How have websites developed over the last 10 years?
Yes, there have been very big changes in this period,
in fact, if we look at the last decade.
And if you're a regular web user,
and you look at some of the sites that have been around for ten years or more,
you can see enormous changes in the look and functionality of those pages.
Especially on the front-end side, what has happened
is that there have been very big changes or very many tools
which allow developers to be more and more creative and inventive.
Because back in the day, front-end developers used to be mainly just there
to look at the design, to do CSS,
meaning to turn the design into a web page.
But now they have a much more demanding job,
as they have to somehow edit, or should I say develop,
the animations and all that kind of functionality themselves.
If we look at the animations on the websites.
We used to have to use flash technology or animated GIFs,
and we all know that wasn't really
the nicest visual thing, so to speak.
But now we have entire web applications,
like Google Maps with navigation,
various Google Docs, Google Sheets, etc.
These things are actually thriving online,
and this is something that was totally unthinkable 15 years ago.
Have the safety requirements changed over the years?
Yes, in fact they have.
More and more companies are taking their business online.
And this has led to a growing need for security.
The introduction of the https standard,
which has become mandatory for websites to function at all
and which creates a secure connection
between the user and the website or web server,
is already a major step forward in this direction.
Where a hacker attack used to be
just something that was inconvenient, for example, to get a site to stop working,
it can now be a huge financial loss for an online business.
And it can result in the theft of personal data, etc.
So now the need for security is much, much greater,
in fact everything has become much more advanced.
Who defines the change in web development?
I would say, basically, that there are two poles here.
On the one hand, there are companies that want more and more innovation,
striving for more and more innovation and more and more profits,
and on the other hand, there are users who want more and more information,
accessibility, online shopping, etc.
So both of them are kind of pushing
for the web to evolve, that it has to evolve, that it has to be more and more accessible.
From the end-users' point of view,
they want to get information as quickly as possible.
From a business point of view, they want to maximise earnings
and innovation.
At the same time, the regulation of security and privacy should also be mentioned.
And if we look at social networks,
what a shift they have had to make in terms of GDPR and the introduction of GDPR.
There have been enormous costs involved
in ensuring that social networks are safe to use,
that users' personal data is secure, etc.
What role do smartphones play in web development?
Smartphones have boosted
the use of the internet as a whole.
Because before, for example, we had users who didn't use the internet at all,
except on desktops or laptops,
and a very large number of current users didn't use the internet at all.
So a whole new market has opened up for web users, for online users.
So basically, I dare to say that the development of smartphones
is one of the biggest factors for change on the web.
Responsive web design has also emerged,
adapting the way websites
and web apps look on mobile phones.
A website will look completely
different on a mobile phone than on a desktop computer.
What are the most common tools for creating websites?
Web development tools
for example can be divided into three main groups.
The first group are simple web tools,
like Wix, Squarespace,
which allow even lay users
to set up some simple presentation pages themselves.
The second group would perhaps be these robust systems,
which are very sophisticated in terms of functionality, but perhaps limit a little
the customisation to the individual client or client's requirements.
For example, Magento, Shopify, Wordpress.
Then there are various frameworks and generic CMS systems
or content editors,
which may require more development in the beginning,
but can eventually be fully adapted to the needs of clients.
These are, for example, the Laravel framework, or the October CMS,
that we use in our digital agency.
Are webshops considered to be the more technically demanding websites?
I would say that online stores are the sites
that need the most technical attention.
We should not forget about sites that are fully integrated
with the company's existing business systems,
such as ERP systems or accounting software,
so to speak,
where in fact the link between the online shop and these systems
is already very complex.
Of course, there can be a lot of security holes,
so more attention needs to be paid to such things.
And of course, let's not forget about paying
with credit cards and other digital currencies.
It's all very... there's a big risk here, if things are not technically sophisticated.
Does a higher quality website have a higher hit rate on Google?
Yes, it does. In the past, only content mattered,
but now we know that Google and similar search engines
put a lot of emphasis on quality code,
or they look at factors such as, for example
optimisation of the page, optimisation of the images, that the page loading speed is not too fast,
responsive web design, responsiveness, as I said before.
There are many factors.
Some are more important, some less, including the content, of course.
So there are basically a lot of factors, that affect search engine positioning.
Google Analytics and GDPR - as a developer, are you prepared?
As developers, we try to follow all the instructions and suggestions
from the Information Commissioners and, of course, the legislation.
Technology, or clients, want to get as much data as possible,
analytical data from users
so that they can carry out their business processes.
And we developers have a difficult task, because we have to somehow walk
that middle path and enable or satisfy
both sides, trying to still get as much data as possible to the client.
But we have to keep an eye on the legislation, and we have to do it along the lines
of what is allowed and what not.
What the Information Commissioner says
has to be done, is what we have to do.
Website analysis - do clients carry it out themselves?
Typically the client first tells us
what they want, what they want to monitor,
what they want to have on their website.
We then integrate an analytics tool,
in most cases Google Analytics,
but there are other integrations of other tools,
and then we start collecting the data.
And then we usually educate the client ourselves,
in that certain interface
how to monitor the things they want to monitor.
These factors of what the client wants to monitor, there are hundreds of them.
It can only monitor general page traffic, top clicks,
where users scrolled with their mouse, etc.
It very much depends on the client's wishes.
And we basically educate the client in this direction
so that he can then follow these standards, these trends.
Anecdote about clients and web developers
One funny, bad practice, I would say,
was when we got the content for the website from the client.
The client handwrote it and faxed it to us.
I still remember that this sheet of paper
was over three offices long.
For developers, for example, when you test something in a production environment,
it's good to cancel orders afterwards.
We have also had four new
truck tyres delivered to the office.