Since the inception of the first websites in the early 1990s, designers have tried various methods to change the way websites look and work. As a result, web design has come a long way and introduced many revolutionary solutions.
How has a life online changed over the years?
Let’s check it!
Internet and website development
Introduction
- Purely text pages
- Text with graphics
- Tables and Flash
- CSS
As you might imagine, websites were not as extensive initially as they are today. Their creation required coding.
Not much can be said about their appearance. First, it was the text itself. Then, with time, one or more photos were added to the written content. Interestingly, soon after the emergence of the Internet, concepts of a tool called the ancestor of page builders were also created.
Thanks to the creation of websites with the help of a table and Flash, the appearance (layout) and functionality improved. However, CSS (cascading style sheets) made online platforms look more attractive and could stand out from each other.
Timeline – cheat sheet.
We can distinguish many dates that testify to the development of the Internet, from the birth of the concept itself, through the first websites search engines until today. The changes are continuous. What were the first 40 years like?
1962 – Birth of the concept of the Internet (Paul Baran)
1969 – Start of the Arpanet network
1971 – First e-mail (RS Tomilson)
1977 – Start TCP / IP, a set of protocols defining mutual communication and Internet data exchange.
1979 – USENET newsgroup
1984 – The first emoticons
1984 – Establishment of the Domain Name System, a system that translates computer names into numbers – P. Mockapetris)
1985 – First domain: symbolics.com
1988 – The first large-scale virus on the web
1990 – System WWW – WorldWideWeb (T. Berens-Lee)
1990 (June) – The first .pl domain
1991 (August) – First publication of the site
1991 (December) – Official Internet access for Poland
1992 – First Mosaic viewer (M. Andreessen, E. Bina)
1994 – “Yahoo” Internet Resource Directory (D. Filo, J. Yang),
1995 – Java is released
1998 – The creation of the Google search engine
1999 – Broadband network (in Poland 2001)
2003 – Spam and viruses emerge on a larger scale
2004 – “Open source” gains in importance
2004/2005 – The beginnings of mobile Internet
2006/2007 – Facebook becomes an open platform
Fun fact
Adobe Photoshop was released in 1990 and required 2MB of RAM.
The term World Wide Web was introduced by British physicist and programmer Tim Berners-Lee in 1989. It was the idea of a global project based on something called a hypertext – a huge data organization held together by hyperlinks (links).
The process of internet development, and hence the evolution of web design, is very complex. Many factors influenced it, but we will focus on the most important ones that allow us to make a quick trip to the past and back.
In 1991, Tim Berners-Lee published a document in which he introduced the HTML tags :
<title>, <nextid>, <a>, <isindex>, <plaintext>, <listing>, <p>, <h1> … <h6 >, <address>, <hp1>, <hp2> …, <dl>, <dt>, <dd>, <ul>, <li>, <menu> and <dir>.
… and this was the first official publication on the web ->.
WorldWideWeb’s first Tim Berners-Lee browser was later renamed Nexus.
The first landing pages also appeared when websites began to be used in business and trade.
The 90s is also when we can talk about the beginnings of advertising banners. The first was introduced by Hotwire (now known as Wired).
When the JavaScript language appeared, we could talk about the first seeds of responsive web design. The direct examples that we include as a result of JS are, e.g., pop-ups. Still, the uptime and loading time was slow, especially if we added an extra layer to our site.
Keeping a virtual diary in a blog also falls at the end of the 2nd millennium. At that time, these were mainly “text” entries.
1994- One of the first pages that focused more on the typically visual aspect was the Batman Forever site, launched by Jeffrey Zeldman, Steve McCarron, and Alec Pollak.
In 1995, Amazon appeared, which originally only offered book sales, and AuctionWeb, now more commonly known as eBay.
Additionally, a new version of HTML was released that year which made it possible to create forms, tables and add graphics. There are also new tags: <! DOCTYPE>, <head>, <body>, <form>, <img>, <input>, <select>, <strong>.
Adobe Flash Player was released in 1996. As a result, website design has gained more freedom and originality. It was no longer plain black text on a white background. Instead, we could add background color, experiment with fonts, and even add elements that could be animated. There was, however, a slight catch. Only those with a built-in Flash plug could see the website in its glory. Additionally, the charging itself was also quite a long process.
Search engines
The larger resources of the platforms had to be sorted out somehow. Then, of course, many pages discussed similar issues, etc. However, some of them did it better, and the others worse – both content and visuals.
So search engines came to life.
Here we can distinguish IE (Internet Explorer), Yahoo, and Netscape, but we should not forget about ALIWEB, the first search engine. It is probably the first time the color (yellow) was used.
In 1998, a beta version of the most popular search engine appeared, i.e., Google.
In the same year that Google appeared, CSS was also presented, which, in combination with HTML, made websites more open to maneuver. Thanks to HTML, we built the substantive value of our website and using CSS, we created a visual setting – changing colors, font size, adding elements, etc.
Social media
The rise of social media has revolutionized social life, media, and establishing relationships.
In short, both the “real” and the virtual world.
At the beginning of the new millennium, there are, among others:
- My Space
It is also worth adding that we started using social media via mobile devices over time, which translates into the importance of responsiveness to these applications (and other websites).
Websites for mobile devices
Of course, viewing websites on the phone was possible, but our view was the same as on the computer. Consequently, everything was small in scale.
Currently, website responsiveness is so important that it is one of the main conditions that our website should meet to position itself well.
Designing with a focus on the user
This form of design emphasizes the user’s convenience and the ability to direct them to actions that will allow the website owner to achieve the intended goals. UX and UI design play a significant role here. Both the content and the appearance count – we focus on balance. The appearance cannot be detrimental to the website’s convenience, and the substantive value should not be overwhelming and prepared only for positioning.
As for the style itself, as we know, many of them exist, but in a few cases, simplicity won with an additional effect, e.g., flat design.
On the awards page, we can see pages awarded for the best web design.
Website builders
Have web development company also contributed to developing the Internet and web design? Of course.
It is impossible to set a single date when website design revolutionized website builders. Another example will be Adobe PageMill, a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) tool. In the beginning, however, this form of creating pages did not take on a wider scale because it had many shortcomings – poor loading, bad positioning in search engines, etc. However, with time, these tools began to match the possibilities we have, having the ability to use the languages used in programming.
More importantly, we can immediately observe the effects of our work, which greatly facilitates the design process. Thanks to this method, more and more aesthetic platforms have appeared on the market because those who had a good sense of aesthetics could not use it due to the lack of coding skills “started” creating web design.
As for the development of the Internet and website builders, the answer is simple. In the drag-and-drop wizard, anyone can make their website and publish it on the web, so we expand the virtual space.
If this journey was too short for someone, it is worth visiting the web. Archive website, by entering the address of a given page, we will get a preview of its appearance both today and in the past. Thanks to this, we can see how much it has changed over the years.
Web design today and tomorrow
Today, the appearance of websites is varied. We have a lot of freedom. This is due to, among other things, the fact that nowadays, in addition to functionality and substantive content, the external appearance is also extremely important. In addition, each page is different (blog, landing page, shop, etc.) and can also represent a different activity (beauty, children’s, banking, etc.). The color scheme contributes significantly to the character’s identity. Proper handling and use of the website will attract attention (/ inspire the recipient’s trust).
In recent years, animations on the website have been more and more often practiced, but minimalism itself, as always, does not go out of fashion. We can learn more about it in the article on the latest trends.
We can anticipate further simplifications, the addition of interactive elements, and, most likely, an increase in the use of artificial intelligence in the future.
Summary
As you can see, there is a long way behind us. The advancement of the Internet has significantly impacted daily life and more “business” life. Because it accompanies us almost non-stop, it is not surprising that it needs a more transparent and aesthetic visual setting. Over several decades, web design has evolved dramatically, and websites, just like, e.g. phones, have become more multifunctional and multidimensional. We no longer present only basic information on them. The website platform is also a portfolio, business card, a place to present your offer, etc.
At WebWave, we can create a website that meets our needs and allows us to properly present ourselves on the web.
For more info click here.
Your point of view caught my eye and was very interesting. Thanks. I have a question for you.