Top 6 web portal development trends in 2021

Over the years, web portals have evolved tremendously. From being information portals, they are now an integral part of a business's marketing efforts.

Here are some of the web portal development trends that we think will dominate 2021.

Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)

Global brands have always adopted technologies that have amplified their brand identities. PWA is one such application software that has proven to be a game-changer to many top companies. The statistics of the benefits of PWAs are staggering. We are known as top 10 it companies in india

After adopting PWA, Forbes has reported that their website loading time has decreased to 0.8 seconds from 3 – 12 seconds on average. It saw a 43% increase in sessions and a 100% increase in engagement. Twitter clocked 75% increased tweets, 20% lower bounce rate, and a 65% greater number of pages per session after shifting to PWA. Trivago marked a 150% increase in user engagement after implementing a progressive web app. Make MyTrip saw overall conversion rates triple and a 160% increase in shopper sessions after using PWA. The Washington Post has seen a 88% performance improvement over its traditional mobile website after implementing PWA.

This hybrid form encapsulates application functionality into a website, providing numerous benefits for your company. PWAs offer a seamless offline process and a better mobile experience. They work as native apps and have cross-device compatibility. PWAs use HTTPS and provide transport layer security, thereby preventing user data theft.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

In 2019, the global artificial intelligence market size was valued at USD 39.9 billion. It is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 42.2% from 2020 to 2027. In a study conducted by Forrester, AI-based solutions for customer management can lead to up to 10-50% reduction in customer churn.

Here are some of the ways integrating AI in web portal development will benefit your company.

1. Automated customer service – Chatbots and virtual assistants are revolutionizing customer service. Improve employee productivity by using AI bots as the first point of contact to solve basic queries. Customer service agents can be involved in solving complex customer issues wherein bots can escalate it at an appropriate point while engaging with a customer. According to the 2020 MIT Technology Review, in a survey of 1,004 business leaders, customer service (via chatbots) is the leading application of AI deployed today.
2. Predictive Personalization – Use customer data such as purchase history and preference to make product suggestions.
3. Hyper-personalized content – analyse user behavior to generate customized email content, campaigns, or messages.
4. Predicting churn – AI algorithms provide data from disengaged members. Get analytics of the high churn risk accounts. Based on user behavior, it also shows what offers will most likely move them to the low churn risk category. It will give you critical insights into the success rate of your current customer engagement strategies.

Single Page Websites (SPWs)

94% of first impressions are related to your site’s web design. SPWs are design-driven, user-friendly, uncomplicated, and easy to maintain. You can use SPWs for portfolios, landing pages, and brochure websites. SPWs have the following key advantages.

1. Ease of navigation on mobile.

2. Quick loading time.

3. Linear user experience.

4. Bounce rate reduction.

The following points need to be kept in mind while designing SPWs:

1. Split Content into small chunks. Do not overload users with excessive information.
2. Users may get bored with the endless scrolling. Design Alternative Navigation for Quick Access like sticky navigation. It remains at the top of the page, regardless of the depth of your scroll.
3. Use robust call to action.
4. Be creative with your website. You can use CSS3, HTML5, and JavaScript to create a stunning SPW.

Web Assembly (WA)

A Google study over millions of page impressions found that when a site meets the recommended thresholds for the core web vitals metrics, users are at least 24% less likely to abandon a page before it finishes loading. Website performance has a direct impact on user experience and churn rate.

WA is gaining prominence because it is vital in developing high-performance sites. With WA, compile code into byte code using any programming language. WA enhances the sites’ speed, thereby optimizing its performance.

Apart from enhancing website performance, WA provides other benefits to your business.

1. Offers a good compile target for the web. It gives developers the freedom to choose which language they code their websites on.
2. Perfect for mobile browsing.
3. Supported by all major browsing platforms.
4. WA has a small file size that has a direct impact on the sites’ load time.
5. WA offers high-end security to the website.

Voice Activated (VA) Search and Navigation

In a recent "new voice technology" survey, Adobe found that 48% of consumers use voice for "general web searches." VA is revolutionizing information search and is reducing the mundane typing into search bars.

Here are some of the voice search optimization strategies that you can use in your enterprise.

1. Focus on conversational keywords. In the age of semantic search, long-tail conversational keywords have become more popular than short-tail keywords.
2. Create compelling persona-based content
3. Use Schema Markup to make your website SEO friendly.
4. Make a FAQ page and create conversational answers.

Motion User Interface (MUI) design

It takes about 50 milliseconds (that’s 0.05 seconds) for users to form an opinion about your website that determines whether they like your site or not, whether they’ll stay or leave. 94% of first impressions relate to your websites’ design.

Businesses are under tremendous pressure to create an engaging website design for enhancing user experience. It is where MUI becomes prominent. MUI enables you to create stunning transitions and animations for your enterprise website.

Use MUI in the following ways to create stunning websites.

1. Welcome screen – excite your users with a unique welcome screen. It can be of great use when your website is content-laden and takes time to load.
2. Call to Actions (CTA) – CTAs can be fun and interactive with a creative MUI.
3. Use it to create a feedback loop.
4. Engage users with spontaneous brand storytelling.
5. Improve brand recognition by creating sharable videos for your website. The average CVR for websites using video is 4.8%, compared to 2.9% for those that don’t use video.

CONCLUSION

Customer needs are rapidly evolving. Thus, creating an engaging web user experience is vital. Based on some of the web development trends expected in 2021 it is imminent for enterprises to adopt cutting-edge web portal development strategies to boost brand visibility and customer retention.

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