Web Design Innovations: 2000 – Today

Web design innovations are old news faster than internet memes; faster even than articles can be written. It is the nature of the World Wide Web to continually breed new generations of design, code, and social mediums.

Here is the evolution of web design, from 2000 through today. Please note that all dates are debatable, because development periods for innovations range from one day to decades: the dates shown are the post-beta testing dates of release.

2000 – CSS IS BORN

http://bit.ly/PdYg1h

Whereas style was once written into HTML line-by-line, which could result in many different styles on one page, CSS allowed web designers to write one overlying style sheet. This separated style from content, and made it easier to divide labor to those with appropriate skill sets.

THE GIST:

One page of CSS code could work for an entire site, leaving the designer free to spend time on more pleasant tasks.

HISTORIC MOMENT:

http://bit.ly/MvdZKs

In the year 2000 Internet Explorer version five was the first browser to fully support CSS.

2002 – ALL BROWSERS SUPPORT JAVASCRIPT

http://bit.ly/MFI590

Though Javascript had been around since 1995, server-side Javascript had not emerged until approximately 2003. Server-side scripting appeared first with Netscape Enterprise Server, was quickly adopted by Microsoft, and then became an industry standard.

THE GIST:

Javascript’s real-world application means designers can use Javascript to layout pages and include animation in the pages without using Flash.

HISTORIC MOMENT:

http://bit.ly/NCidPI

Javascript married CSS and became the dynamic web page that users experience today: this turned a two-dimensional browsing experience into an interactive environment where pages respond to users.

2005 – USER GENERATED CONTENT IS KING

http://bit.ly/NH03XZ

Advancements in web design opened the field to everyone. Customized profiles, journaling, blogging, and other forms of social media emerged in 2002, and became mainstream by 2005. An entire industry of jobs was created, mainly to market to the new web users.

THE GIST:

The wave of user generated content, or UGC, meant that the web included a much larger audience of people who needed user-friendly designs.

HISTORIC MOMENT:

http://bit.ly/O8dClo

Facebook was launched in 2004: today it serves more than 901 million users.

2005 – SEMANTIC WEB IS CREATED

http://bit.ly/c7rusP

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) developed procedures to translate unstructured documents into a uniform ‘web of information,’ which will be processed easily by machines and humans alike.

THE GIST:

A machine would intuitively comprehend what tasks need to be completed and automatically do them (for example, translating text, finding lower prices, using the White Pages, et cetera—all without direction from a human).

HISTORIC MOMENT:

http://bit.ly/dOGM6N

DBpedia seeks to make all of the knowledge of Wikipedia sortable, filterable, and useable like an artificial brain of intelligence. Its applications are limitless for web architects.

2008 – “NETWORK AS PLATFORM” WEB 2.0 SPREADS

http://bit.ly/I8gbWo

Around 2008 UGC prosumers (producer-consumers) were actively creating their own environments through interactive instantaneous web design. This interoperability was made possible due to the sharing nature of social media, which encouraged users to interact with one-another through machines.

THE GIST:

Web design was no longer designer-centric: it became a race to provide the most user-friendly and attractive platform for users to implement.

HISTORIC MOMENT:

http://bit.ly/HwLQ0a

Refreshing pages became a distant memory, much like cassettes and video tape rewinders.

2012 – HTML5 REVOLUTIONIZES WEB DESIGNS

http://bit.ly/eZbVDN

Interactive designs like this one remind users of futuristic scenes in 90’s movies. HTML5 makes web browsing as effortless as thinking for users, and content management systems take the coding out of design for novice prosumers.

THE GIST:

This is an historic moment for web designers, who used to need to learn several coding languages: now these designers are able to design intuitively.

CONCLUSION:

Web design innovations will continue to evolve faster than any person can learn. However, with advancements like the semantic web, users will no longer need to know everything in order to implement the knowledge of every code and fact on the web.

Posted by Wiworks Inc. in Design