As we approach 2024, the frontend development space is gearing up for some notable shifts and advancements. The coming year promises to bring changes that will impact how we approach web development. In this article, we'll take a pragmatic look at the frontend development trends to watch in 2024.
Top trends for frontend development
Let’s take a look at the frontend trends to keep an eye on in 2024 to learn more about what the future will bring in frontend software development.
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Road to better performance by hydration
Before the main point about this trend is revealed, it’s crucial to understand what hydration is and why it is so important.
In the realm of frontend web development, "hydration" refers to a critical process that bridges the gap between static HTML web pages and dynamic, interactive web applications. It plays a pivotal role in enhancing the user experience and optimizing the performance of modern web applications. Let's delve into what hydration means in the context of frontend development and why it's so important.
Hydration is the process of taking a static HTML web page and enhancing it with interactivity and dynamic behavior on the client side using JavaScript. This approach is particularly relevant for single-page applications (SPAs) and progressive web apps (PWAs) where the initial page load might contain minimal content and is then enriched and expanded upon as the user interacts with the application.
In simpler terms, when a user first visits a web page, they receive an initial HTML document from the server. This document may contain the basic structure and content of the page but lacks the interactive features and dynamic data. Hydration is the mechanism by which JavaScript is used to inject additional functionality, retrieve data from APIs, and update the page without requiring a full page refresh.
Hydration stands as a crucial technique for creating dynamic, interactive, and high-performance web applications. By combining the initial server-rendered HTML with JavaScript-driven interactivity, web developers can strike a balance between fast initial page loads and rich, responsive user experiences. Whether you're building SPAs, PWAs, or traditional multi-page applications, understanding and implementing hydration is key to delivering web applications that truly come to life in the browser.
Many frontend frameworks like Angular, Vue, or React have built-in or enableable hydration techniques like server-side rendering (SSR), however, Qwik stands out from the crowd.
The Qwik framework employs a unique approach to hydration known as "resumable hydration." This process involves loading HTML first without JavaScript, then hydrating interactivity as needed. Traditional JavaScript frameworks require downloading all component code and rebuilding the listener locations and internal component tree, which is costly in terms of page load time. Qwik, however, pauses execution on the server and resumes it on the client without needing to download components, their state, or templates for listeners. It leverages its own mechanisms like QRL, Prefetching, Optimizer, and Qwikloader to resume the application state on the client efficiently.
Prefetching in Qwik works by automatically downloading the necessary code for the web app using a service worker after the initial page load. JavaScript is then kept in the browser cache. This is designed to optimize loading performance and interactivity.
Qwik's Optimizer delays code loading by rearranging code for lazy loading. It transforms the code to enable components to be loaded as needed rather than all at once, which contributes to faster initial load times and improved performance.
AI in the frontend world
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are transforming every field of software development, including frontend. Generative AI chats and other tools can be used by organizations in various ways. By incorporating AI into the development workflow, teams can increase efficiency, reduce errors, and create more engaging and performant web applications.
AI can support frontend development on a daily basis in numerous ways:
- Automated code generation: AI can generate boilerplate code, perform repetitive tasks, and even create complex code structures based on high-level requirements.
- Design to code: AI tools can convert design mock-ups directly into usable code, significantly reducing the time needed to translate a design into a working website.
- Testing and debugging: AI can help identify bugs, suggest fixes, and even predict where future errors might occur by learning from past issues.
- Performance optimization: AI can analyze user interactions and performance metrics to suggest optimizations for better performance and user experience.
- Personalization: AI can be used to create a more personalized user experience by adapting the UI and content in real time based on user behavior and preferences.
- Accessibility: AI can help ensure that frontend code meets accessibility standards, suggesting changes to improve accessibility for users with disabilities.
It is interesting that frontend framework creators are experimenting with AI in the context of the application build process. In other words, the intention is that AI will predict what bundles need to be loaded eagerly and what can be lazy loaded later.
Another related concept that is worth paying attention to is streaming in case of hydration, so the application won’t serve all the JavaScript code at once but will serve the portions that are needed for the application to work.
Angular Renaissance
The term "Angular Renaissance" was introduced by Sarah Drasner, Director of Engineering at Google, 
to describe a phase of renewal for the Angular framework. The Angular Renaissance is characterized by incremental and backward-compatible changes that are focused on improving developer experience and application performance. Key features that have emerged from this movement include standalone components and signals. Angular 17 builds on this by introducing new syntax for control flow, enhanced support for lazy loading of page parts, better server-side rendering (SSR) support, and faster build times facilitated by the use of esbuild.
Angular standalone components
Angular standalone components, introduced in Angular's recent versions, are gaining attention for several reasons:
- Standalone components reduce the complexity of Angular applications by eliminating the need for NgModules. This simplification leads to a more intuitive and streamlined development process.
- These components promote modularity, making it easier to break down applications into smaller, more manageable, and reusable pieces. This can enhance code organization and maintainability.
- Standalone components can be easier to understand and use, especially for frontend developers new to Angular. They lower the learning curve associated with the framework's traditional module system.
- By being more granular, standalone components can improve tree-shaking, leading to smaller bundle sizes and better application performance.
- Frontend developers can mix standalone components with traditional module-based components, providing flexibility in application development and migration.
- Standalone components can lead to a better code structure, with each component encapsulating its functionality, making the codebase more organized and easier to navigate.
Overall, Angular standalone components represent a shift towards a more modular and simplified approach in Angular application development, catering to both new and experienced developers.
Angular signals
Angular signals are an innovative feature that enhances the reactivity of Angular applications. Signals represent a value along with a change notification mechanism. When a signal's value changes, Angular's change detection can automatically update the view that reads the signal, making the code more responsive to user interactions or other changes. This provides a more reactive programming model, allowing for finer control over change detection, which can lead to performance improvements. Signals can be used in components, directives, services, and templates to manage and display state in a synchronized and efficient manner. They can be an easy-to-learn alternative for RxJs (which is not that straightforward) in synchronous cases, as well as easily integrated with state management libraries like NgRx or NgXs. Finally, signals do not require a test bed, which makes them a pleasant testing material.
The Angular development team is also working on a replacement for zone.js, which is the primary change detection mechanism and one of the things that Angular is most criticized for. Signals are the first step in doing so.
Beware of the Sheriff
Sheriff is a groundbreaking Angular project crafted for frontend developers seeking a more controlled and sophisticated approach to state management. As Angular applications grow in complexity, Sheriff steps in to uphold order, offering a robust set of tools to track, manage, and maintain the application's state with precision. With Sheriff, scalability meets simplicity, ensuring that even the most complex state changes are handled with ease. Get ready to deputize your Angular apps with Sheriff and experience a new level of efficiency and clarity in state management, ensuring your codebase remains both performant and maintainable as it scales.
ClickUp NPX Build
ClickUp is a company that has set out to revolutionize the productivity software industry. Recognizing that the current landscape of productivity tools is fragmented and inefficient, ClickUp was created as an all-in-one app designed to bring all work into a single platform, aiming to improve productivity and give users back a significant portion of their time.
In the process of developing their platform, they encountered several challenges, especially with building a large enterprise-scale application. To solve this issue, they have come up with a custom npx solution that is dedicated to large bundles. The interesting fact is that at the NgPoland conference, ClickUp representatives announced that the npx building tool is going to be available soon as an open-source solution.
An open-source solution like this has the chance to benefit the community by leading to improved build times and overall development efficiency, especially for projects dealing with significant codebases.
Conclusion
The upcoming year is about to bring some exciting advancements for frontend development. The expected ongoing development in the field of AI, including design-to-code tools, might take a pivotal role in shaping the industry. The growing expectations of users must be met with greater precision, more immersive user experiences, streamlined development workflows, and overall exceptional digital interfaces.
There will be a lot to learn and many ways to improve for frontend developers in 2024. We look toward the future with excitement, ready to take on new challenges.
