Website Design: How Far Have We Come?
Hardly anyone knew what a website was in the mid 1990s. From around 1995 through 2006, the number and type of website designs vastly increased, offering a huge variety of content. These websites included internet storefronts and information portals. Websites created during this time (known as Web 1.0 sites) mostly consisted of alternatives to "mainstream" types of communication media. They had copies of content that already existed in print, audio or video formats.
Nowadays, visitors have different expectations of sites. Pages appear dull and old-fashioned if they are not interactive for viewer participation or if they are not animated in some way. Certain elements which you can get online can not be obtained via other communications media. The web has evolved into a major approach to communication. What website design methods can be utilized in the creation of a new website?
When developing a new website, the most important thing to remember is CONTENT IS KING! The new generation of website must have interesting content - without it, it won't attract many visitors. Whether it is updated information, interesting products, or interesting applications, a website needs to have something to pull people in and keep them coming back. Website design should focus on this rather than flashy graphics or other gimmicks. No matter how pretty a site is, visitors won't stick around without good content. Setting up an on-site blog is an easy mechanism to keep the site updated. A blog can change frequently, and can do many things, from showcasing or discussing items for sale to providing commentary on site content.
Interaction on a variety of websites is keenly important in website design. Surfers tend to enjoy leaving comments on blogs, criticizing or arguing with authors, review items they have purchased or own on retail sites, or even discuss news items on newspaper sites. Engaging the surfer in such interaction is meaningful for two main reasons. It can add useful content to your site and provides the surfing visitor ownership over part of the site content. This interaction can truly enhance a website.
Developers may want to consider adding enhancements to a website from a core interactivity standpoint. Today's websites employ many advanced techniques that have shattered the traditional link-click, wait, read page, link-click, repeat use of the internet. Today's most useful websites employ techniques that make web pages seem to come alive. Such techniques are beyond the scope of this article, but include utilizing Ajax techniques; integrating external sites through mashups and rss feeds; and integrating advanced CSS design techniques to make a web page seem more like a desktop application.
Website design used to consist of selecting a color palate, font suite, set of core images, and general page layout. The days of such static-thinking in this discipline are rapidly coming to a close. The techniques touched on above are core elements in modern design, and should be incorporated in all sites that wish to be successful.
Websites sure have grown from the 1990's, when people barely knew of them. From stale and stagnant web 1.0 sites, they grew into mainstream attractions by the early 2000's. They've evolved and transformed greatly since their early days. Today, websites are expected to be dynamic, interactive, and cutting edge. If not, they are seen as boring, stale, and unprofessional. To achieve these results, website design is clearly very important. Today's sites consist of many different advanced scripts and methods to make them attractive and functional. It's a long way from the days of limited colors and templates. The web game is changing - make sure you keep up!
Published November 27th, 2008
Filed in Business