Web development trend for 2023: Serverless Architecture
The serverless approach involves two types of architecture: BaaS and FaaS.
Serverless architecture refers to a software design pattern in which infrastructure management tasks and computing services are performed by third-party cloud service providers through functions. These functions are invoked and scaled individually during software development. The vendor handles them entirely:
- Physical hardware challenges
- Multiple infrastructure and operational tasks
The serverless architecture uses cloud environments: there is still a server, but it does not belong to the site or application owner. As soon as a trigger event occurs, the serverless functionality launches - operations are performed in the right sequence (their set depends on user actions). Then the serverless platform runs many ready-made algorithms and rules, does the necessary calculations, and outputs the result. Serverless architecture is especially relevant when you need to optimize the cost of resources and development time.
If you need a serverless architecture, Amazon Web Services are perfect for this.
Web development trend for 2023: Containerized Applications
Because of the growing popularity of serverless applications, containers are relevant. A container is a software package that contains all the dependencies: code, runtime, configuration, and system libraries. Containers are almost a panacea for web-based systems. They are lightweight, fast, and can work at a sufficient level of abstraction (that is, independently of other processes). They also reduce the cost of developing and running applications.
Gartner predicted worldwide container management revenue will grow strongly from a small base of $465.8 million in 2020 to $944 million in 2024. It also predicted that by 2023, more than 75% of organizations worldwide would use containerized applications in production.
Web development trend for 2023: SSG (Static Site Generators)
Classically, most websites and applications work like this:
- User clicks on a link
- The browser sends a request to the server
- The server executes the code and figures out what content to show the user
- The server unloads the desired content from the database into the page template
- The server renders the resulting HTML code and sends it to the browser
- The user sees the desired content on the page at his request.
Static site generators (SSGs) work differently. They create static HTML pages based on a template or components and use a separate source for content. Pros of SSG:
- Simplified technology stack for maintaining static pages
- Better performance - pages are generated in advance
- Security - minimized dynamic content due to pre-rendering equals better attack resistance
The disadvantage of SSG is a big limitation of such sites because you can not just bring the user new content. And you can not change something quickly on a site like this. A normal site has a setting that affects the entire site (phone in the header, for example). You just change something, and it is updated immediately everywhere. For SSG, you must completely regenerate the site for such simple changes.
Static site generators (SSG) are developed with frameworks like Next. js, Nuxt. js, Gridsome or Gatsby. By the way, Figma is based on Gatsby.
Web development trend for 2023: Headless CMS
Traditional content management systems (CMS) use a framework for managing content that combines both the interface (frontend) and the server side (backend). The content is then linked to a specific technology and architecture within that CMS. But such a monolithic approach in modern web environments turns out to be clumsy.
Headless CMS solves this problem. It provides only the server side (the backend) to manage the content through APIs. This allows developers to use one backend to manage the content of several products at once: several websites or a website and applications. It also allows developers to simultaneously automate content distribution through all necessary channels. The key task of such CMS is to store and deliver content, and how it will look to the user depends on the developer's actions.
Pros of Headless CMS:
- Optimization of resources for development
- Unlimited possibilities for structuring and delivering content to the user
- Centralized management of content in several channels
- Content is adjusted to each channel
Disadvantages of Headless CMS:
- Developers need a sufficient level of professionalism because of the complexity
- Justified only in large projects, which initially assume a set of different interfaces of interaction with the user
Headless CMS can be of two types:
- Headless CMS with open source. It is complicated to set up, but the possibility for configuration and maintenance is wider.
- Headless CMS as SaaS (Software as a Service). It is easier to configure and safer but less interesting in terms of configurations.
The top popular open-source Headless CMSs are Ghost, Strapi, and Netlify CMS. Tinder, DuoLingo, Mozilla, and DuckDuck blogs are created using Ghost. IBM, Walmart, NASA, and Societe Generale chose to use Strapi.
Web development trend for 2023: SPA (Single Page Application)
Classic sites (also called MPA - Multi Page Application) update the page every time you change data or download new information, as well as when you go to another section.
SPA (Single Page Application) works differently. On request, all the necessary code is loaded in the browser at once, but it shows only the fragment you need. When the user wants to go to another page, the browser retrieves the data from the loaded code and rapidly displays them without refreshing the page. If necessary, the browser will additionally ask to load dynamic content from the server onto the page.
SPA has been used for a long time. For example, Gmail, Facebook, and GitHub are arranged this way. But it seems that businesses began to look closely at SPA only now to make pages of blogs and directories easier, faster, and more convenient for the end user (especially - on cell phones).
Pros of SPA:
- At the stage of initial loading, the user has to wait a bit, but then he or she can quickly switch between the content of the site and use it for hours (that's why this approach is often used by news portals and blogs, real estate search sites and mail services)
- Simplified development for different platforms - all data are loaded in JSON or XML format, which is suitable for both desktop and mobile
- User-friendliness: since the page is one, you can play with the animations and transitions, and everything will look great as in a real mobile application (even if it is a website)
- Conditional independence from the Internet - if the user manages to load a page, he or she can continue to work offline
Disadvantages of SPA:
- Difficulties with SEO: search robots are looking for individual pages, and here all the content is presented on one - they are not to their liking, so you will have to wizard with server rendering
- Increasing the load on the browser (the user has to download a lot of data at once)
SPA will be highly popular among different businesses in 2023.
PWA and SPA - what is the difference?
PWA (Progressive Web Apps) - a technology that allows a site to interact with the user as an application (to work offline, send push notifications, use GPS navigation and perform other native functions). Google Docs is just a PWA.
SPA - the site is loaded on one page and does not refresh it anymore. It only switches the user between blocks.
Not so new, but they are still trends for 2023
You've probably heard about the trends below somewhere before, but that doesn't stop them from continuing to evolve in 2023.
Progressive Web Apps (PWA)
PWAs are still trending, especially for e-commerce, because they let websites work and look like real mobile apps. This means you don't have to spend money on building your own separate mobile apps (which is convenient and saves resources), but you can be confident that users will like the experience. PWAs are also cross-platform, which is a huge plus (optimizing the cost of creation alone is something to behold).
AMP pages
AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is an open-source mobile acceleration technology. Google announced it in 2015 and now actively promotes it and continues to encourage site owners who use AMP to get higher positions in search results. It sounds almost like an ultimatum, but users don't care as long as the pages load lightning fast.
Chatbots
Chatbots, in tandem with AI, can take care of all the annoying and routine tasks that managers used to have to deal with: answering the same questions, sending the user to the right page, or giving the primary advice. AI chatbots can do even much more:
- Select products depending on search queries and user interests (based on the data collected about the user)
- Personalize the site according to user preferences (down to the color scheme and shape of buttons)
- Analyze a user's mood based on their questions and answers (Big Brother is watching you!)
By 2023, 70% of Internet sites are projected to use AI chatbots. And since the projected annual growth rate of AI between 2020 and 2027 is 33.2%, further use of smart chatbots is inevitable.
Voice search
With the development of speech recognition technology, it seems that voice search will soon be in every online store. Simply because it's more convenient and faster. And if you link it to a visual search, the accuracy of results for the user will increase even more.
Horizontal scrolling
Since users are increasingly looking at sites from mobile devices, we have to change the rules of the game because it is quite difficult to organically fit everything that is on the desktop in the mobile version of the site. Salvation is a relatively new user scenario: horizontal scrolling. It allows content to be displayed compactly and consistently, and users like it because it makes it easier to view sites on mobile screens.
MaybeWorks expertise in web development
MaybeWorks IT staff provider is highly versed in web development and different trends. You can ask us to support your development team in terms of any web development trend discussed above.
The last case was a progressive web application working as a video-sharing social network. The application allows sharing thirty-second videos with twelve-hour self-destruct timer, which can be elongated depending on the video's popularity.
We augmented the client`s development team with Full Stack Developers to:
- Create an application using a Serverless framework in pair with AWS Lambda
- Update the Node.js version to the top-notch one
- Handle integration with AWS (Amazon S3, Amazon Glacier)
- Create the app as user-friendly as possible
- Develop database (MongoDB + mongoose.js)
- Create an admin panel using React + Redux
All in all, our Full Stack Developers joined the project from the very beginning and created the majority of features from scratch.
Feel free to contact us to discuss the assistance of your web development team.
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