How Much has the Web Changed with Time?

Operating in the website design business brings us in contact with people every other day, many of them raising a clause that website designing and websites themselves have changed dramatically over the passage of time, and we agree to it too. This article will provide a closer look to how have websites changed and evolved with the passage of time and will highlight elements that have actually changed.

A deeper dive

Back in the 1990s, the webpage size was 640 pixels wide. In the early 2000s, it grew to 800 pixels followed by 1024 pixels few years later. But suddenly, the advancement in technology gave life to a new kind of object that is capable of doing communication coupled with entertainment and works as a mini computer all in one; the advent of smart phone. And to our misfortune the size of webpage doesn’t fit the device anymore, therefore technology scientists have to find a way to make things work for them too. The problem was that we never knew what will be the size of the next device that is going to launch in the market. It can be wider that what we have today or can even shrink. The answer came in the form of responsive website designs. a responsive website design has the ability to adjust itself according to the screen size and therefore it has the capability to fit in every smart devices screen size and work without losing any of the design features or the functionalities.

A mouse not for everyone

Initially it was assumed that everyone uses a mouse. Although each of us knew that it’s not totally correct, however, mostly website designs used to completely ignore the fact. Website visitors who use to navigate with the help of keyboard had a real tough time navigating. But since, many people did use a mouse and back in times, designers used to believe that designing for masses is the wittiest thing to do, design agencies created websites that were usable for many people. But then considering the advent of smart devices, websites based on mouse based designs cannot do any good. So, smart website design agencies in Dubai figured out that it is not the masses that they must design for but they must design for usability keeping in view the current situation and the future ahead.

Touch and go

Now keeping in view the speeds of broadband internet that is now available to masses and that load websites in a snap presented a new challenge to the web developers. The challenge of matching the speed. Some studies also proved that due to the high speed internet, people have become hasty and they do not like spending too much time on a website or waiting for it to load completely. They only spend a fraction of minute in waiting, as low as 10 seconds only. If the website doesn’t load in this much time, snap! A prospect is gone to your competitor. Therefore, the use of jQuery and CSS increased and new web development formulations came into market that can reduce your website size to a considerable low, which aids in quick loading and seamless functioning.

Behold the content king

The way we used to design websites earlier was based on logos, imagery and aesthetics. Today it has changed. We are now designing based on the content. Content plays a very important role in digital marketing and publicity of your website along with informing your prospect about you and your product offerings. Advancing search algorithms emphasized on the importance of unique and original content on websites that not only help customers receive appropriate information but also help the search engines rank them better, thus improving online visibility. So we started creating web designs that are not filled with images and colors, but have some white spaces left in them so that the user can focus where he must.

Rise of the API

If you are able to design and develop your own application, you could test the functionality relatively easily before even starting to think about what it will look like on different devices. This requires designers to work with developers to design a feature that at first works only from the command line. If the feature does not work as expected, then you merely have to change the API, rather than also a bunch of visual designs. Once the API works as you want it to, enhancing it for all of the devices and screen sizes that you want to support becomes easier.
Most of the time, you wouldn’t design the entire API of the application that you’re building. Most companies would choose a content management system (CMS) of sorts or a specialized tool to help them achieve what they want to do.
Developers and business people have different goals than designers. Developers want stuff that is easy to develop on. Business people want stuff that’s cheap. But designers want to make the best and most beautiful things possible. These goals can easily conflict.

But it works the other way around, too. If designers are involved in the selection process, they will have a say in the choice of tool and will understand how it works, what’s possible, what’s easy and what’s hard. This will result in designs that are based in part on the tool, not just on imagination. This is an important part of the design process that has not yet been optimized. Right now, the command line and the systems that deliver the content we design for are the domain of the developers, and designers have nothing to do with them. That is a pity. Just as you would want to take advantage of the knowledge of developers in the design process, you would want to take advantage of the knowledge of designers in the development process.

Conclusion

Website designing have always been an odd, border-less medium that has evolved after much trial and error. In the previous years, after the dawn of some really amazing technological wonders, we realized that website designs for today require a totally different handling mechanism as compared to precious times. Sizes have varied greatly, so as the imagery and content and most importantly the way a customer interacts with a website design has turned 360 degrees different.
My advice to budding business owners of this age and to the designers is that in order to tap the right audience at the right time to generate the right amount of business for yourself, we need to work with new defaults. We could clearly see some new starting points that have been setup, yet there is always room for new ones to come and we are looking forward to it.