Among the most noticeable 20th century’s inventions is the internet. Stunningly, every internet related technology has undergone tremendous evolution over the past few years. At the heart of the internet technology lies web design, which has evolved and impacted a lot of businesses since the first website was created back in 1991.
As website design fanatics we thought we would share the story of website history and how it has changed across the past 16 years!
Here it goes…
1990-1992
The World Wide Web was first developed by Tim Berners and the first websites created could only be displayed in form of text with no videos or fancy fonts, completely different to the website design style we are used to today.
1993-1995
In 1993 the first web browser was created and given the name Mosaic, this web browser enabled images to be added to webpages, a big step up at that time in website development.
Mid 1990s-2000
By this time, several browsers existed including Netscape, which was on the top list. Internet Explorer assumed this top rank and the browser war began. Web design at this time began to improve rapidly with images, tables and frames being used in designing websites.
Web development tool kits were also introduced during this time GoLive, Dreamweaver and other similar programmes became popular and large number of users ventured into creating their own websites.
2000-2004
This period saw the crashing of many web businesses, but again gave room to better web design as web design grew in terms of popularity. Web design outgrew the previous reliance on tables and PNG images. Content Management Systems (CMS) became incredibly popular during this time frame, this enabled users to edit the text and images on their website without using any development work.
2005-2007
Web design developed further as Web 2.0 was introduced. Bold websites were built in this era including topography, web design became more refined as edges softened and corners refined. More functional websites were created and interface improved significantly. Sites began integration with the development of widgets which linked social media accounts, emails and other functions, such as image sliders, could be added to the website.
The further development of CMS platforms meant that users could now create their own websites. Blogger and WordPress being the two most popular platforms that allowed users to use templates to create their own blogs and website pages without CSS or HTML knowledge.
2008 to date
An incredible evolution of web design has been witnessed since 2008, smartphone technology has played a huge role in the development of websites, making it a requirement that they must be responsive (mobile friendly) and able to adapt to any screen resolution.
The internet has grown and social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter has provided users with increased knowledge and ability to create websites. Widgets have also been designed for these sites, which has increased the need for website designing more than ever. Grid based design and topography has also developed in these few years and web design has become one of the huge business to exist in this time.
As can be seen from this brief explanation of the history of web design there has been huge developments in the creation of web pages across the past 16 years.
It is now more important than ever for businesses to have a user friendly, modern and engaging website that is fully optimised to generate leads/sales for their company.
We have worked with many clients who have struggled to find the right web design partner, so if you are in a similar position do not hesitate to contact us and a member of our team will be happy to talk you through our services.
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