
Website design trends for 2017
Planning a new website? Interested in the next big thing? Check out our website design trends for 2017.
Bartek Mis, Head of Development
- 7 minute read
The web design industry has a love/hate relationship with jargon. From a web developer’s point of view, it is very useful to be able to differentiate, in detail, between highly technical and often complex technologies or methods. Equally, it is incredibly frustrating for clients who are not technically-minded when they feel like they need to employ a translator just to figure out what their website will look like.
Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are one of the latest and most exciting bits of technology to hit the web design industry. If it sounds like just another bit of techy jargon, then keep reading for what it means, and why it’s good news for web designers and website owners alike!
Progressive Web Apps are applications that load and can be accessed like a normal website but offer the increased functionality of native mobile applications. Essentially, it is a mixture of the best bits of web development and native apps. PWAs can allow users to work offline, receive push notifications and navigate web pages in a more user-friendly app-based way. The ‘Progressive’ part of the name is because any can use them, regardless of browser choice.
Progressive Web Apps can trace their lineage as far back as 2005 and the advent of responsive web design. There was another push again in 2007 with the release of the iPhone but web apps of this era were simply no match for native applications. They were easier to use and, importantly, much quicker than having to load something in a browser. It was 2010 before developments to HTML5 and Javascript and more capable browsers meant anything resembling a Progressive Web App appeared.
The actual term, Progressive Web App, wasn’t coined until 2015 by Alex Russel, a Google Chrome engineer. They were described as apps that, in Alex’s own words, “aren’t packaged and deployed through stores, they’re just websites that took all the right vitamins.” Because PWAs are inherently progressive users get all the benefits of native app development, and the flexibility of the web without having to make an install choice up-front. Very much a win-win scenario.
If you want to delve into the more technical side of Progressive Web Apps you can check out a case study of one we developed for FeedGist here.
PWAs are very exciting for web designers and developers. They are another string to the bow and there are now more fun and engaging things to be built with their toolboxes. But the excitement shouldn’t just be contained to those on the development side – PWAs also bring a whole host of great things for website owners and users! Let’s take a rundown:
Because we’re not talking about traditional websites it can be very easy to get mixed up with what will and won’t work for your search engine optimisation. Whether you’re using Progressive Web Apps to build your entire project or as one part of your website the first thing to understand is that using PWAs won’t carry SEO benefits just because you’re using PWAs. Don’t fret though, the other benefits of PWAs mean that the SEO impact can be significant – in a good way.
First and foremost, because Progressive Web Apps can be associated with a URL, i.e. they can act as a webpage, they are fully searchable by Google (other search engines are available!). They’ll be crawled by Google’s army of crawlers and ranked in the same manner as traditional sites. Where users of Progressive Web Apps will really see the benefit is in loading times. We have already seen how Uber has taken advantage of PWA technology to reduce loading times to under two seconds. Google will love your website for that and you can expect to see a resultant rise in the rankings as a result.
Just remember though that this doesn’t mean you can take your foot off of all the other SEO pedals. You still need to ensure your site is set up and structured correctly and that you’re taking care of business in other digital spaces like social media to increase your digital footprint.
Instead, PWAs will be used more and more to give users a more engaging experience online. The benefits are simply too good to ignore for web designers – the ability to work offline, an app-like experience including a shortcut on the home screen and all searchable and rankable by Google. There really is very little not to like. As the technology gains in popularity, it will also force those who have been rather hesitant on the uptake (ahem, Apple, ahem) to get on board.
If you think your business or website could benefit from Progressive Web App technology, then let’s talk.
Planning a new website? Interested in the next big thing? Check out our website design trends for 2017.
Bartek Mis looks back at how we tackled our first PWA. Find the issues, solutions and code to delve into your first Progressive Web Application project.
There is a common misconception that SEO is all about keywords and link building. Yes, these are key elements to your SEO strategy, but there’s a lot more to be uncovered. With Google’s updated algorithm, elements of user experience (UX) now link with SEO best practices.