The best thing about the technology is that it continuously evolves and always comes up with new trendsetter features and functionalities that make the lives of humans easier and superior. The internet was one such technology that has given a paradigm shift to the way we connect with the world and the information exchange among users. From a business point of view, technology allows businesses an opportunity to come up with new solutions and services that add more comfort and convenience to the lives of the users.
In recent times, businesses have used technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning and others to bring more convenience to the users. One such promising technology is the Internet of Things. It is going to be a game changer in recent future due to its endless possibilities and opportunities. It will not change the way users perform various tasks, it will also affect the IoT service providers too.
Nowadays, you cannot find a person who is not dependent on the internet. The internet is used to find information, perform various tasks and for entertainment purposes too. The whole world has become a village without any geographical or demographical barriers and businesses are using this opportunity to penetrate in those unexplored locations and areas with promising products and services.
The Internet of Things will truly be a trendsetter in today’s world as it allows information exchange among devices without any human intervention. IoT will bring changes the way we develop software and web applications. In fact, IoT web development is anew buzzword popular among the web world.
What is the Internet of Things?
The Internet of Things is a technology that allows different devices to communicate and interact with each other to perform various tasks including data exchange. Generally, these devices are connected to the internet or electronics or hardware such as sensors. These devices can be controlled and remotely accessed for performing various actions. Some of the examples are smartwatches, Apple Siri, Google’s Google Now, Microsoft Cortana and Amazon Echo are some of the examples of personal assistants powered by IoT technology.
Web development companies and independent freelance web developers need to understand the fact that IoT is here to stay and they have to incorporate IoT technology in their future endeavours to ensure that websites support IoT technology.
As per the research, there will be almost 20 billion active IoT devices connected to the internet by the end of 2020. It gives an opportunity to the web developers to incorporate IoT devices to the software packages.
However, it would be interesting to know how the internet of things will affect the web development that we know of. Another study reveals that new web development projects’ IoT adoption rate is 43% in the next five years. It clearly shows the strong effect IoT will have on web development practices.
Some real-world examples of IoT that can be found today.
Smart watches
We all are aware of different smartwatches available in the market today. These devices are very much in fashion and you can see in the wrists of the professionals. Most of these smartwatches are directly connected to the iOS and Android devices that monitor and control the functionalities of the watches.
Here too, web development powered by IoT has got its way. You will be able to browse web pages that don’t interfere with the website stability and overall user experience.
Personal Assistants
Personal assistants have found their way in most of the households and for a good reason. Smart homes are not new thing nowadays. Cortana, Siri and Bixby are the examples of personal assistants that are found in many homes and offices.
Giant companies such as Microsoft and Google are still coming with advancements and improvements to make the users journey more convenient and superior while using these personal assistants.
These personal assistants are connected through the internet and operate via IoT database to perform various actions and tasks asked by the users such as answering questions, switching devices and booking appointments.
Computing devices
There is a growing demand for computing devices such as Raspberry Pi and The Word Point that are used to get genuine, useful information. These devices are versatile in nature and easy to operate with. These are small scale devices that work exactly like your desktop computers and with the IoT implementation, these devices can be used to control various devices and to perform various tasks and actions.
Now, let’s discuss the impact of IoT on current web development practices:
The demand for skilled IoT web development programmers
Not every web developer can become an IoT web developer. It is not possible for an ordinary web developer to incorporate IoT devices with web applications.
IoT devices need a comprehensive approach and knowledge of coding, programming and database management and you will need to expand your knowledge horizons to become an expert IoT web development programmer.
If you know programming languages such as PHP, Java, C and others, you need to go for training to expand your knowledge and become a skilled programmer.
The first step to becoming an IoT web development programmer is to find a job for entry-level IoT development programmer to hone their skills and expertise.
Also, they can use third-party platforms such as Udemy or Skillshare to sharpen their skills.
You must have a hybrid development team to develop IoT applications
IoT applications might boost the chances to get more money for each project too. It can be a money-making machine for developers who are skilled at IoT web applications.
It is a commonly known truth that hybrid development teams can accomplish a project within a turnaround time and with superior quality. When there is a hybrid team involved in the development process, the project will be completed within the stipulated time frame as members know their job descriptions and work in unison to carry out tasks. The end result would be excellent and remarkable.
When you want to develop an IoT based web application, you will need skilled enthusiasts from both the worlds. Web developers will join hands with IoT programmers to bring a more innovative approach and robust coding to complete the project in a required time frame.
Even for IoT developers with no prior experience with web development, it would be a learning experience as they would be able to learn something new.
Being an owner of the company, you might need to ensure that they are able to work in a cohesive environment while putting their differences aside.
Complexity will rise
It is not an easy task to develop IoT web applications as there is much complexity involved. We all know very well that IoT devices are basically based on interconnected databases and that’s the point where they perform well to do certain tasks and actions. On the other hand, the front end UI of the web application is complicated and you will find yourself in the middle of chaos where nothing seems easy and doable.
It will require a sharp eye on details and a carefully planned development strategy to accomplish IoT web development projects.
A project manager needs to sit with the team and make a comprehensive plan and approach to assign duties to the members and to make a progress report from them daily or weekly.
Both, web developers and IoT experts have to collaborate to reduce the complexities and to perform better to accomplish the project.
It is the reason, businesses look for web developers who also have skills of IoT development to develop IoT web applications in a quick time and without any errors.
Continuous data collection
One of the most troublesome issues web developers find is the lack of actionable data from the users to make their websites more effective, user-friendly and interactive. They have user feedback and reviews and cookies to help them, but these variables don’t bring so much on the table. Finding the pain points in the website is difficult for web application developers as they don’t have accurate data to work on.
That’s where IoT comes into the picture. IoT devices can gather and share actionable insights and data that can be used by the IoT web development programmers to make superior websites by addressing the pain points of the users.
It is a sure shot way to gather data and use it to make more meaningful and comprehensive websites that users are looking for.
Dynamic UI development
The traditional UI development practices might not work with IoT devices. Web developers and designers need to realign their approach when it comes to UI development.
IoT devices are actually hardware devices by definition and they will require a dynamic UI interface to address and accommodate the needs of different users with different profiles.
Web developers need to think about their current UI development practices and come up with more advanced and dynamic practices to meet the expectations of the IoT devices.
The main reason you need to understand here is the way IoT device with web capabilities are used by the users. Generally, users will ask for information and research-based facts and figure and when devices display data, it will be in different formats such as infographics, images, videos and charts.
Hence, it is a challenge for web developers to come up with UI micromanagement to address the expectations of the IoT devices.
Security features cannot be ignored
It is a known fact that IoT devices are vulnerable when it comes to security. Most of the IoT devices don’t have security measures and it is an issue that needs to be addressed as quickly as possible.
It is the reason why IoT devices are still not preferred by the common people as security is a major concern here.
Here, web development can come to the rescue. Web developers can come up with different robust security features to back their codes.
Some of the must security measures are access management, user identification and verification of identity. IoT web development programmers have to address this burning issue to develop more secure and robust IoT devices.
