Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2023.  Read them in this 15th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.

Continued Growth of Java Will Create New Opportunities

By Kim Weins, VP of Products, Vaadin

According to the State of the Developer Nation survey by SlashData, Java is experiencing significant growth and is expected to continue to do so, with 49% of all active developers worldwide currently using it. Despite economic challenges, the continued increase in Java usage is expected to create numerous opportunities for developers in 2023 to contribute to positive business outcomes.

App Modernization

With continued migration to the cloud, software developers are experiencing growing pressure to modernize existing Java applications. A Forrester Consulting survey found that modernizing existing applications and infrastructure is a top digital transformational goal for over 40% of IT decision-makers. This will be a major theme in 2023. Even with market uncertainty and inflationary concerns, there is still a very real global shortage of developers. For most organizations, rewriting existing business logic and back-end services that extend to many millions of lines of code simply isn't affordable. The adoption of tools that empower developers to build a modern and efficient UX without rewriting backend code will accelerate. 

App Accessibility

The European Accessibility Act and the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division's Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA are good steps toward ensuring websites create an online environment accessible to everyone. While implementing DEI initiatives and designing for compliance, software developers and designers will play a central role. Some design elements that require adaptation for DEI and accessibility include"

• The use of color: Users with limited vision or color blindness may not be able to read text without sharp contrast between the text and background. They might also miss information or waste time if your site uses colors to convey information, such as using red text to indicate required field requirements.
• Video captioning: People with hearing disabilities may not have access to video-based information if there is not automatic closed captioning. 
• Navigation: Users who are unable to use a mouse or trackpad will not have access to content that cannot be navigated with a keyboard.

Between rising user demand for accessibility and increased regulatory pressure, software developers will need to adopt a user-centric vs. feature-centric development approach.

App Collaboration

Along with app modernization, developers will require increased collaboration. Simplicity and digital experience should be at the heart of every application. Real-time collaboration, such it's seeing who else is online, simultaneous editing, or chatting and commenting will become even more critical as dev teams remain largely distributed globally, and as the internal pressure to modernize quickly ramps up. A recent Atlassian survey showed 75% of engineers and IT leaders said they need to improve collaboration within their own department, a hindrance to both growth and innovation. Third-party tool use will remain constant, but I think that a number of companies will look to integrate these features directly for increased reliability, security, and total control over sensitive data. 

User Experience 

Good UX design is important for businesses because it can lead to improved customer satisfaction and loyalty, as well as increased efficiency and cost savings. One way to ensure good UX design in business web applications is to use a design system, which consists of design assets and reusable components governed by guidelines and principles. A design system can improve the developer experience, increase consistency in design, provide a competitive advantage, and reduce maintenance costs. It can also facilitate the development process, allowing for faster release cycles and reduced technical debt. Overall, investing in a design system can lead to a better user experience and improved business outcomes.

Conclusion

Java usage is expected to continue to increase in 2023. This will create numerous opportunities for developers to help businesses achieve their goals for digital transformation despite economic difficulties.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kim Weins is the vice president of products at Vaadin, where she drives awareness of its open-source platform for building modern, collaborative web apps for Java backends. Prior to Vaadin, Kim was SVP at Anchore, VP of cloud strategy at Flexera, and SVP of marketing at OpenLogic, where she helped evangelize and drive demand for open source and cloud technologies at large enterprises worldwide. Kim received a B.S. in engineering from Duke University.