The future of front-end development

June 1, 2024 Roberto Magalhães

What can development teams and businesses expect from the world of front-end website development in 2023?

Software development continually goes through cycles of changes and updates, especially on the front end. Front-end development changes so quickly that it can be dizzying trying to keep up. However, staying on top of trends is an essential step to producing the latest and greatest products.

Often, a trend results from the adoption of new technologies, frameworks, or techniques by a major industry player. New front-end techniques can promise dynamic user interface improvements, stronger scalability, better user experience , and just about anything else imaginable. Being informed about the future of front-end development and evaluating the possibilities of each trend is vital for companies to remain competitive in their market.

Essential front-end technologies for 2024

Not all technologies are truly worth investing in, because not all trends will remain, but some will gain great traction and become the new standard. For example, Netflix led the way in pioneering headless architecture . With headless architecture, content construction happens on the back-end and delivery occurs on the front-end through APIs.

New companies often opt for headless architecture every day, which is increasing its popularity. Front-end development, however, also sees a high turnover in trends and technologies as APIs rapidly depreciate, browsers change, and outdated libraries fall by the wayside. Here are some things to keep in mind.

JavaScript

JavaScript is “old” by programming standards. This arrived on the scene in 1995, but remains relevant and constantly evolving. JavaScript is one of the most used languages for front-end development and is essentially one of the building blocks of the internet (along with HTML and CSS).

Javascript remains relevant because it is not stagnant. The front-end development community continues to build and improve existing libraries and frameworks in digital communities. Front-end developers should aim to learn a new Javascript library or framework during 2024 to stay competitive and up-to-date.

The most popular JavaScript libraries are:

jQuery
Backbone.js
Polymer.js

Although the most popular JavaScript Frameworks in 2024 appear to be the same as in previous years:

Node.js
Vue.js
React.js

VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality)

With Facebook announcing its name change to meta to highlight its new obsession with building a metaverse, virtual reality has never been more current. Virtual reality will allow users to experience a front-end environment in a more vivid way through the use of vision, touch, and more.

Augmented reality offers developers the ability to create an innovative front-end that will swap the physical environment in which users find themselves. Virtual reality's association with gaming is changing as new integration possibilities develop for VR and front-end.

Companies should encourage their front-end developers to familiarize themselves with VR technologies. The extension is natural as many virtual reality and augmented reality hosting technologies are on the web and use JavaScript. This web-heavy VR/AR trend began in the early 2010s and continues to grow.

That's why it's so important to know some of its essential tools. Babylon.js is a powerful yet simple Javascript library that enables 3D graphics to display web pages. PrimroseVR and WebXR (or WebVR) are other Javascript applications that enable interactivity and create augmented reality experiences.

Microfrontend

Micro front-end architecture gained popularity in 2021 and continues to show great promise. In front-end micro architecture , the goal is to divide an application or website into parts. Organizations are adopting this technique left and right due to some great advantages:

Ability to split into smaller, more manageable but scalable teams
Cohesive and maintainable codebase
Segmenting updates and revisions into specific parts

Instead of creating large, complicated, monolith websites, a micro frontend provides a more responsive web application. Front-end developers should also take time to learn about micro front-end architecture and how decoupled, independently deployable technology works.

AI and machine learning

AI and machine learning are transforming the face of front-end development as it is as much about the code as it is about the user experience. Front-end teams can now harness the power of AI to learn which parts of their products are best received by users. With deep learning and neural networks, front-end developers can test their UI design quickly and efficiently.

Progressive Web Applications (PWAs)

Native web apps are the gold standard for mobile apps. Native web apps have several benefits and provide stronger user experiences than other apps. But using native web apps requires installation on the actual device and users must choose to update the apps when prompted. This is why some users choose to use the web browser on their mobile devices. This is where progressive web apps come in.

Throughout the rest of the year and beyond, development teams should expect progressive web apps to continue to grow in popularity and sophistication. Progressive web apps, also called hybrid apps , provide the best of both worlds. Modern PWAs are almost impossible to distinguish from native apps. Data storage occurs in the browser cache, allowing it to load faster than native apps. The user experience is also impressive, allowing for shopping, browsing, and other important features.

A strong front-end development team should have experience building a progressive web application. There is no reason to leave users with an outdated mobile web page in 2024 and future customers will notice companies that don't provide it.

What does the future hold?

Any competitive company needs a well-built, robust, creative and enjoyable product for its consumers to enjoy and front-end developers are vital to this process. In fact, the thousands of job openings across the country for these roles prove this fact. Because of this, many companies choose to turn to experts at outsourcing companies.

Front-end developers and organizations are constantly looking for solutions to improve user experience, scalability, and accessibility, among many other things. JavaScript reigns supreme, just as it has in years past, but it's never a bad idea to learn a new framework or library. Artificial intelligence and machine learning will continue to gain ground in the world of front-end development in 2024, while VR and AR are becoming more popular every day as digital products become further integrated into everyday life .

Changes to site architecture thanks to the expected growth of the micro front-end trend. Progressive web apps are also almost an expectation among consumers. 2024 will undoubtedly bring even more unexpected trends in the world of front-end development as well.

If you liked this, be sure to check out our other articles on web development.