Web Design: The Evolution

The Internet has undeniably evolved these days, and so as the art of designing websites. Perhaps some of us witnessed the changes in web designs as the years pass by, from text-based with minimal images, no real layout, boring headings and paragraphs to table-based designs, Flash, and finally CSS-based web designs. After the creation of the first web page, websites became more interesting with the booming of designing tricks, text effects, colors, and codes.

As the internet became more powerful, people with great minds tried to completely change the looks and features of every web sites. They added more colors, texts and effects. Well probably this is the beginning of the web design's evolution. People tend to create compelling web pages in order to attract visitors and keep them interested.

THE FIRST WEB PAGES

It was in August 1991 when Tim Berners-Lee created the first website. Back then, the site was just composed of a simple text-based page with a few links. “Brochureware” is the term used for the early web design model since it only delivers marketing materials on the screen. The design was reduced to scanning sell sheets and stick them on a page with some links.

To sum it up, websites during this time were boring and simple. But bear in mind that there was only a few hundreds websites until the end of 1993.

IN 1994...
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was formed; which enabled the web design industry to rise up to the next level. This online site sets HTML and Javascript as the standard for marking up good web pages. HTML gave early designers an idea of how to create table-based designs.

FROM 1996 to 2000...

Around this time was the production of 3DML, a web design language for creating three-dimensional websites; and the introduction of Flash. Flash made it possible to create complex and interactive sites with animated features. Web designers often use this technique to create strong pages. Somehow, this tools were more effective than those early table-based designs wherein the designer had to write lots of codes and implementing style on each, making it a very difficult job for him.

THE INTRODUCTION OF CSS-BASED DESIGN

It was on the early 2000's when the CSS-based design gained its popularity. The technique of CSS was liked by the designers for it is not a table-based web design technique after all. The CSS carries tons of advantages compared to the Flash designs. Such as it separates design elements from content, which ultimately meant that there would be greater distinction from the visual aspect of a web layout to its content. Designers can also change the entire look of a CSS-based site without ever having to touch the content.

THE WEB DESIGN TODAY

The web design today is much more matured and optimized. Most designers create quality layouts in order to attract visitors successfully. They uses advanced techniques such as embedding video on the page to provide dynamic contents, state-of-the-art icons and images to highlight important points on a site, and 3-D effects to make websites more trendy.
Not only that, tools such as HTML, Flash, and CSS matured from a rigid, structure-bound technique to a highly extensible hybrid. Web sites were also accompanied now by tech people including web developers, SEO, coders, and internet marketing professionals.

We don't have any idea of what will websites look like in the following years, but we do know that evolution is an ever-changing process. Web design will continue to expand its definition, evolve in its complex environment and change in ways both predictable and unforeseen—just like it’s been doing since day one.