Your web or app solution may struggle with the saturated market if your brand isn’t positioned to welcome the future. The evolving market increasingly demands that you keep up with trends to ensure that your company is foremost in the minds of your target users. 

Front-end development has been trendy for a while, with impressive yearly upgrades. For instance, many companies in various sectors are innovating AI-powered solutions that have rendered many jobs and services redundant to maintain optimal user engagement and satisfaction. 

Navigating the industry successfully now requires agility, innovation, and a laser focus on your user needs. Your brand stands at a safer advantage to thrive and compete with the big players when you embrace and position strategically for both present and future trends. 38.5% of all software development projects are based on e-commerce, and some 53.6% deal with business automation; there is little choice but to keep up with the software trends.

In today’s post, we overview front-end development and how keeping up with industry trends keeps your venture ahead of the curve. 

What is Front-end Development?

Front-end development is the building of various components on a website or an app that users will eventually interact with. The front end of a website includes the features a user can see, feel, and click (interact with) while exploring the interface. If you compare a website or an application to the human body, front-end development would be the body’s physical parts and reactions when you touch each part.

Of course, no aspect of website development works in isolation, and front-end development is better understood when juxtaposed with the less obvious back-end development. While the front end deals with icons, text, and other graphic features you find on a website, the back-end aspect links the entire website –or app– to a database from which user information can be retrieved upon request from the server. 

So, what do the front-end developers do? They simply execute the creative aspects of the website using code. Using their extensive knowledge of code building and programming languages, the front-end developers manipulate their code to give the website or app a more attractive, user-friendly outlook across devices. Front-end developers mostly combine core programming languages like Javascript with styling languages like CSS and various design tools to create a balanced, consistent interface.

Since the purpose of hosting your business on a website is to generate leads and convert those leads into repeat customers, your website’s front-end development has to appeal strongly to the users, whether they are first-timers or not.

What are the Benefits of Front-end development for businesses?

The success of a brand depends mainly on its marketing strategies, but user experience quality plays a huge role in retaining customers. Since front-end development experience comes into play here as a contact between users and the brand, their quality of experience either retains or chases them.

The front-end affects your business positioning in the market, and here are some ways a well-prepared front-end could impact your brand:

#1. Effective branding

A good front-end development service delivers consistent visual aesthetics across platforms and devices. Users easily recognize the brand and associate with its services on the website or mobile app, eliminating any room for confusion. When consistent brand symbols and philosophies meet proper marketing, your users and leads become buyers/clients.

#2. User-friendliness

Simplicity defines a good front-end development. Users are more attracted to sites that are easy to navigate and explore.Your users can easily access every feature available with minimal delay when they use a user-friendly front-end. This increases their likelihood of staying on the website and becoming eventual customers.

#3. Brand competence

Spotting a seamless front-end development portrays your brand as serious, leaving out doubts about the company’s competence and abilities. Users are better inclined to check out a website that is organized and offers a better experience than any other, which builds trust and confidence in your brand’s relationship with its clients.

Current Trends in Front-end Development 

Front-end development has come a long way since Javascript hit the web in 1995, and modern web pages now feature more interactive and attractive interfaces, thanks to constant upgrades to existing languages and the development of new ones. 

Trends come and go, but some have gained prominence in the past few years owing to the increased need for user-friendly websites. One is the increased focus on user experience, which has led to an emphasis on market surveys among users before developers start writing code. The information from such surveys will direct the designs and overall front-end architecture.

Another top trend is the increased preference for low-code solutions among front-end software engineers. The era of bulky front-end codes is fading, and an increased availability of drag-and-drop design tools is aiding the trend. With low-code solutions, developers focus more on creative designs using pre-set components instead of working on the front-end code from scratch.

3 Future Front-end Development Trends to look out for in 2024

Front-end development services have pushed innovation barriers in the past few years, as we have seen Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning lead architecture development like the Metaverse and Web3 spaces. As front-end development finds newer applications in virtual/augmented reality, the wave of innovation will impact company branding regarding website and application building. Here are the trends to watch out for in the new year.

Progressive Web Applications

Progressive Web Applications (PWAs) are not entirely new among front-end software engineers, but they are set to become a growing trend in 2024. PWAs are simply a blend between web applications and platform-specific applications, combining features from both forms of software to give a hybrid user experience. Users can easily access web apps but they don’t offer the intuitive experience that native apps provide. On the other hand, native apps might not be as accessible to a wide range of users because of device and market specifications.

Several companies have recorded substantial success after adopting PWAs, like Twitter and Hulu, and 2024 might see more start-ups and companies upgrading their front-end development to PWAs, too.

Javascript Evolutions

Javascript was one of the first languages that front-end software engineers started with, and even after almost 30 years, it still features relevant libraries for easy code building. The language has undergone constant upgrades in the past three decades, and the patterns suggest 2024 will usher in more Javascript frameworks and libraries into front-end development.

React JS and React Native are top options for front-end software engineers, and they would be vital to enhancing better server rendering (React JS) and improved cross-platform app building (React Native).

Micro Front-ends 

Micro front-end technology allows developers to split code-building processes into smaller units to create more specific features for code components without affecting the overall code structure. This will further enhance future maintenance of such websites and web apps, where the developers can easily update code segments without affecting all the pages. 

Get the best hands to brand your business for the future

Your next best step is to position your brand for optimum user experience with the best hands in the business, and you’re not too far away. Pangea features a rigorously vetted set of front-end developer agencies, featuring only the top 7% for selection. Each is stacked with experienced developers to handle your start-up/company’s front-end or back-end web development needs. 

Partner with us today and move your start-up to the forefront; click here to get started with one of our agencies.

FAQs:

#1. What is meant by front-end development?

Front-end development is the art of building the components of a website with which a user can see and interact. From icons to symbols and tabs, the front-end development of a website exposes the users to the philosophy, functions, and features. For businesses, it is one of the most critical parts of the website since it determines whether the user (lead) will become a buyer (client).

#2. What is a front-end developer’s salary?

According to Indeed, the average front-end salary in the US is about $112,250 per year, although that could range from $85,000 for entry-level developers to $140,000 for experienced developers. Hourly rates are approximately $51.71. Access our list of thoroughly vetted front-end agencies here and connect with any of them for the best experience.

#3. Is front-end the same as web development?

No. Front-end development is a part of web development, the part that comprises elements of the website that users can see and click. Web development is a general term describing all the activities concerned with building a website, from design to front-end, back-end, and post-building activities like maintenance.