IoT technology is rapidly spreading across all spheres of our life and the IT sphere is no exception. Such areas as web design, web development, and app development are being highly impacted by IoT. Combined with IoT, web design and development can dramatically change the future of the world since users start interacting with sensors, cameras, and devices that function using the internet. So how exactly can IoT impact web development?
How IoT Affects Web Development
Collecting High Volumes of Data
One of the key problems in web development is the long and treacherous process of collecting user feedback in regards to live websites. IoT systems work with large volumes of information. They gather, filter and analyze real-time data from sensors and send it to and back from the cloud. Large amounts of information can cause network delays and sometimes data loss. Contrary to traditional web development, IoT web development focuses more on the reliability and scalability of the system.
Scalability ensures that data collection and processing aren’t affected by the volume of information and reliability ensures data collection and processing are performed without interruption. That's why IoT developers prefer solutions and languages like JavaScript, Java, and C that facilitate scalable web applications.
Moreover, in IoT networks, communications generally consume a lot of energy. This is why it is important they should be built with optimization of energy consumption in mind. Page load time can be improved by means of high-bandwidth interconnections and advanced messaging protocols.
Dynamic User Interfaces
IoT devices require dynamic UIs to accommodate the needs of numerous user profiles. Typically, IoT devices with web capabilities are used for researching and displaying various kinds of data like infographics, charts, and other visualized data types. Since an IoT system generally collects huge amounts of information, it has to visualize lots of analytical data. So, web developers will have to completely rethink their approach to UI design.
An effective IoT network management requires a dynamic user interface. Dynamic UI is perfect for complex IoT applications because it enables developers to dynamically generate pages, which is particularly useful for multitasking.
Advanced Security
While security has always been a major issue for traditional web development, for IoT it's even more important. It is clear that devices should be secured to keep the system and data safe from outside invasion. This is where web development can truly take centre stage as it allows developers to back up their codes with reliable security features.
Open Web Application Security Project is the key cause of vulnerability, followed by insufficient authorization. In reality, an IoT system's primary weaknesses are web development and design domain, not the hardware. Therefore IoT web design has to concentrate on the security of the system. IoT developers have to build advanced user identification, access management, and identity verification to provide for access security. They ensure that the data and communications within the network are protected by encryption.
Rise in Overall Complexity
IoT complicates the web development and design process, as users will primarily use the front-end interface to interact with IoT-based devices such as cameras, sensors, and other smart devices. Websites will require the complex capacity to interact with back-end databases that store data that is collected from IoT devices. Web developers will have to ensure that pages load quickly and there is no delay in transmission timing in web development.
Hybrid Development Teams
Finding the right set of talent and skills is crucial for any business. It is not that easy though. That is why most businesses aren't taking advantage of IoT – they are stuck somewhere in the process of formulating the best strategy for managing their development teams. IoT requires a hybrid approach to web development.
Developers will agree that projects rarely succeed if hybrid teams are involved in the development process. The logic behind this is straightforward – static, stable teams with clearly defined team roles yield results more quickly. IoT development will ensure that web developers and IoT professionals join forces to come up with web-based platforms, websites, and software apps.
High Bar for Entry
Now that we have a clearer understanding of how IoT technologies impact web development, let’s take a look at their combined impact:
- In contrast to conventional web development, IoT requires much deeper knowledge of coding and database management.
- Web designers with knowledge of Java, PHP, C, and similar programming languages will have to seek ways to further broaden their knowledge. This means that they will either have to search for entry-level IoT development positions or use educational resources to learn beforehand.
While this isn't a detriment to web development as a whole, it will become a turning point in the entry bar for web development.
IoT Will Leave the Future of Web Development Completely Focused on the Back-End
With the rapid increase in the number of IoT apps, users of commercial and personal apps are enabled to connect seamlessly to the web even without screens that seemed to be the norm until now. In reality, IoT is expected to impact the future of web development tremendously.
It is expected that front-end development will be replaced by IoT and therefore we are moving into a future where web development is focused on the back-end. Emerging trends in UI and UX design suggest that we are transitioning from screens to an environment where our interactions with devices rely on voice and gestures.
IoT devices will become the powerhouses of data that are processed by analytics programs at the back-end. The only situation when traditional front-end web design and development is needed will be at the monitor of a data scientist.
For businesses of today, it is recommended to embrace the change and invest in IoT solutions that rely on back-end web development to offer seamless apps to end-users.
