What To Expect: Upcoming Web Development Trends for 2023

The beauty of the internet is it’s constantly evolving. More and more features that we never thought to be possible are now readily available for everyone to take advantage of. With so many options, one might think there’s nowhere left for web development to go. However, that assumption is wrong.

The internet still has many areas to improve. While many of them are likely still years away, there are some things we think will become a reality sooner rather than later. With 2023 on the horizon, let’s go over some upcoming web development trends we expect to see.

Better PWAs and AMPs

Even if you haven’t heard of these acronyms before, you likely will before the end of 2023. They stand for progressive web applications (PWAs) and accelerated mobile pages (AMPs). Together, they’ll be able to provide a much better user experience.

Even though PWAs have been around for a while, we still wanted to mention them since they’ll be an integral part of AMPs. With the general preference of the public being for mobile apps on phones as opposed to standard web pages, companies have started implementing PWAs to make their websites appear and function more like an app. This has naturally improved user experience and accessibility, but performance upgrades are on their way to make them run faster.

This is where AMPs come into play. They use stripped-down versions of HTML and CSS to drastically reduce the load times for these web pages. Generally, most pages fully load up in about three seconds. While that doesn’t sound too bad, experts expect this window to go down even more to about half a second with AMPs. As far as most people are concerned, this is practically instantaneous. While AMPs are still in the early stages, this is a technology you’ll want to consider implementing into your own site sometime in 2023.

Website Dark Mode Options

The days of being blinded by a surprise webpage are coming to an end for both mobile and desktop users. For years, most operating systems have offered their users a way to darken the background of their built-in applications. Many third-party apps have also started offering dark mode options, but big websites have been far behind the curve on this front.

Browsers have tried to fix this by offering options that procedurally darken web page backgrounds, but anyone who’s used them before knows that they’re not a perfect fix. Fortunately, many companies are starting to integrate dark mode options directly for their sites. Google and Reddit are two well-known sites that have done this, but the bandwagon is growing, and more sites are making the change. While we don’t expect every website to offer a dark mode by the end of 2023, we’re hoping at least a vast majority do.

Voice Search Optimization

One trend that has grown significantly in recent years is giving accessibility options for those with impairments that make using the internet more difficult. While there are many ways to develop an accessible website, there’s always room for improvement.

You can consider dark mode an accessibility option, but the main one that we want to focus on is voice search optimization. Those with sight impairments can easily search the web through these programs, and we expect them to improve greatly in the next year.

This is because people without impairments are using voice search much more often now. Whether through a home assistant device or a smartphone while driving, getting an answer from the web without having to look at your phone is a convenience that more and more people are taking advantage of. Due to that, voice search integration and accuracy will continue to rise.

Increased AI Integration

Of course, no voice search program is complete without an AI assistant to repeat your results back to you. AI systems are becoming much more prevalent across the web. While voice assistants are useful—and we’ve seen some crazy advancements in the world of AI art—the most vital usage of this technology is chatbots.

What one person sees as an annoyance, another sees as an invaluable tool to find what they’re looking for. Some people really dislike intrusive chatbots, but enough people value them that almost every company utilizes them in one way or another on their site. However, some chatbot programs can learn as they go, providing better info and feedback to users on the site. While this process still has some growing pains, we expect to see more companies take advantage of it next year.

A Big Push Toward Two-Factor Authentication

With people continuing to perform more of their daily tasks online, the chances of unauthorized users being able to get into their accounts also increase. The best line of defense we’ve come up with to fight this issue is two-factor authentication. Having a specialized code sent to your phone or email has been quite effective at protecting online accounts.

In fact, it’s done so well that some companies plan to do away with passwords altogether in favor of two-step authentication. While this process might sometimes feel a bit tedious, the extra security paired with no longer having to remember a password for an obscure site you rarely use will be beneficial in the long run.

Plus, we’re willing to bet that in a future list like this, we’ll be talking about improvements that make two-factor authentication faster than ever before. We’re already starting to see it in some capacity with fingerprint scanners and face IDs.

Augmented Reality Inclusion

Okay, we know that the metaverse seems a bit farfetched at this point, but what kind of list of upcoming web development trends to expect in 2023 would this be if we didn’t at least mention augmented reality? Once you take a deeper look at what virtual reality can do for people right now instead of just what it promises for the distant future, we think you’ll be quite impressed by where it could go in the next year.

Many companies are currently using AR to show customers how well a new table will fit in their current space or what a new pair of shoes might look like on their feet. While these systems aren’t perfect just yet, they’re pretty good for helping customers make an informed decision before buying something online. We expect more companies to find new and unique ways to use this tech on their site in 2023.

More Blockchain Usage

Even though hearing the term blockchain will make some of you cringe, thanks to cryptocurrency and NFTs, there’s no denying that it’s the future of Web 3.0. Due to how the technology works, people won’t be able to hide or alter transactions or other future actions performed in a blockchain without messing up every other part of the chain. Because of this and the fact that blockchains are decentralized public ledgers, scummy practices will not be able to go unnoticed, leading to a much safer internet experience for everyone involved.

Potential Serverless Computing

For our final point, we wanted to include something that still might not be fully accessible to all companies within the next year but that you should keep an eye on. One problem that constantly inhibits businesses is limited server space for running applications and doing back-end development of a website. Too many systems using up the server space can lead to untimely shutdowns and other such difficulties.

However, with serverless computing through the cloud, your own server space will no longer limit you. As cloud providers increase their capacity, more and more companies will be able to take advantage of such services. In fact, many of the previous things mentioned in this list will run significantly better in a system like this. If you get the chance to try it out yourself in 2023, we highly recommend it.