps will become more of a focus as they bridge the gap between web and mobile applications. They can be used offline, offer fast loading times and platform-independent user-friendliness as well as other forms of user experience - something we will see more and more of. 

A progressive web application, or web app, is a software application that is built with standard web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Web Assembly) and uses modern technologies to provide users with an app-like experience without the need to create or build an app. 

These applications can be accessed via URL, but can also be installed on a device such as a smartphone. This opens up many new opportunities for front-end developers, as it will be possible to develop apps that are fast and can be updated just as quickly and easily.

If you would like to read about other trends for the coming year, you can take a look at the following articles: 

• Front-End Development Trends to Watch
• Back-End Web Development Trends to Watch for 2024 
• 2024 Web Development Trends: The Future of Web Tech That You Can't Ignore

Summary 

The world keeps on turning, you can count on that. And not only does the world keep turning, but we humans keep turning with it - and in the process new ideas, possibilities, opportunities and challenges arise. For web developers, there are not only new opportunities, staying on the ball is just as important. But when you look at what you can learn, it's exciting to discover, isn't it? 

We have presented 7 trends for the year 2024, we are excited to see what really awaits us and what surprises we will experience. 

Take a look at our blog and let other articles inspire and surprise you.