The extent that website design has developed from its early days is pretty astounding. Today, mobile device users can more easily navigate websites and eCommerce shops are fun to browse and can safely process online transactions. Generally, users find helpful information they are looking for with a single tap.
So, how did web design come this far? To understand the evolution of web design, you need to know how the first websites were originally launched. Keep reading and learn more.
Web Pages From 1991-1994
Tim Berners-Lee developed the foundational World Wide Web technology by the end of 1990, and released the world’s very first website on August 6, 1991. One of the main coding languages he utilized was Hypertext Markup Language, which led to using HTML tables that allow web developers to organize data into rows and columns.
He is responsible for initiating the World Wide Web, a freely accessible resource for internet users. Actually, the first web page ever made for the WWW project included basic information on the Web and how to access it.
Website Designs Creation In 1993-1995
The first search engine was ALIWEB, also known as Archie-Like Indexing on the Web. This was introduced by the software engineer Martjin Koster at the first international World Wide Web Consortium in 1994.
Then, in 1995, Microsoft released Internet Explorer 1.0, which utilized only 1 MB of disk space and had very few features compared to the browsers of our time.
CSS And Macromedia Flash In 1996
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) was born in 1996. By then, the programming languages CSS and HTML made nice partners, as they had both focused on design elements like layout, colored background, and fonts. Soon after, CSS designs took part in HTML to create a simple and real layout.
On to more developments, Flash was finally introduced in 1996. It created animated elements and had become a huge part of webpage design improvement. However, to be able to see the animation on a website, you had to install the flash extension plugin on your device.
1998-2006 Conventional Web Design Became The Norm
The universally recognized early sites emerged between the early and mid-2000s. Web designers understood that people were turning away from pages containing too much text and that visitors were more likely to engage with website content if it had already been categorized for them.
New Technology Access From 2007 To Present
Since more people owned mobile phones but couldn’t access the internet, much less navigate splash pages easily in the early 2000s, this forced web designers to focus on mobile web designing that was also responsive to mobile browsing. Although issues were prevalent in the first iPhone launched in 2007, it proved to be a great leap for mobile web design access in terms of accessibility and navigation.
A minimalistic design was an idea in 2010 and was called the “flat design.” During this time, designers started experimenting, and finally, the “responsive web design era” was proclaimed in 2013 with various screen sizes. Along with these was the increase of speeds in broadband internet, which solved the loading issue.
By 2015, more than 935,000,000 published websites continuously emerged until today. Websites would be able to provide a streamlined user experience by 2016 to accommodate people with disabilities.
The use of artificial intelligence made a significant change in web design in today’s time. Its job is to gather data about the website’s analytics, user engagement, and important elements. The gathered data will be used for the design process of landing pages.
Web Design For The Future
Due to technology access and the development of a responsive design, businesses can use this for a banner ad for potential customers. Because of web design trends, digital marketing was able to arise, considering that web design is one of the ways to successful strategies.
The evolution of website design allowed search engines, mobile websites, and social media platforms for mobile devices. On many sites, more targeted traffic was observed from mobile users due to the helpful links circulating on the internet from different sites.
With a new programming language, it’s safe to say that technology is constantly evolving, and web design will create more innovations in the future.
