The advent of the World Wide Web brought about a massive wave of change in the world at a period where things like Google didn’t exist. Technological advancements have transitioned how we do things, whether on a personal level or a corporate scale.
In this modern digital era, we can now access billions of websites just by a click of a button, all in a matter of seconds. This article takes a look at the different timelines of web design to give you a clear perspective of how much things have changed.
The process of web design has witnessed a remarkable evolution from 1990 to 2020, with advancements in technology, changing user expectations, and design trends shaping the way websites are created and experienced. This transformation has led to more user-centric, visually appealing, and functionally versatile websites that cater to the demands of the modern digital age.
1990 – 1993
The World Wide Web was first introduced in the early ’90s by CERN, building the first-ever website in 1992. At the time, this was no mild feat. It was not possible to include visual components in web pages at the time since these were just the initial stages. Web content was just text in black and white.
In 1993, Archie Like Indexing for the WEB (ALIWEB) was introduced as the world’s first search engine. It had an appealing look with a yellow accent. By the end of that year, 623 websites had already been developed. Web design kept evolving with the advancement in technology.
1994 – 1998
Things started getting a bit more advanced in the second half of the ’90s with fresh web design ideas being implemented. Now, 250 colors were available for use by design professionals. Websites now started taking up different shades of color, with some of them becoming very difficult to read. Designers were actively trying out new effects, even going as far as the 3-dimensional scope.
Websites took up a new trend where their main aim was getting the user’s attention with flashy colors and animations. By 1995, Javascript had already come into play leading to the implementation of HTML designs. The Internet was now accessible by over 36 million people with over 250,000 functional websites by 1996.
1999 – 2002
Developers had a lot of knowledge by this time and could figure out ways of including substantial amounts of web content. Google Beta was first introduced around this time and was accessible for users all over the world. Googling was added to the English Dictionary some years later, which illustrates just how significant an effect this development had.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) was later introduced to accommodate the large volume of web visits for a more efficient and user-friendly design. CSS served as an eye-opener for web design professionals as they could now add navigational components and menus for better organization of content. Skilled web designers were highly sought after as most of the business started to warm to online operations.
2003 – 2006 (New Millennium)
Now, web design was something that people were well accustomed to, and at this point, a typical user on the internet could use WordPress tools to set up their own blog. WordPress had a wide array of useful features that made it very easy to accomplish this.
It is now the top Content Management System (CMS) in the world today. MySpace soon joined in and brought forth HTML coding and much more improved website design. Soon after, Facebook managed to develop an awe-inspiring design that took the world by storm in 2006.
2007 – 2010
This period was the defining moment in modern web design with the introduction of mobile devices. The minimal interface completely revolutionized how web design works, and now with a touch screen monitor, this was a whole new territory.
To keep up, designers switched over to 12- column grid division, arranging navigation shortcuts in a much more friendly way. The introduction of the iPhone in 2007 was the turning point for many industries, including forex.
2011 – 2015
The flat design came to be in this period and became a worldwide trend as time progressed. Shadow effects were no longer desirable, and the website layout was much cleaner. With such a simplified design, the attention was focused on web content making the sites much better.
Responsive design was also a significant factor where identical content could be rearranged to fit every device’s layout. Newer AI brought forth automated systems like the forex expert advisor incorporated in websites to help with client satisfaction for businesses.
2015 To Date
Web designers have continued to push past the limits and explore creative aspects of web design to what we have today. There are now more than 1.5 billion sites you can access with each trying to be different on its terms. Websites are now trying to have one color as their main feature to cement their brand in the modern market further.