Future Trends in WordPress Theme Development: What to Expect in the Coming Years

Although the WordPress CMS has been facing stiff competition from page builders such as Wix in recent years, the platform retains its market share due to its plethora of features, not least of which is the ecosystem’s theme development community. WordPress has always evolved as a platform, and it’s no different today. WordPress developers will be following new trends in the next few years as the worldwide web itself, and the devices with which users consume the internet change.

A survey of professionals from a WordPress development agency reveals valuable insights that unearth what we can expect up to the year 2030 from the evolution of WordPress theme development. Let’s dive in and explore the future.

Dark Mode UI: Plugging the Battery Drain

While most WordPress themes until now have flashy designs and color schemes to match the brand elements for small and medium enterprises or to help photographers and artists impress visitors through their portfolio websites, advances in screen technologies have added a new dimension to WordPress theme development.

OLED and AMOLED screens, pervasive in mobile phones and TV screens now, use very little battery power when displaying pitch-black colors on websites or apps. Many mobile users prefer to consume content in dark mode. This is why your WordPress development agency is likely to recommend adding a dark mode to your WordPress theme. 

Other benefits of dark mode are reduced eye strain and better visibility in certain lighting conditions. Therefore, WordPress themes will improve the user interface in the coming years. 

Fortification Frenzy: More Frequent Theme Updates

As technology adoption and use of online resources increase, user data collection is inevitably increasing. Companies running WordPress-based websites have to collect, store, and secure personally identifiable information for many use cases. 

WordPress themes are meant for front-end design and layout but are inherently connected to core WordPress functionalities, plugins, and databases. Cybercriminal gangs are upping the ante as financial transactions are at stake, and unscrupulous elements will stop at nothing to make a quick, illegal buck. Cybercrime is projected to cost as much as $15.63 trillion by 2029.

So, you might be wondering what’s the worst that can happen if your WordPress theme is exploited through a vulnerability? Here are the possible consequences:

  • Site Defacement: A hacker can inject their own code into your index.html to display any message that could permanently damage your brand’s credibility. Don’t lose your customers’ trust! 
  • Backdoor Access: Criminals can insert a ‘backdoor’ through your insecure theme and gain on-demand access to your site’s functioning and user data.
  • Malware Injection: A compromised theme file can even infect your web visitors with malware. This is a sure-shot way to get your web domain blacklisted by search engines and generative AI tools. 

Poor coding practices can expose WordPress themes to SQL injection or cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. Theme developers’ neglect in patching security lapses is another reason for vulnerabilities.

For this reason, in the coming years, only WordPress developers who create secure themes and regularly update their offerings will be successful. For you as a user, this means more frequent WordPress theme updates in the medium to long term.  

User-Centricity: Friendly Navigation

Traditionally, website owners have focused on ensuring that their website looks good not just on desktop computer screens, but also on laptop screens, and cellphone screens. This is still a web design best practice, and you should diligently ensure it for your website. 

However, many different devices are now internet-enabled, and WordPress developers should optimize their themes for a range of screen sizes, devices, and manufacturers. Even all TV sets sold now are “smart.” They can browse the internet on native browsers, receive casting of your phone screen, and connect a keyboard and mouse via Bluetooth for ease of browsing. So, your WordPress theme must cater to screens between 6.1 and 85 inches.

The concept of minimalism can come in handy to deal with this challenge. By reducing the amount of content on your webpages via design, you can:

  • Make your webpage visually appealing. 
  • Increase white space, which is touch-friendly, leading to easier browsing.
  • Make your design elements load faster due to lighter code. 

Such a WordPress theme design is ideal for most companies’ and individuals’ websites. You can always direct users to a blog post or landing page if they need more extensive information. 

Democratizing WordPress Theme Development: Full Site Editing 

To counter competition from page builders, WordPress came up with the Gutenberg editor. Now, you can enjoy full site editing without the need to know how to code. You have the following options within the WordPress site editor:

  • Navigation: Play around with how you want to set up your site’s menu.
  • Styles: Tweak your site’s visual elements to your heart’s content.
  • Pages: Want to make content changes from the site editor? No problem, do it.
  • Templates: Check and verify the layouts for various types of pages on your website.
  • Patterns: Your Synced patterns and template parts can be managed here.

Traditionally, WordPress developers held a monopoly on theme development. Now, creative individuals who don’t necessarily know how to code can jump into the game. Imagine the wonderful themes artistic minds can conjure up, albeit they would still need to follow WordPress development best practices and hence learn some technicalities. 

Some WordPress developers are implementing a hybrid theme development system in which they build the content using the blocks method while the header and footer follow the traditional WordPress development workflow.

WordPress in 3D Space: AR/VR Optimization

Like any new technologies, Virtual Reality (VR) or Augmented Reality (AR) headsets like Meta Quest or Apple Vision Pro are expensive at the moment, and only enthusiastic early adopters have bought into them so far. Other similar devices in the R&D phase are smart glasses (spectacles), which would likely also be able to open websites and apps. 

The fact remains, however, that eventually, these will be mass-market products, and a WordPress development agency that is proactive in optimizing clients’ WordPress themes for these devices will no doubt be doing a top-notch job. Stay ahead of the curve. Don’t play catch up to competitors. Optimize WordPress themes for AR/VR devices as soon as possible.

Wrapping Up: From Complexity Back to Simplicity

Ever since the days of static webpages with lots of text, WordPress themes have grown increasingly complex and bandwidth-intensive. While we’ve all loved the evolution of WordPress themes, users are demanding simplicity in some aspects, convenience in others, and a better experience for their eyes and browsing devices.

The trends we’ve discussed here are sure to play out between 2024 and 2030. If you’re a WordPress developer, you have to stay on top of the evolving industry by following these WordPress theme development trends.

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