History/Evolution of Webdesign

https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/web-design-history

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Important Developments over the years

Out of the personal need to spread and share information electronically with other fellow physicists Berners Lee worked on several ideas during the 80s. This research resulted in the first browser and the first web pages. The world's first web page was launched in 1991.

In the mid 90's first, popular browsers for windows and mac were available such as Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. About at the same time early versions of CSS and Javascript were added.

The popularity and users of the WWW increased dramatically in the next years (Dot Com Boom).

In 1996 Macromedia Flash was introduced, a platform that could be embedded into an HTML site capable of producing animated, dynamic web graphics with sound (while keeping file sizes small and download times quick). Great for presentations, interactive experiences, but not much for handling complex/large amounnts of (text) information. SEO downsides as well.

In the early 2000's CSS became more advanced and popular. The new version allowed separation of content (HTML) and style (CSS). This resulted in cleaner HTML markup. More usage of Javascript resulted in more dynamic/interactive user experienced (without Flash). Around this time social media platforms became more popular (1999: Blogger, Napster; 2003: Wordpress, Linkedin; 2004: MySpace, Facebook; 2005: YouTube; 2006: Twitter)

With the rise of social networking and blogging a new term became popular to describe dynamic, user-generated content: Web 2.0.

In 2007 the introduction of the iPhone paved the path for the mobile web. Soon access of the internet using mobile devices exceeded desktop computers.

The need to design for many different screens sizes resulted in fluid and responsive layouts which adjust to the different screens (RWD: Responsive Web Design).

Around 2010 HTML 5 and CSS 3 were introduced which add several new features and improvement over the older versions. Also web fonts were introduced (the ability to embed a font into a website).

Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 refer to successive iterations of the original Web 1.0. Web 2.0 is the current version of the internet. Web 3.0 is the third generation of the World Wide Web. Currently a work in progress, it is a vision of a decentralized and open Web utilizing AI technology to tailor specific content to a specific user.

Web 1.0: static websites, presentation, entertainment (user consumes)
Web 2.0: interactivity, social connectivity, and user-generated content (user actively participates)
Web 3.0: utilizing AI tech to tailor specific content to a specific user.