Intro
Without technology, there would be no internet. While technology is the reason why we have the internet era, it has also played a role in improving the digital world and the way we interact with it. Technology is essential in modern web design, offering a variety of tools and techniques for web designers to use to build attractive, easy-to-use websites.
As new technologies emerge, so do the tactics web designers use to create next-level website design and functionality while also improving the experience for their website visitors. How technology affects web design is a hot topic for web designers, and they need to keep up with new technological developments so that their websites don’t look primitive when compared to competitors. In this article, we will explore how technology has played a role in web design and development. If you’re looking for the latest and greatest in web design technology, here are some areas you need to pay attention to.
Responsive design
The days of browsing the internet from a computer are long gone. In this modern age, most browsing is done via mobile, and businesses need to adapt to keep up. Incorporating and reacting to user behavior and environment is what responsive design on the web is all about. This means that the website must display well on a variety of screen sizes and platforms. Have you ever visited a website that works horribly from your phone, but works fine on your laptop? If so, this is a good indicator that the website is not implementing responsive design into its web development process. Without responsive design technology, you would have to create separate websites to accommodate different platforms and monitor sizes.
However, responsive design is more than just ensuring your website works on a variety of screen sizes. In contrast, responsive design is about creating a usable experience for your entire audience. In the website design process, ensure that the website experience is not compromised. Your website visitors need to be able to easily navigate your website across devices, and this requires scaling and reorganizing your website for different platforms.
Chatbots
Depending on your website’s goals, you may benefit from using chatbots to improve user experience. A type of AI known as a chatbot uses machine learning and natural language processing to interpret requests and answer to them in a way that resembles a person. Chatbots help users navigate your website’s different pages and respond to commonly asked questions. As the dominance of mobile internet browsing increases, there has been an explosion in e-commerce and business conducted digitally.
Chatbots not only help website visitors, but also help businesses save money. Chatbots offer convenience to employees. For example, in the retail industry, customer service teams may receive hundreds of customer inquiries every day. With the help of chatbots, commonly asked questions can be quickly answered by directing users to pages with the information they are looking for, freeing up time for your customer service team to work on more complex questions.
Application programming interface (API)
An API is a set of protocols or rules used in building software applications and web design and development. APIs are used by web developers to retrieve data from software systems, websites, and other platforms. APIs make it easier for developers to build complex applications for their websites. When a website requires cooperation with another system to access its data, APIs allow the two servers to interact and communicate securely.
One of the application programming interface applications that we use every day is Sky Scanner. Sky scanner takes data from airline systems and updates the information on their pages in real time. Social media also uses APIs that allow users’ pages to be updated regularly with new information such as new posts, status updates, social media groups, and more.
Website builder
As the technology used in web development advances, more and more tools are available in the market for people and businesses to design their websites with ease. Website makes it easy for people to design their websites without coding experience. This allows businesses to build their online presence without spending a lot of time or money. Website builders offer intuitive features like drag-and-drop commands to help people easily design their websites for their needs such as selling to customers or providing new employee onboarding information.
Website builders host your website or allow you to connect to your hosting server. With website builder software, you can choose a custom template that suits your website needs and play around further with various features on your website and choose design features such as images, font size and type, color schemes, and more .
Progressive web apps (PWA)
PWA is the latest technology that combines the features of traditional websites and mobile applications to optimize the overall user experience. PWAs are designed to respond instantly to user interactions. By enabling PWAs to operate offline and cache content, this contributes to improving overall website performance.
PWA also helps with cross-platform capabilities. PWAs work across multiple platforms and devices allowing website designers to create a seamless and consistent user experience across all users, no matter what device or platform they use. Since PWAs work to improve the overall website experience, they can increase user engagement through responsive design. This can increase user retention and lead to higher conversion rates.
Accessibility
In today’s digital environment, technology that enhances website accessibility is becoming more and more crucial. Web design is made more inclusive and accessible for individuals with impairments with the aid of accessibility technology. Screen readers, for example, are assistive technologies that read page content aloud, helping visually impaired users. Web designers must optimize their websites to allow screen readers and ensure all text throughout the website is properly labeled, while also providing descriptive alternative text for page images.
Closed captioning is another example of accessibility technology that provides a text-based alternative to your listening content. This makes the website accessible to people who are hearing impaired. To create an inclusive website, web design should provide closed captioning for hearing content or alternatives to this content to ensure website visitors with hearing disabilities do not have a compromised website experience.
Lastly, color contrast is an important feature of web design, but it also serves to help people with visual impairments. Text with low contrast can be difficult to read, even for those without visual impairments. By ensuring color contrast is applied in necessary areas, you improve the website experience for all your website visitors, including those with disabilities.
Data tracking
Data tracking technology allows your website to collect data about user behavior and website performance. This collected data allows your web design team to implement new strategies to optimize the website as a whole. Web analytics tools like Google Analytics provide information about your website traffic, user behavior, conversion rates, and more. This helps you identify problems in your website design and make changes to improve them.
Using data tracking technology, you can also use heat mapping to discover the most used features on your website and areas where you want to build traffic. Data tracking also allows you to perform A/B testing on different versions of your website to see which changes improve traffic and overall website performance. Data tracking also allows web developers to further personalize websites based on user behavior. This is especially helpful for e-commerce businesses, allowing them to improve product recommendations and marketing efforts based on relevance and usefulness to users.
Cloud services
Technology is also altering site design and development through the use of cloud services and cloud computing. Cloud services increase digital security for businesses that collect sensitive client information. Cloud service applications are beneficial for many industries including financial, medical, and other services that require you to protect the client information you collect. Cloud services allow users to easily access their data and documents, no matter what device they use or where they are. Users can access their customer data as long as they are able to submit their login credentials. This is especially helpful for businesses that send documents such as contracts. By using cloud services, you can easily direct your customers to the documents they need to fulfill, including invoices, contracts, and more. Utilizing cloud services makes it simple to manage contracts, other protected documents, and security measures.
HTML & CSS
HTML and CSS are the foundation of web design, playing an important role in the overall appearance and functionality of a website. The foundational organization and design of a website are created using HTML by website developers. This includes headings, paragraphs, and other strategies for organizing content on a page. On the other hand, CSS controls the visual appearance of your content, including color scheme, font size, typeface, and spacing. CSS also helps create a visual style throughout your website, including the fonts you choose, the color scheme displayed, and other design elements. This helps web developers to create a recognizable brand identity and provide a consistent user experience.
HTML and CSS also influence your search engine optimization strategy. SEO is an important tactic in increasing website visibility. HTML and CSS help ensure your website is well structured for SEO indexing. The information you supply to website users will be analyzed by search algorithm crawlers as they go through your various web pages. A well-structured site will make it easier for these crawlers to index your various pages. If your website provides high-quality information, you can expect these search engines to suggest your content for user queries.
Modern web design & technology
It’s clear that technology plays an important role in web design, without it, we wouldn’t have websites to design. Modern web design uses a variety of tools and techniques to create dynamic websites that attract website visitors. From responsive design to website accessibility and more, technology allows web designers to improve user experience and deliver high-quality content and information across multiple platforms.
As technology continues to evolve, web designers need to be “in the know” with these updates to ensure their websites do not become outdated. As new technology trends and websites are published, web designers need to adapt and ensure they stay ahead of the competition.
