The Future Of Personal Devices And Implications For Web Design

The rapid growth of mobile technologies over the last few years may be said to have given a whole new meaning to the concept of information access and availability. With the ability to browse the Internet almost anytime and anyplace, people have started relying on their mobile devices for virtually anything they may need at a particular moment.

Such an increased reliance on mobile devices has naturally affected most aspects of our daily lives and set some new standards in the world of the web.

In the realm of web design, many things have changed with the emergence of mobile search. However, mobile technologies have by no means reached their full potential and are likely to bring even more novelties web designers will be expected to cope with.

How increased mobile browsing redefines web design

The latest reports suggest that mobile search for products and services have finally topped those coming from desktop platforms. Namely, the comScore report from June this year has revealed that 60% of online traffic now comes from smartphones and tablets combined, which imposes some new rules for website design.

For the greatest part, this translates into an increased need for mobile optimization and responsive design, which are the trends that have become an important focus for both web hosts and web designers. Although a concept that exists for years, the mobile web has only recently started showing its true face and no business can ignore its expansion any more. Similarly, web designers are expected to develop sleek websites that work excellently on both mobile and desktop browsers, thus giving a completely new dimension to user experience.

However, many other things are going on in the tech world, all of which are bound to further reshape web design in the following years.   

Would wearables inspire change, as well?

A related trend that is likely to expand the notion of ‘responsive’ design is the development of wearable technology, which seems to be the next frontier for the mobile web. The pace at which the market for wearables is growing implies that the world is headed towards even more connected, more virtualized future. Some reports estimate that by the year 2025, wearables would be fully immersed in our everyday lives, which would certainly make its impact on future web design techniques.

Even though it may still be too early to make predictions about the extent to which web design would be changed by the expansion of wearables, it’s reasonable to expect that at some point in future, they too will become a source of web searches. Such a possibility would not only impact web design, but also the web hosting industry in general, requiring new technologies, new server response times and new service delivery models. After all, the adopters of the emerging technologies are likely to expect relevant information at their hands. Otherwise, their development would not make much sense, would it?

Current considerations

Mobile device boom has already taken most industries by storm and there seem to be no reasons for wearables not to do so too.  We see mobile browsing becoming more and more dominant, even though few years ago not many people could have assumed to which extent they would develop. The same thing might happen with wearables, which is a reason good enough for web designers to start taking it seriously.