Today, the web has become a part of how we interact with the world on a daily basis. From shopping to communicating to doing business and studying the internet is now more like a basic commodity for most people and all this has been made possible by good web design. With the current state of affairs, it's easy to forget that 10 years ago things were different, smartphones had no internet access in fact phones were not yet 'smart' back then and Internet access wasn't a high priority for apartment managers or hotel managers as it is today and for most people internet access was through an internet cafe. In this article we'll look at how web design has developed over the years.
Web 1.0
The internet has been around since the 1970s but it wasn't until after Tim Berners Lee developed the HTTP protocols in the 1990s that the internet boomed. Even though the connections were slow, the internet still granted an easy way to handle communication and mailing which was at light speed compared snail mail. With search engines making it possible to find different websites out there, web designers saw this as an opportunity to build professional websites for people interested in having online presence but had no knowledge of the technology. This period usually referred to as web 1.0 changed the way people shopped and bought products, accessed information and how they communicated with each other
Web 2.0
Advancements in web design technology gave birth to web 2.0 where websites were more customized and interfaces were more simple which enabled more people to generate their own websites and blogs. In general web 2.0 gave the power of web design to people who had little experience. Today it's possible to launch a blog using a platform like Wordpress or Blogspot using a template from a web designer who already did the work for you. The web 2.0 era has also seen the boom of social sites like Facebook and Twitter that have provided people with a very easy way of having online presence
We have seen that in the past better web design has led to more simplicity, better interface, more customization and greater accessibility. As we expect the internet to be slowly integrated to many other gadgets just as it already has with cellphones and TVs, we also expect web design to advance but how such advancement will impact internet users remains to be seen. It is no doubt the industry that is here to stay.
