How are Web Applications Changing With Time and What's Next

With time, businesses across industry verticals and market sectors have identified web apps' potential for managing business processes, customer interaction, and other business objectives. To put things into perspective, industry leaders such as Twitter, Trello, Slack and even Gmail are web apps. The sheer convenience these services offer coupled with their user-friendly nature, has made them the ‘go to’ brands in their industries.

The evolution in the design, development, and features of web apps to accommodate businesses' changing requirements was quite natural. Web app developers had to evolve and consistently upgrade their methods. For example reports of Statista published in 2018 advocated the need for high-quality UX by stating that close to 80 percent visitors turned away from web apps with below par UX. So, development teams had to come up with ways and means to ensure top-notch UX in their solutions.

BigCommerce predicts that the end of 2021 will see the global e-Commerce market become a 4 Trillion USD economy. That’s huge!

It’s all the more reason for businesses to rely on web apps. It also means web app development needs to gear up for the upcoming challenges and opportunities.

How’re they going to do that? Let’s take a look.

Voice Search

The year of Covid-19 was also the year for voice search. In the US alone, there were close to 118 million voice assistant users. As per HubSpot, this figure will be more than 123 million by the end of 2021. That’s almost 40 percent of US’ population. Web apps with voice assistants are easier to browse through and time saver for users. And well, stats don’t lie!

WebAssembly

Traditionally, web apps were slightly below par when compared to mobile apps in terms of speed and performance. WebAssembly is here to change that. Web app developers need to up the ante and add WebAssembly in their repertoire. However, to ensure the web app solution performs at par with expectations, users must be on the latest versions of browsers such as MS Edge, Google Chrome and their counterparts.

Content Personalization

Right from Airbnb to Netflix- companies are racing to use Machine Learning for optimum content personalization. Offering personalized content depending on the personal information of users is highly beneficial in enhancing revenues. At the same time, businesses can also achieve unprecedented customer satisfaction. So, there’s no point missing out and lying behind. Content personalization is the future!

Data Security

If the past 3-4 years have proven one thing, it is that data is power. And web apps store & generate tremendous amounts of data. Right from the personal information of users to confidential information of companies- everything needs to be secured. Encryption of sensitive information, emphasis on security testing and prudent selection of third-party services have become the need of the hour. Web app developers will need to be doubly sure of creating secure solutions in the year ahead.

Motion UI and Video Content

The decreasing attention spans of users coupled with the genuinely busy lifestyles imply that web apps need instant interactions. If your web app fails to strike a chord within the first 5-10 seconds, more than 84 percent users are likely to turn away (as per reports of HubSpot). So, how do you hold their attention? Attractive UI and a superlative UX are crucial to your end goal. Usage of motion UI and relevant audio visuals have become crucial than ever before.

The Conclusion

Web Apps have all set to become more and more impactful. So, web app developers need to keep evolving to stay relevant and continue fulfilling clients' needs in the ever-changing business landscape.