THE PROGRESS OF WEB DESIGN: FROM TIM BERNERS-LEE TO MOBILE WEBSITE DESIGN
Evolution of Web Design
In the early 1990s, websites were text-based. The use of images and graphics were not yet main stream at the time. The first web design was made of a single column and text-based pages in Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). Website pages were a collection of text documents connected to each other by internal links. Through research and development, significant advancements were made. The first website was published in 1991 by the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee. He is also the current director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) founded in 1994, which oversees the web development and its standards.
In the mid 1990s, table-based websites were introduced. Now web designers were able to organize their web pages within cells of a table. It became possible to create multiple column websites, which in return allowed better web content organization and navigation layout. Table-based websites also enabled customization of each element within the table. Web designers could now insert background images within cells of a table; however, good webdesign principles were not really important. Website designers and clients were interested by the hottest, latest and most advanced web design technology available. As things started to evolve, frames, animated texts and visual hit counters became part of web design. Frames were used to clearly separate the body of a website from the sidebar navigation. Animated texts and GIF images were used to capture the website user’s attention, while visual hit counters became a good way to measure the popularity of a webpage. In 1994, Macromedia introduced Flash, which is essentially a software used to produce Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) to create animations and stream videos.
In the late 1990s, Flash became more popular. Most websites became a combination of table-based design and flash elements, with flash animations including the company’s logo, a flash-based navigation and flash-based image galleries. The major Web Design innovation of the late 1990s was the introduction of Personal Home Page (PHP) which according to Wikipedia, is a server-side scripting language designed for web development. PHP gained a lot of popularity because it is free and compatible with leading operating systems and web servers which make it deployment easy across different platforms.
The 21st century brought a lot of innovation to web design with the introduction of CSS. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used to format an HTML webpage. Now web designers could separate the content of a page (HTML) from its styling or design (layout, colors, fonts, etc.). In the early 2000s, Microsoft Internet Explorer became the first web browser to fully support the CSS structure. In stride, the concept of intelligent web was introduced with the advent of JavaScript. Now designers could animate content without flash and perform a complex computation of data. The use of drop-down menus and forms also became very popular. These forms allowed internet users to generate content online, create personal profiles and upload pictures.
In the mid 2000s, the semantic web was born. This movement primary allows machines and computers to understand website pages as well as human do. This was made possible by inserting computer readable Meta tags about pages and their relation to one another through technologies such as XML, TURTLE and N-TRIPLES.
The last decade was marked by the advent of web 2.0 with some major updates. The web became more and more interactive, and web applications began to expand. Now web content can refresh itself without having the entire page reloaded. The attention is now geared toward web content (articles, Press Releases, graphics and videos) instead of just selling products online. And HTML 5 was introduced as an alternative to Flash and graphics.
Mobile Web The New Trend
A recent study showed that by 2014, mobile device sales will exceed desktop sales. More and more web designers are converting their website to a responsive version for users on the go. The new standard is gearing towards tall and skinny websites, rather than short and wide lay-outs. The navigation menu is significantly reduced to the most important links. Nowadays, mobile sites are used for various purposes, such as location detection, GPS tracking, etc. and the data is offer services, such mobile coupons, local restaurant reviews, etc. Another recent study stated that two-thirds of cell phone users say they access the web/email from their device.
7 Reasons Why A Local Web Designer Is Your Best Option
One of the first tasks, when you want to put together a great website for your business is to find a good web designer. Thanks to the internet, we now have the ability to communicate easily and work with people from all over the world.
It’s tempting to outsource work to freelancers and companies who advertise their services on the internet because it’s often cheaper than hiring a local professional or company. If you take that route to find your web designer, you’re likely to regret that decision sooner or later. Here are seven reasons why a local web designer is your best option.
1: You Don’t Want Communication Problems And Timezone Issues
There are some things that are still best done face-to-face. It makes a big difference when you can sit with your web designer and explain your requirements. It also makes it easier to review the work at various stages and make corrections, something which you’re unlikely to do if you have a remote web designer.
You can use video chat or teleconferencing to do periodic reviews, but these methods have their own limitations. If your web designer is in another timezone, you have bigger communication hurdles. You will find that it takes longer to get replies to your emails and there will be other inevitable delays.
These can be quite frustrating when you want to communicate new requirements or changes. With a local web designer, you will also avoid possible language barriers or cultural differences.
2: A Web Designer Who Understands Your Business Has An Advantage
Local people will be able to come to your office and see how your business works. They will be able to better understand the objectives of your web presence and will be able to use that knowledge to your advantage when they actually do the work. They will also be able to give you new ideas and suggest improvements, rather than just creating a design that fits your specifications.
3: Local Knowledge Is A Great Asset For A Local Business
If your business caters only to your locality, city or state, local designers will be able to understand the local aspects of your business and its target market better. For example, people familiar with your area and community will be able to understand better when you’re targeting a sub market that is specific to your area. This sub market could be, say, people in a specific income bracket or living in a certain locality.
4: Local Website Designers Have Their Local Reputations At Stake
When the customer is in the same area, designers have more to lose if they provide poor service. Designers are conscious of the need to maintain a good reputation in the market, be it online or offline. In fact, word-of-mouth reputation is usually more important when they have to deal with other local businesses. You can also ask your designer for local references with whom you can actually cross check the quality of service.
5: You Can Expect Better Technical Support And Training
Everyone needs technical support. Sometimes technical problems may be caused due to design issues. You may also need training for using your content management system or your web hosting control panel. You’re likely to get better support and interactive training if you hire local designers.
6: Local Web Design Companies Or Professionals Are Less Likely To Disappear
The worst part of outsourcing is that it’s difficult to ensure continuity. This is especially true when you’re dealing with individuals and small companies. You may find that your web designer or company is no longer available when you want some changes or more work done, say, one year down the line. When you’re dealing with well-established local companies, you’re less likely to face such a problem.
7: Commitment Is Harder To Gauge When You Work With A Non-local Designer
Local companies and web designers are more likely to be committed to help you achieve what you want to achieve with your website. Two reasons which we discussed before are in part responsible for this. One is the better understanding they have about your goals and requirements. The other is the need of the designers to maintain websites their local reputation.
Although it may seem easy to hire a web designer from a far-off location, it can prove more difficult and costly in the long run. Web designing is an ongoing process even though the bulk of the work is done in the initial months.
New requirements and changes keep coming up and you’re better off with a local web designer who is likely to have more commitment and a higher stake in the success of your website.