Laurie Voss

Web development: where are we, and where are we going?

What if the fundamental web development skills you have today will be obsolete tomorrow? This talk explains the predictable cycle of tech evolution.

Web development: where are we, and where are we going?
#1about 8 minutes

A model for how web development technology evolves

Technology evolves through a predictable cycle of experimentation, commoditization, consolidation, and mass adoption driven by economics and developer boredom.

#2about 6 minutes

Historical examples of abstraction in web development

The history of the web from Apache and PHP to the LAMP stack and WordPress demonstrates a consistent pattern of abstracting away lower-level concerns.

#3about 5 minutes

The rise of modern frameworks and cloud platforms

Frameworks like Rails and jQuery, along with platforms like AWS and GitHub, further abstracted development and infrastructure, accelerating the cycle of change.

#4about 5 minutes

Current technologies in the competition phase

Serverless computing, Jamstack platforms like Netlify, and the React framework are currently in the intense competition and consolidation phase of the technology cycle.

#5about 5 minutes

The future is abstracting away code with components

The next evolution in web development will involve abstracting away code itself through visual, component-based editors that allow building websites without writing HTML or React.

#6about 2 minutes

Navigating your career in a component-driven future

Developers facing this future can choose to specialize in building core components, adapt to building with visual tools, or create the next generation of frameworks.

Related jobs
Jobs that call for the skills explored in this talk.

Matching moments

The industry's focus on frameworks over web fundamentals
11:32 MIN

The industry's focus on frameworks over web fundamentals

WeAreDevelopers LIVE – Frontend Inspirations, Web Standards and more

Navigating the growing complexity of modern CSS
09:00 MIN

Navigating the growing complexity of modern CSS

WeAreDevelopers LIVE – You Don’t Need JavaScript, Modern CSS and More

Why you might not need JavaScript for everything
02:33 MIN

Why you might not need JavaScript for everything

WeAreDevelopers LIVE – You Don’t Need JavaScript, Modern CSS and More

The only frontend stack that truly matters
11:10 MIN

The only frontend stack that truly matters

WeAreDevelopers LIVE – Frontend Inspirations, Web Standards and more

The value of progressive enhancement and semantic HTML
03:31 MIN

The value of progressive enhancement and semantic HTML

WeAreDevelopers LIVE – You Don’t Need JavaScript, Modern CSS and More

The enduring value of freelance development for small businesses
07:26 MIN

The enduring value of freelance development for small businesses

Slopquatting, API Keys, Fun with Fonts, Recruiters vs AI and more - The Best of LIVE 2025 - Part 2

The challenge of keeping up with modern CSS
07:46 MIN

The challenge of keeping up with modern CSS

WeAreDevelopers LIVE – AI, Freelancing, Keeping Up with Tech and More

Improving the developer feedback loop with specialized tools
03:16 MIN

Improving the developer feedback loop with specialized tools

Developer Time Is Valuable - Use the Right Tools - Kilian Valkhof

Featured Partners

Related Videos

See all videos
Web development best practices in 202151:10

Web development best practices in 2021

Laurie Voss

The year 3000, a brief history of Web Development25:30

The year 3000, a brief history of Web Development

Lorenzo Pieri

The State Of The Web43:11

The State Of The Web

Jeremy Keith

WeAreDevelopers LIVE – Frontend Inspirations, Web Standards and more1:06:20

WeAreDevelopers LIVE – Frontend Inspirations, Web Standards and more

Chris Heilmann, Daniel Cranney & Jan Deppisch

To New Frontiers: The Future of Frontend Development26:00

To New Frontiers: The Future of Frontend Development

Rainer Hahnekamp

Keith Cirkle of GitHub on React Fatigue49:32

Keith Cirkle of GitHub on React Fatigue

Keith Cirkle

Closing Keynote by Joel Spolsky46:42

Closing Keynote by Joel Spolsky

Joel Spolsky

The Lean Web46:46

The Lean Web

Chris Ferdinandi

Related Articles

View all articles
BR
Benjamin Ruschin
The HTML Elements That You’re Probably Over-Engineering
As frameworks have become more and more commonplace in the world of web development, so too has the over-engineering of features made possible by our humble old friend, HTML. The mental models that come with using state management in React, Vue and o...
The HTML Elements That You’re Probably Over-Engineering
CH
Chris Heilmann
Building a "shoutout" component in plain HTML/CSS/JavaScript
Every Wednesday we meet at noon to talk about a lot of tech news, tools and resources in something we call WeAreDevelopers Live . We go live on YouTube and afterwards we cut out short videos to post on social media. What we needed was an obvious “sho...
Building a "shoutout" component in plain HTML/CSS/JavaScript
DC
Daniel Cranney
The State of WebDev AI 2025 Results: What Can We Learn?
Introduction The 2025 edition of The State of WebDev AI offers a detailed snapshot of how developers are using AI today, which tools have gained the most traction over the past year, and what these trends suggest about the future of the industry. In...
The State of WebDev AI 2025 Results: What Can We Learn?

From learning to earning

Jobs that call for the skills explored in this talk.

Software Developers

Software Developers

Code Healers LLC
Hinesville, United States of America

Remote
€30-40K
Intermediate
Senior
.NET
React
JavaScript
+2