The Role of Technology in Modern Web Design

Intro

Without technology, there would be no internet. While technology is the reason why we have the internet age, it also serves in improving the digital world and how we interact with it. Technology is extremely important in modern web design, offering various tools and techniques for web designers to use to build engaging and user-friendly websites.

As new technology emerges, so do the tactics web designers employ to create next-level website designs and functionality while also improving the experience for their website visitors. How technology affects web design is a hot-button topic for web designers, and they need to keep up with new emerging technologies to keep their websites from appearing primitive when compared to competitors. In this article, we’ll explore how technology has served in web design and development. If you’re looking for the latest and greatest in web design technology, here are some areas to keep your eye on.

Responsive design

The days of scrolling the internet from a computer are long gone. In the modern age, a majority of browsing is from phones, and businesses need to adapt to keep up. Responsive design is web development that incorporates and responds to user behavior and environment. Meaning, websites need to perform well on various screen sizes and platforms. Have you ever visited a website that functioned awfully from your phone but fine on your laptop? If you have, this is a good indicator the website didn’t implement responsive design into its web development process. Without responsive design technology, you would have to create separate websites to accommodate the many different platforms and monitor sizes.

However, responsive design goes beyond ensuring your website works on different screen sizes. Instead, responsive design is about creating a usable experience for your entire audience. In the website design process, ensure the website experience isn’t compromised. Your website visitors should be able to easily navigate your website on various devices, and that requires scaling and reorganizing your website for the different platforms.

Besides having a responsive website, site owners can also consider mobile app development. With DIY app creation software like AppMySite, website owners can bypass the complexity of app development and create applications in minutes.

Chatbots

Depending on the purpose of your website, you may benefit from using chatbots to enhance user experience. Chatbots are a form of AI that implements machine learning and natural language processing to respond to requests in a human-like manner. Chatbots help users navigate your different website pages and respond to commonly asked questions. As mobile internet browsing increases in dominance, there’s been an explosion in e-commerce and business accomplished digitally.

Chatbots don’t just help website visitors, but also help businesses save money. Chatbots offer convenience to employees. For example, in retail industries, customer service teams may receive hundreds of customer inquiries daily. With the help of chatbots, commonly asked questions can quickly get answered by directing the user to a page with the information they’re looking for, resulting in giving your customer service team time back to work on more complex inquiries.

Application programming interfaces (APIs)

APIs are a set of protocols or rules used in building software applications and web design and development. APIs are used by web developers to take data from other software systems, websites, and platforms. APIs make it easy for developers to build complex applications for their websites. When a website requires working with another system to access its data, APIs allow the two servers to interact and communicate securely.

One application of application programming interfaces we use every day is Sky Scanner. Sky scanner takes data from airline systems and updates the information on their page in real time. Social media also uses APIs allowing user pages to be updated regularly with new information like new posts, status updates, social media groups, and more.

Website builders

As the technology used in web development expand, more tools are available on the market for people and businesses to easily design their website. Website makes it easy for people to design their websites without any coding experience. This allows businesses to build their online presence without spending too much time or money. Website builders offer intuitive features like drag-and-drop commands to help people easily design their websites for their needs like selling to customers or providing new hires onboarding information.

Website builders either host your website or allow you to connect to your hosting server. With website building software, you can select a customized template suitable to your website needs and further play with the different features on your website and select design features like imagery, font size and typeface, color schemes, and more.

Progressive web applications (PWAs)

PWAs are a newer technology that combines traditional website features and mobile apps to optimize the user experience as a whole. PWA’s are designed to instantly respond to user interactions. This helps improve overall website performance allowing PWAs to work offline and cache content.

PWAs also assist in cross-platform capability. PWAs work across multiple platforms and devices allowing website designers to create a seamless and consistent user experience across all users, no matter what devices or platforms they use. Because PWAs work to improve the overall website experience, they can improve user engagement through responsive design. This can improve user retention and lead to higher conversion rates.

Accessibility

Technology that improves website accessibility is increasingly important in our digital climate. Accessibility technology helps make web design more inclusive and accessible to people with disabilities. Screen readers, for example, are assistive technology that reads page content out loud, assisting users who are visually impaired. Web designers should optimize their websites to allow screen readers and ensure all text across the website is properly labeled, while also providing descriptive alt text for page imagery.

Closed captioning is another example of accessibility technology that provides a text-based alternative to your auditory content. This makes websites accessible to people who are hard of hearing. To create an inclusive website, web designing should provide closed captioning for auditory content or alternatives to this content to ensure website visitors with hearing disabilities don’t have a compromised website experience.

Lastly, color contrast is an essential feature of web design but also serves to assist people with visual impairments. The low-contrast text makes it difficult to read, even for those without visual disabilities. By ensuring color contrast is implemented 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 gather data on user behavior and website performance. This collected data allows your web design team to implement new strategies to better optimize the website overall. Web analytics tools like Google Analytics provide information on your website’s traffic, user behavior, conversion rates, and more. This helps you identify pain points in your website’s design and make changes for improvement.

Using data tracking technology, you can also use heat mapping to uncover the most-used features on your website and areas where you want to build traffic. Data tracking also allows you to conduct A/B testing around different versions of your website to see which changes improve overall traffic and website performance. Data tracking also allows web developers to further personalize the website 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 for users.

Cloud services

Cloud services and the implementation of cloud computing are additional ways technology is revolutionizing web design and development. Cloud services improve digital security for businesses that collect sensitive client information. Cloud service applications benefit 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’re using or where they are in the world. As long as users can provide their login information, they can access their client data. This is especially helpful for businesses that send documents like contracts. Using cloud services, you can easily direct your customers to documents that need to be fulfilled, including invoices, contracts, and more. Cloud services allow you to easily implement security features and easily manage contracts and other protected information and documents.

HTML & CSS

HTML and CSS are foundations of web design, playing a critical role in a website’s overall appearance and functionality. HTML is used by website developers to create the basic structure and layout of a website. This includes headings, paragraphs, and other strategies for organizing on-page content. On the other hand, CSS controls the visual appearance of your content, including color schemes, font size, typeface, and spacing. CSS also assists in creating a visual style across your website, including the fonts you choose, your displayed color schemes, and other elements of design. This helps web developers to create a recognizable brand identity and provide a consistent user experience.

HTML and CSS also impact your search engine optimization strategy. SEO is an important tactic in increasing website visibility. Proper SEO and web design practices, including the use of HTML and CSS, help ensure your website is structured for optimal SEO indexing. Search algorithm crawlers will scan your different web pages to determine the information you provide to your website visitors. A well-structured site makes it easier for these crawlers to index your different pages. If your website provides high-quality information, you can expect these search engines to suggest your content to user queries.

Modern web design & technology

It's clear technology plays a substantial role in web design, without it, we wouldn’t have a website to design in the first place. Modern web design employs a variety of tools and techniques to create dynamic websites that engage website visitors. From responsive design to website accessibility and more, technology enables web designers to enhance user experience and deliver high-quality content and information across various platforms.

As technology continues to evolve, web designers need to be “in the know” with these updates to ensure their website doesn’t fall behind with the times. As new technological and website trends are published, web designers need to adapt and ensure they stay ahead of their competition.