Are you ready for Web 3.0?

The World Wide Web has been around for more than three decades. While the Web was designed originally to meet the demand for automated information-sharing between scientists in institutes and universities across the globe, it evolved to become the backbone of today’s economy. Millions of people benefit from using the Internet every day. It has truly taken the human society to a whole new level.

But the avergae website today is a little different. Have you noticed? There are a lot of new UX UI Design and Development trends that transition the browsing experience completely.

There has been a monumental shift in website and app designs. Experts hail this shift as a new era of web design and term it as ‘Web 3.0’.

Introduction to Web 3.0

Web design 3.0 is essentially about data and its management. As we live in a day and age of information, the volume of data is expanding exponentially, and thus, the need to manage it safely and securely.

For a few years now, industry experts have been mulling over Blockchain and the need for a decentralized web that eliminates centralized data hosting services and relies instead on peer-to-peer infrastructure. There has also been a lot of talk about ways to take back power from tech giants like Facebook and Google, as they have been in the middle of privacy-related problems in recent years.

Furthermore, an increased demand to make the Web more accessible and a place to enjoy personalized user experiences has accelerated technologies like Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. Take Amazon’s Alexa app, for example. It is an AI tool that learns the algorithms of Amazon’s marketing base, shares personalized recommendations and lets Amazon know which products or services have the most demand as per customer searches.

Now that Web 3.0 is here, here’s what you need to know to stay prepared and ahead of the competition.

Web Transformation – A Brief History

In the earlier days, websites came with minimal interactive and graphic elements. Users only consumed the information presented to them. Maybe share that information with others through limited means. But that’s all that one could do. 

This is why Web 1.0 wasn’t enough after a few short years. Users demanded a streamlined manner of creating content and sharing information with the world. Demand for better connectivity, personalization and more interaction took the Internet by storm. And thus, Web 2.0 or the social web was born in the mid-2000s, and it looked a lot more colorful, interesting, and offered more options to the users in terms of content consumption.

While Web 2.0 held its own for about two decades, the world was already transitioning toward Web 3.0. Even the term Web 3.0 was first coined in 2006 by John Markoff in his NY times article. And this denoted the start of a new era, which is finally here. Dominated by the concept of machine learning and AI usage, Web 3.0 makes use of P2P networks. This is crucial to offer a transparent, decentralized, and personalized user experience. Users get an enriched web experience today with AR/VR, 3D effects, neumorphism, and so on. 

It is defined as a machine learning/AI-driven Web that offers users relatable, relevant and valuable search results based on their search context and not only the keywords. Additionally, this brand-new Web aims to remove data monopoly by implementing decentralized systems, such as Blockchain, to protect user data against misuse.

Web 3.0 v/s Websites from the previous years

The most significant change is the addition of creative elements. For example, UI/UX designers get comfortable using background elements like curves and shapes to impose a particular design navigation path.

When blobs and shapes are used correctly, they can highlight important content while offering a pleasant User Interface (UI).

Furthermore, Web 3.0 designs utilise a lot more visual content and illustrations to enrich pages and illustrate specific causes, products, or services. Designers are using animations and icons profusely to enhance and gamify the user experience.

Typography is another significant change. It is being used to grab the users’ attention and has become an integral part of the overall design.

The role of UX design in Web 3.0

It is not only designers using this trend, but modern WordPress frameworks and themes are also built to incorporate these trends.

Shapes and other design elements impact a website/app design because of minimalism and aesthetics. In addition, design elements help to pull the entire design together while making sure consistent user experience and smooth flow.

The reasons why UX design and the use of illustrations play an important role are – 

Capturing the visitors’ attention

Visual elements play a crucial role in grabbing visitors attention and compelling them to explore a website or app. The colors, designs, and shapes appeal to users. 

Simplifies complicated elements

UX designers would traditionally depend on headlines to explain the product or services offered by a website or an app. However, these days, illustrations do most of the hard work. As a result, an entire illustration set can be designed around product offerings and their features. 

The portrayal of the unique visual character

Since no brand is the same, it is important to reflect their uniqueness, and this is where UI/UX design comes in handy. Using visuals, brands can portray an identity that is unique and sets them apart from the rest. They do so with a consistency in colors, the geometric shapes, the navigation buttons, or the illustrations. 

Brand image

The illustration styles used can help brands promote a positive image among their target audience. Illustrations can even help brands to showcase their strengths, brand values, and qualities. Contrary to popular belief, brand image is not only about copywriting. Instead, design and content work hand in hand to create a brand image for a website or an app. 

Has Web 3.0 Already Arrived? 

Well, industry insiders, app/website developers, UI/UX designers, and even page builders agree that the era of Web 3.0 has begun. However, it is still in its embryonic stages and has ample room to grow. Some of its features are already available within the traditional or regular web/apps.

The evolution of web utilization is the essence of Web 3.0, and it includes transforming the Web into a database. The degradation of the Web’s back-end is allowed in this new era of web design.

The term ‘Web 3.0’ depicts myriad interactions and evolutions, and this revolutionary update enables the services to share data. Moreover, it guarantees to establish the information in a much more reasonable way than what Google does with its present search engine schema. This is specifically from the machine conception’s perspective and opposed to human understanding.

Features of Web 3.0

In Web 3.0, the Web provides and displays relevant search results that resonate closely with the search terms of the searchers. It gives searchers an environment of continuous search with a focus on the keywords. The search results also take into consideration the search intent of the searchers.

Primarily, Web 3.0 comes with five key features that define how this revolutionary update works. AI (artificial intelligence) has enhanced the search engine schema; and this novel update vows to provide results related closely to your search queries. The features are as follows:

Semantic Web

Being an evolved and much-advanced version of the Web, Web 3.0 involves the Semantic Web. The Semantic Web augments Web technologies to create, share, and even connect content via analysis and search, which is based on comprehending the meaning of the words instead of the numbers or keywords.

It enables data to be shared across different platforms, systems and community boundaries. It acts as a bridge between various platforms and data formats. The use of the Semantic Web allows users to connect better and share information on the Internet like never before.

3D dimensional designs (graphics)

Complex websites, apps and specific web services are making use of 3D designs and environments. HD games, museum guides, roller-coaster simulation, horror simulation and eCommerce apps/websites are some of the examples where 3D graphics are used.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Web 3.0 combines AI with NLP (natural language processing), enabling computers and even smartphones to distinguish information the same way as humans.

This understanding enables machines to provide faster and more relevant results to the search query of the users. Also, machines have become intelligent today to cater to the search requirements of humans and satisfy the needs of users.

Connectivity

With semantic metadata, information is much more connected today. Thanks to this feature of web design 3.0, the user experience is evolving to a different level. Better connectivity is making it possible for users to find all the available information at their fingertips.

Ubiquitous design

Another brand-new feature is a ubiquitous design. This makes content easily accessible through various applications; where every device has access to the Internet. With this, users can avail better services no matter where they are.

While semantic web, one of the features of Web 3.0, and its impact on web design have already been discussed; there’s another way to create a seamless semantic experience, and that is with the use of chatbots.

Apps or websites today already use chatbots, or they might be planning to integrate one. The AI-driven chatbots are much more advanced and offer plenty of information so that users are satisfied and don’t need human interaction. This is because AI chatbots can learn as they go and can even create content. Using such technology in developing and designing will get you closer to making your project fit for web design 3.0. 

How is Web 3.0 Changing Lives?

From decentralized exchanges like IDEX to social networks like Sapien, there are multiple Web 3.0 design examples.  These apps have kept the design simple, focusing on user experience and utilizing blockchain AI to get high-quality, relevant information without their data at stake. Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa are also excellent examples of Web 3.0 design that have kept the interface simple and incorporated technologies like voice recognition and pre-programmed algorithms that make users’ lives easier.

Here is how Web 3.0 is changing lives – 

Richer app experiences

The multifaceted Web 3.0 benefits websites and offers richer app experiences. For instance, consider Google’s mapping services. This app can now combine the basics of location search with live traffic updates, route guidance, and hotel recommendations. Again, this wasn’t possible during the Web 2.0 era. 

Personalized browsing experience

The adverts might be annoying, but users cannot deny the convenience of quickly clicking through special offers for things that they genuinely need. Websites and apps can automatically customize themselves thanks to web design 3.0. 

Better data security

Since the online platforms and apps are decentralized, the focus is on better security and privacy. 

Are you ready for the transformation?

The focus of Web 3.0 is on the utilization of advanced technologies like AI, machine learning, and blockchain. Moreover, Web 3.0 promises improved content to the users as per their search queries. This is a brand-new period of web and app development. It is all about making the Web more intelligent to enjoy a far superior user experience.

Leverage all the knowledge you can gather regarding this update and make the best of this next age of web revolution. Falling behind is not an option because the Web will only surprise you with more evolutions from here on out.