As we approach the end of this unpredictable year, it is perhaps too early to make predictions about trends that may dominate in 2023. Generally, we take a look back at the influential trends of the current year before making assumptions about the ones that may be prevalent in the upcoming year. However, it is wise to keep a close eye on the trends in frontend web development on a regular basis.
Due to the rapid evolution of frontend web development trends, it is essential for web development teams to remain up-to-date. Therefore, I believe it would be beneficial to conduct research to gain insight into the current trends, as well as those which will be most prominent until the end of 2023.
The Rise of Gatsby
Many businesses are now opting for SPAs (Single-Page Applications) to provide their customers with a more efficient and user-friendly experience. SPAs are known for their speed and ease of development, along with their intuitive interface. Unfortunately, they are not well-suited for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) purposes, as search engines can struggle to access and index the data due to the presence of a JavaScript layer.
By utilizing Gatsby, web developers have found an effective approach to optimize SEO for SPAs. Gatsby is a web development framework which combines React, GraphQL and Webpack to build static webpages. For those unfamiliar with Gatsby, it is an invaluable tool for SEO.
In order to resolve the issue with wrapping, Gatsby could benefit from pre-rendering capabilities. This would allow Gatsby to bypass server-side rendering at the time of the request. If you have a single-page application (SPA), web crawlers may not be able to access the application programming interface (API), however, they will be able to access a fully rendered HTML version of the website stored on the server, which will make the crawling process much simpler.
Gatsby is becoming an increasingly popular choice amongst web developers, due to its simple and effective solution to a long-standing issue. Its ease of use and widespread availability make it an ideal choice for those looking to create high-performance websites.
Micro-Frontend Architecture Is Becoming More and More Common
Micro-frontend architecture is gaining recognition as an effective approach to developing the front end of websites and other web-based projects. This is backed up by evidence; the architecture has already been adopted by leading companies such as Spotify, IKEA, American Express and Starbucks. It is highly likely that other businesses will follow suit.
As a result of the numerous benefits, there has been a renewed interest in micro-frontend design. This design offers advantages such as simplified development and maintenance by compartmentalising the frontend into smaller, independent components.
This architecture draws from the principles of microservices to offer increased flexibility, ease of development, and improved coordination between developers. The resultant benefits for web development teams are a reduced codebase, more scalable projects and autonomous deployment, leading to a reduction in time and effort over the management of large or complex components.
Jamstack Establishes Its Dominance
In 2023, Jamstack was the talk of the town, and for good reason. By combining client-side JavaScript, reusable APIs and pre-built markup, it provided the foundation for today’s web development architecture, substantially simplifying the development process and increasing productivity while reducing operational costs.
Jamstack has seen a considerable growth in recent years and remains a popular choice amongst web development teams‘ engineers. The use of a CDN to deliver pre-built markup and assets allows for improved speed and security for users, whilst providing a smoother experience for developers, particularly frontend engineers, who no longer need to tackle the complexities of a monolithic design.
It is evident why Jamstack is becoming increasingly popular among developers due to its cost-effectiveness, scalability, and ease of use. Utilising a Content Delivery Network (CDN) allows Jamstack applications to adjust to changing demand automatically, whilst the hosting of static files keeps costs down. Therefore, it is easy to understand why Jamstack is gaining traction.
React Takes the Front Runner Spot
By 2023, it was clear that React had established itself as one of the most prominent JavaScript libraries and frameworks. According to the Stack Overflow Developer Survey, React’s popularity is continuing to grow, with 40% of developers surveyed indicating that they use React, making it the most widely used web framework, surpassing jQuery which was previously the most popular.
A recent poll has revealed that one quarter of developers are interested in learning React, showing the increasing popularity of this framework amongst web designers and coders. Those who have used React before will be able to attest to its advantages; the framework makes creating complex web applications speedy and straightforward.
The statistics are extremely impressive, suggesting that React’s popularity will only continue to increase over the remainder of 2023 and into 2024. This seems highly likely.
JavaScript Is (still) the Most Important Programming Language.
The 2023 Stack Overflow Developer Survey has once again revealed that JavaScript is the most widely used language amongst engineers, with 64.96% of them utilising it on a daily basis. This marks the ninth year in a row that the scripting language has held the top spot.
This is supported by Stack Overflow’s observation that “for most developers, programming is web development”. It is likely that this will remain the case until at least 2023, due to the prevalence and dominance of the language.
Despite the growing popularity of Typescript and Google’s efforts to promote Dart, it appears that JavaScript is still the language of choice for web development projects due to its flexibility.
Monitor Current Trends
As a frontend developer, it is important to be aware of the five trends outlined above, since they are currently impacting the field. Whilst it is important to stay up to date with these trends, it is not necessary to rush to adopt them all. It is essential to understand them and decide which ones could be beneficial and relevant to your work.
By the end of the year, there is likely to be a range of new developments in front-end web development. To stay up-to-date, it is important to be aware of these changes and to evaluate whether they are worth the time and effort to implement. Doing so will ensure that you are not left behind in this rapidly evolving area.
