When most people think of web development, the first thing that comes into mind is making websites: the content, the structure, and the design. Lately however, this has become only a very small part of web development. With the use of different devices, user’s are consuming content and information from many sources - in various ways. Websites just aren’t enough anymore for the web. The web has gone from simply presenting static information to systems providing up-to-date, meaningful information. There is now immersive interactivity wherever you are, on whatever device you use.
In this three part series, I will go through a brief overview of just a few of the ways we utilize modern web development to do more than just make a website.
Modern Web Dev Series Part 3: Web-Enabled Devices
Using the web no longer only means sitting in front of a computer. We now take the web with us everywhere using a multitude of web-enabled devices at any time such as mobile phones, tablets, and even glasses. Sometimes these devices also use their unique features in conjunction with the web without explicit interaction to provide contextual information before we even know we need it. Due to the advancement of computing power in the devices we carry with us, using offloaded processing from servers to client devices allows us new levels of immersion.
With the advances in web services, for abstracting the world’s information, and web applications, where we have learned to act on and interpret the data on a wide array of devices, we are now seeing ourselves relying less on computers, tablets, and smartphones altogether. We are now integrating the web into everything else. I really mean everything! From smart TVs, to smart watches, wall plugs that track and report on energy use, cars that ‘talk’ to our phones and let us know their health, coffee machines that talk to alarm clocks, and more everyday in areas of childrens’ toys, healthcare, consumer goods, manufacturing, etc. We call this the ‘internet of things’; ordinary things are now talking to networks and looking for and sending data to the same web services that before were used only on dedicated computing devices.
As you can see, modern web development is not just about making websites, but making systems that provide meaningful information and interactivity, wherever you go on whatever you use; and it’s reach is only getting bigger.
In case you missed Part 2: Web-Based Applications, click here, and for Part 1: Web Services, click here.
Rahul is a Front-End Developer at DOOR3. How do you think offloaded processing with web services fit into modern web development?
