The internet today is vastly different from what it once was. For many of us, we remember an internet landscape where watching movies, managing our finances, and buying and selling products, was simply beyond the grasp of comprehension. Those of us who were alive to remember using the internet during its early days, are comforted by how far it has come along, and the current level of convenience. It is true, that we rely on the comprehensive scope of capabilities that the internet provides today, much more than we ever have. Every day, it feels as though the internet becomes steadily more efficient. Taking the occasional glance back at the early, simplistic days of the internet before the advent of digital agencies like allows you to appreciate what we have today all the more. As technology has evolved, so has the Web Designer’s trade.
Early Uses For Webpages
While the internet was developing in the 1950s, it was also being used as something of an early academic social network. When the 60’s came around, researchers at Santa Barbara and the Stanford Research Institute, founded ARPANet. This is turn facilitated the transmission of messages, sent between researchers who were members of the network. This was an amazing feat! A new mode of communication had been discovered! A new and alternative form of communication was needed, in the event that phone systems could potentially be eradicated during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Early Web Design
Shortly after this advancement, the internet arrived. When the IPS (Internet Protocol Suite) was established, a guideline on data transmission that previously did not exist was now set in place. Essentially, this acted as an early manual of how the internet should be used. It was not until halfway through the 90’s, that WWW (The first Web Browser) was established by Tim Berners-Lee. From that point onward, we have witnessed the continual evolution of the internet.
During this period, the early stages of Web Design were as basic as the internet itself. Most of what early Designers saw and dealt with, were text based websites being developed with the earliest version of HTML. At first, even websites containing pictures were a stretch of the imagination. Soon however, websites were beginning to be capable of incorporating them. Although these website designs were among the most basic that the internet has ever seen, they were still ahead of their time when you consider the fact that people had never seen something like this before.
It was only a few years later, that advancements on these early stages of web page layout, were made. As simple as this sounds to us today, you can reflect that even during its early stages, Web Design was evolving as rapidly as it is now. Slowly, as additional features were implemented (new versions of HTML, CSS etc…) Web Design became what it is today.