A Decade of Great Designs

Hard to believe it’s been 10 years already, a whole decade of internet use and all the great ideas that have been shared across it. Throughout the last decade web design has came on leaps and bounds, to the point we’re at today. The increase in aesthetics across the web can be put down to a load of reasons, all of which amalgamated into what you see today.
Gone are plain white pages with Times New Roman slashed across them vaguely: Todays web is a content powerhouse, with beautiful designs, and interactive elements to boot. Lets take a look at a few of the reasons why the web has transformed into the beauty that you see today.

Software and Hardware

Since the year 2000 things have gradually been getting better in the computer world. Hardware has improved, along with the software that runs on it. Heck, in the year 2000 Windows XP wasn’t even out, and no one had heard of Firefox.

In fact, back in the year 2000 Internet Explorer and Netscape were the only two real components in the browser wars, so there wasn’t really much to choose from. Not only that, but in 2000 the average number of transistors you could fit on a chip was around 50 million, which has increased 10 fold when compared to todays 500 million (as of 2008).

This gradual increase in quality of hardware and software has given web developers and designers the ability to use bigger files without it mattering so much, and to use bigger programs (i.e. Photoshop now compared to Photoshop 10 years ago) to work with. This has lead to better quality designs, and better quality code: in essence fueling the design community to make better products.

Internet Speeds

On top of that Internet speeds have greatly increase. Why, back in 2000 I was still on dial-up, whereas nowadays (in OECD regions anyway) a good 22.8 out of every 100 inhabitants are running on broadband. This increase has allowed designers (and developers I might add) make use of bigger graphics and bigger files than ever before, without having to worry about the user’s connection speed.

Web Standards and Technology

Over the past 10 years web design has moved from a sort of hobby to a full blown career, and web standards have became increasingly more important as time has moved on. On top of that, web technology has increased quite quickly. Back in 2000 CSS 2 was still a bit of a new topic, only being released in 1998. Since then we’ve became well acquainted with CSS 2 and CSS 2.1 that followed, not to mention CSS 3 which will follow that.

Not only that but the rapid uptake of technologies like AJAX, and the Javascript Engines that followed like jQuery, the web has became a much more interactive place than it was 10 years ago, with less static pages and more embeddable content.

These technologies and their gradual movement into mainstream usage in the community has given developers more and more ways to design and develop their blogs. More freedom means designers can be more liberal with what they include.

Blogging

in 1999 blogging rose to popularity, beginning what became a worldwide phenomenon that is a large part of the internet today. The blogosphere is in someways it’s on community with it’s own culture and rules. The important part though is that blogging allowed designers and developers to express their ideas and goals to the world, easier than ever before.

Social Media

Social media, when you think about it, is a relatively new thing if you think about it.The term itself has only been in use since 2003 when LinkedIn launched their first social network. Since then we’ve had Myspace, Facebook, and most recently, Twitter. All of these applications have allowed designers to communicate with each other, and ask for opinions/get more exposure/etc. This has really helped the design community and how it works.

Showcase: What 10 years can do to your site

Below are 10 sites that have existed for more than 10 years to show design trends across them. I’ve picked these sites as, not only have they existed for 10 years, but because they are rather high profile, so will probably not include experimental design trends (I wouldn’t expect to see ripped paper textures and wooden backgrounds on CNN.com).

CNN

Back in 2000 CNN’s website was using very little images with a simple block like layout. By 2005 they’d moved to a much more image centric design. Their next design was a lot wider (because of increasing average screen size), and of course, the recent redesign has a lot more of a modern feel around it.

Start of the Decade:

Mid Decade:

In Between:

Recent Redesign:

BBC

The BBC layout, like CNN’s, has slowly gotten wider since 2000, because of increasing screen sizes amongst its viewers. On top of that, the BBC homepage has became a lot more interactive since its inception, as you can see on the current layout.

Start of Decade:

Mid Decade:

Now:

Google

Google has kept the same basic layout for the past 10 years, and if anything they’ve simplified it more and more. This has allowed them to keep the same trademark layout and recognizable logo as time has progressed. Recently they introduced a fade in effect when moving your mouse.

Start of Decade:

Mid Decade:

Now:

Microsoft

Again, Microsoft’s layout has increased in width and intricacy as time has moved on.

Start of the Decade:

Mid Decade:

Here and Now:

Apple

Much like Google’s layout, Apple has tried to keep the same basic concept with their homepage layout (centered content, big images, menu at top) to try and keep a sense of continuity over time.

Start of the Decade:

Mid Decade:

Now:

Yahoo

Yahoo, like a lot of websites, has increased its interactivity throughout the site, and its layout has slowly became wider and more aesthetically pleasing.

Start of the Decade:

Mid Decade:

Now:

IMDB

Start of the Decade:

Now:

CNET

Start of the Decade:

Mid Decade:

Now:

AOL

Start of the Decade:

Now:

Summary

To summarize, the web has became more and more interactive (and generally better looking) as time has progressed. Not only that but the average width of a layout has increased (a lot of designers today use a width of 960 to 1000px in web design) and an overall increase in the quality of hardware and software has lead to designers and developers being able to do more.

To finish off, how far do you think we’ve came over the past 10 years? What do you think the web will be like in another 10 years? Answers are very welcome in the comment section below.