WordPress turns 15 years old in 2018. On its 15th birthday. The WordPress development team is planning to release one of the biggest updates to the software since 2014. WordPress 5.0 will be released within 2018 and this update will bring some massive changes to WordPress, including a brand new editor. Along with the entry of new WordPress, there are many web design trends and tech waiting to pop up in 2018. Let’s take a look at some trends we can expect to see in 2018.

The New WordPress Gutenberg Editor

The major release of WordPress 5.0 will Include the new editor, codenamed “Gutenberg”. It will bring many new features and changes to the current admin user interface. A complete revamp to the current editor is expected.

At the heart of the new Gutenberg editor will be a more visual editor that treats all content as “blocks”. You can drag these blocks around to quickly arrange and format them, whether it’s a list, image gallery, paragraphs etc. Each block has its own set of options to fine tune its style.

Figure 1: WordPress Gutenberg Editor- Edit Existing Elements As Blocks (Visually or Raw HTML)

If this sounds a lot like a visual editor, you’re right. WordPress realizes one of the biggest complaint with the current editor is the difficulty in adding and arranging, well, pretty much anything other than text, without resorting to a whole bunch of “hacks” such as shortcodes, plugins, and the kitchen sink. This is the first major attempt by the WordPress team to finally address this shortcoming.

Figure 2: WordPress Gutenberg Editor- Add Elements As Blocks

A taste of what Gutenberg may look like in WordPress 5.0 can already be found in the Gutenberg plugin. This is a WordPress backed plugin that lets the team test and gather feedback from users as it makes its way to WordPress.

News from various sources cite that the version of Gutenberg in WordPress 5.0 may not be an exact fork of the Gutenberg plugin, which looking at the current reviews for the plugin is probably a good thing. Only time will tell what exact form the new editor will take on when it finally appears in WordPress 5.0 in 2018.

Rise Of the Page Builders

The demand for powerful WordPress page builders will only rise in the coming year as WordPress users demand an easier way to add and format ever more rich content to WordPress.

The upcoming Gutenberg editor in WordPress 5.0 is a ringing endorsement of the paradigm offered by modern page builder plugins for editing content in WordPress. At the heart of the new editor will be a “blocks” design that resembles the rudimentary features found in any Page Builder plugin. That is, a visual editor that lets you insert and arrange rich content without having to switch to “text” mode and messing with shortcodes.

With WordPress tiptoeing into the turf of 3rd party Page Builder plugins, expect these companies to seriously up their game in 2018.

REST API All the Way

The Rest API debuted in WordPress 4.4, which opened up the CMS to third party sites and services. Expect upgrades to the API in WordPress 5.0 that will hail the era of a truly open WordPress. Source content from any site on the web while allowing other sites and even mobile iOS and Android apps to do the same with yours. Install plugins that utilize the Rest API to one day completely replace the default WordPress dashboard if you wish.

In other words, 2018 may be the beginning of WordPress transforming into a platform for content sharing and management across the web.

VR based websites

In the future not very far from us, Virtual reality will be another dimension of our reality. VR is being used in multiple VR gagates, devices, games, and virtual tours. Website too cannot stay untouched. WordPress now fully support VR contents and VR devices like Oculus Rift and Google Cardboard. Let’s hope that we can finally see a WordPress theme with VR features in 2018.

Duotone Designs

A new colorful web design style, Duotone will be used more and more in WordPress themes in the upcoming year. Duotone is basically an image that is composed of two colors. The duotone effect helps to highlight the typography of the website more vividly.

Cinemagraph

Cinematograph is the art of giving the illusion of movement with a still image and repeatedly moving elements. It’s a link between image and videos. A good cinematograph can be visually striking. Although the use of images in general is slowly being supplanted by full on video, cinematography’s popularity graph is on the upwards trend.

Better UX With Microinteractions

As web world continues to evolve, designers are diving deeper into the tinier interactions of UI, so microinteractions are becoming the new trend. While popular websites and apps have already integrated this trend in their designs, WordPress themes will soon be following this trend in the upcoming year. Microinteraction is a way to provide great visual feedback with the help of their smooth transitions.

Exciting Year Ahead for WordPress

Surely 2017 was a great year for WordPress. Many new trends started this year and great features were added to WordPress community. It was a really a year worth remembering. We hope the upcoming year 2018 will be even better and WordPress will take off to great heights. Happy new Year.