We've been saying it for months now–the web world is being revolutionized. The arrival of Progressive Web Apps in particular has considerably changed the way we use the web, which undeniably influences the mobile world too. 

While being present on the web is vital for your business, it's no longer enough. To set yourself apart and achieve user retention, it is essential to give them the best experience possible, both in terms of use and design. Everyone can agree that in 2018, the user will be at the top of the list of priorities for web designers, which means that new habits will have to be adopted, specifically in terms of experience, navigation, and interaction. 

Without further ado, here are the top 5 trends to follow to best represent yourself on the web–on mobile just as much as desktop. 

As a GoodBarber user you might already be familiar with the GoodBarber Takes Care option. With this service, GoodBarber takes over the submission process of your beautiful app, using your own developer account credentials.

At the beginning of this year, we emphasized one aspect that is extremely important to us : the design of your applications. As you know, the backbone of GoodBarber is allowing you to create the most beautiful apps, as easily as possible. 

The most recent backend feature came from this mindset: the Global Style Menu. The big challenge at GoodBarber is successfully combining countless customization options with an interface that provides a smooth user experience. To make your life easier and allow you to enjoy GoodBarber's full potential, we've released this new menu that allows you to manage the application's overall design from one single menu. You'll save time and it's easier to maintain a homogeneous design throughout all pages of your app.

You can also now modify entire parts of a theme, and apply these changes to all pages of your app in just one click.

Don't hesitate to go explore this new menu that allows you to manage the following design elements : 

Moving to New York when you don't know anything about the city is a good way to be quickly impressed. There are so many things to do, so many restaurants to test, and places to discover. This is where city guide applications come in handy. The best brunch spots, vintage shops, famous hidden bars....an app can be a great sidekick for exploring a city. 

Through a few solid examples from my own personal experience, this article is a testimony of my usage of the Map section in my day to day life in New York. In just a few points, I'll explain how to correctly set up your Map section by putting it into context, with a few prime New York spots as an added bonus ;)

One of the major perks of PWA’s is how easy they make it to acquire visitors. The first reason for this being that PWA’s turn up in search engine results, and the second being that their access gateway is a simple URL that you can easily sneak into endless spots, many of which are so often neglected. With such convenience at one’s disposal, missing out on any of these basic opportunities to promote isn’t an option!

Global Style is a new feature. It allows you to manage your app's overall design from one single menu. It's a time saver and makes it easier to maintain a homogeneous design throughout all pages of your app.

At GoodBarber, design is a sacred thing. We're obsessed with giving you the freedom to customize many settings so you can end up with a unique app. No other App Builder takes it this far as far as design options go, but with offering a multitude of options comes the fact that interfaces can start to get messy, bringing us to our next challenge which was to find a simple way for the app customization process to be carried out. 

Global Style is the solution. It is the menu where you can define the overall design of your app from. 

Sending a newsletter is a great way to stay in touch with your audience and keep them coming back.
Whether you've chosen to make a PWA or a native app, your application is the exclusive meeting point for your community, and its important that it provides access to all ways of staying in contact with you or your brand. 

That's why we've decided to add a new widget that you can easily integrate into your Home, the Newsletter Widget. 

2017 was quite an eventful year in the app world full of surprises, detours, and ultimately advancements. As always, our customers have impressed us with their great taste and creative uses of the GoodBarber platform. Take a look at some of our favorite apps from this year and get inspired for your next project!