Tech Trends 2016 – without a doubt, the world has become a better place to live with the technological advancements and progression. Technology has touched every bit of us and we have embraced it warm-heartedly. Tracking the super dynamic nature of technology, let’s try to foresee the future while checking out the top 10 web design & development trends of 2016:

Run with the time and you would go places,
Take a pause, and you will be lost among the many faces.

Let’s catch up with the most happening developments in the sphere of technology

1. Browser-Based IDEs:

For quite a long time developers were stuck with Desktop IDEs which are present since a couple of decades now. But, with the technological advancements and an itch to move to the cloud, Browser-Based IDEs have immensely become popular. The traditional desktop IDEs like Notepad++, Xcode, Visual Studio etc. were released as desktop applications which allowed devs to code with suggestions and syntax highlighting. However, the wind of change and enhancement has made Brower-Based IDEs the new face of IDEs. They don’t require any software apart from a web browser, providing great liberty to the developers who can now code from any place with just the internet access.

A developer can easily save the code fragment to his account for sharing and personal usage. Cloud 9, Codeanywhere, Cloud IDE, CodePen, and Codeply are some of the popular Browser-Based IDEs.

2. Card Layouts:

The effectiveness of a card can be traced way back, even before the tech outburst (remember visiting cards, business cards etc.). The fundamental is simple- putting all the essential information at one place for a convenient scan. Pinterest was the first one to master this art followed by Facebook and others. Ever since then, card layouts have gained phenomenal popularity, especially among the content heavy web pages. Card layouts are popular for all the good reasons –
— I’s instinctive, spontaneous and super easy to understand
— Best match for a responsive design
— Large chunk of information can be compressed into smaller portions which can be easily absorbed
Card layouts hold its ground firmly in the present trending environment and looks very promising with more and more websites banking on it for displaying concise content. Contrastly and UGSMAG are beautiful examples of card layouts used to perfection in displaying the content.

3. Collaboration Tools for Design :

The Working environment has changed drastically over the period of time. Gone are the days when everyone use to work under one roof and thus sharing work material wasn’t really difficult. But, we stand in a different era today. The design team may not sit in the same office or may work in small distributed groups or maybe some of them work from home and the clients are scattered across the globe these days. This necessity to have a simple sharing tool for sharing designs with each other is the mother of invention of various design collaboration tools which are topping the trend charts. Tools like Slack, InVision and Google Keep are the favorites among designers which allow them to participate in collaboration work on a real time basis.

4. High Definition Visuals :

High Resolution devices have quickly gained popularity over the last few years marking 2016 as the year of HD Design. People with HD devices certainly expect HD designs. The share of HD devices has risen from 2% to 18% from 2010 to 2016 and it is expected that this number will swell to almost 50% in the next 5 years. High-quality HD visuals including gripping videos, alluring photographs and enriched graphics are quickly becoming a vital force to drive this transition. Engaging HD videos and high-resolution graphics are pivotal in increasing the time on site which eventually can act as a game changer.

5. Responsive Frontend Frameworks :

That day is history when the only access to the internet (or the website for that matter) was through a desktop. People are on the go and mobile & other devices have surpassed desktops as a medium to access the web. In fact for some people mobile is the only way to access the internet today. Although frontend frameworks like Bootstrap still prove meaningful and have been around for ages, responsive design has eventually enforced its entry into the framework world. It has created a requirement to develop a frontend code along with a backend code. Semantic UI, Leaf, Foundation, Pure, and Clank are some of the most used responsive frameworks by the designers. Inching towards 2017, a lot of new enhancements are expected and responsive frontend frameworks will surely stir the buzzworld of web designing.

6. Spotlight on UX Design:

User experience has definitely taken the front seat today with more and more designers acknowledging the importance of a good UX. UI is a part of UX or to be more precise it is the path towards the ultimate goal of creating a better User Experience. Turn the clock back 5 years and the designers had no clue about how to apply UX into the design interface and didn’t even had sources of information related to UX. But today we have various resources like US Stack Exchange and free UX ebooks to enhance UX knowledge. 2016 is the best time to learn about the UX principles and apply them to every form of Digital Interface.

7. Server-Side JavaScript- Node.js :

Node is one player which is proving its metal at the backend language arena and has simply amused Javascript developers. The devs have fallen head over heals to this server-side JS and rank it neck to neck with other prominent backend languages like Python or PHP. The best part is that Node allows developers to code both the frontend and the backend in one single language. The following years will see many more advancements in Node and we foresee a booming future of this javascript. Our advice – get your hands on it as soon as you can.

8. Touch-Supported Website Features:

Without slightest of the doubts, touch is the future and the world has gladly accepted this fact. Well, smartphone browsers always managed the backward compatibility factor by supporting the touch function, but off lately more plugins and custom features have been implemented on websites solely for the purpose of managing touch interactions. With this changing environment, devs are pushing themselves to build touch-enabled websites rather than just responsive websites. Photoswipe and Dragend.js are some popular plugins which help in handling swipe and tap features on touchscreen displays.

9. Cross Platform App Development :

Companies no longer work on a single platform. Mobile workers have grown over the years and various mobile gadgets like a tablet, for instance, is used more over a conventional desktop. With that being said, today people expect to use same applications, with same features, functions and capabilities across different devices and platforms without compromising on the performance front. Today, the devs need to focus more on easing the transition process for mobile workers to move from their desktops to mobile devices, by developing cross platform solutions. 2016 and recent years to come will be overshadowed by cross platform app development. Sencha, Phonegap and Cocos2d are a few cross platform mobile development tools which are popular among devs.

10. Wearable Devices :

Wearable devices have slowly walked into our lives and by the time we even realized their presence, they became a undetachable part of our everyday life. Look around and you will find smart watches, fitness devices, smart bands and a variety of other wearable devices. Not to forget, the augmented reality which has become extremely popular in last few months (The world is going bonkers over Pokemon Go). People with smart watches want to have enhanced applications in their mobile phones with a superior interface that can support any kind of a wearable device. Nobody could think that wearable devices would so easily and rapidly evolve and if you think that this trend will diminish soon, you are sadly mistaken. This is still in the growing phase which leaves a big opportunity for the developers.

At NYX Ditech we have a great team of thinkers, professional developers, and designers who keep themselves abreast with the latest trends in the world of technology. We have a precise vision of what future holds for us in terms of technology and we implement this vision in your products and services. Choose what you need from the list of services that we provide and let us walk this road of tech evolution together.