As we step foot into the New Year our entire team has been discussing the top trends of 2022 and what we expect to see more of in 2023. Our Head of Web Development Richard Makin has broken down his top predictions for web development in 2023.
1. Accessibility
Accessibility is becoming more common in web design and can see this really taking off over the next couple of years. Similar to how businesses have to make their physical shops accessible for disabled customers, it’s likely we’ll see a similar trend in websites too. Features such as accessibility for screen-readers, consideration of contrast for colour blind users, clear labelling and instructions and consistent alt tags for images.
This could even expand into offering features on the website itself to change the style and structure to make it more accessible to users of the site.
2. Chatbots
As AI technology increases, we’re likely to see much more advanced chatbots being introduced into websites. Currently, a lot of chatbots are simply pulling from a predefined list of terms in response to terms within the question itself; this often leads to a poor user experience as it’s just a best ‘guess’ at what the user is intending to return.
However with more powerful AI and text recognition, we could see chatbots becoming more and more useful and reducing the potential overhead of hiring dedicated staff to respond to users requests.
3. Animations / Responsive Layouts
Website design has changed a lot over the years but still follows a very similar layout, with a lot of content just being delivered in what is essentially rows and columns. As technology improves and available bandwidth increases, websites can be ‘heavier’ and include more dynamic features. Pages can be more interactive to the user and more capable of being delivered on the wide range of devices now available.
In addition, items like Lottie animations and CSS keyframes offer a lightweight way of including fun animated effects on a website without impacting page load speed significantly. Also likely to see a decrease in javascript being used for such functions.
Overall we think the User Experience will continue to be the main focus of all websites as it is key to conversion. Do you agree with Richard’s predictions.
Get in touch to speak to a member of our Web Development team today!
