The Early Days of the Web

In the late 1980’s, Sir Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web, ushering in the true internet age. He is credited with creating the core working parts of the Web, from web browsers and servers to HTML programming language to HTTP and URL protocols, all of which have lasted to Web 2.0.

I grew up during the height of Web 1.0, in the pre-Google era. In the mid-90’s, in a time before high-speed internet, Geocities, and AOL reigned supreme. It was a time of build-your-own websites and web portals, and Webcrawler was the search engine of choice. Websites were small and static, often a single page, and built using HTML with a table-based layout. Visual design was very plain, as design capabilities were limited due to the restrictive nature of HTML.

I vividly remember building my first website on Angelfire, dedicated to my favourite car at the time, complete with scrolling marquee, blinking text and animated gifs.

Growth of Web Standards

In 1994, Sir Tim Berners-Lee founded the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which develops and maintains web standards, most notably HTML and CSS. The first official CSS specification (CSS Level 1) was released in 1996, which separated content (HTML) and presentation (CSS) for the first time. CSS1 allowed much finer control over font and text and introduced the box model, which provided the basis to move away from table-based layouts. Although early adoption of CSS1 was difficult, it is the only stylesheet specification supported by all browsers in use today

Two years later in 1998, CSS2 was published, adding a number of new capabilities, most notably element positioning and new text and font properties. Today, CSS2 has been adopted by all modern browsers, but there are still older browsers in use that do not support it, or have incomplete or flawed support. However, it is generally regarded in web design today that most CSS2 properties can be reliably used.

Web 2.0

The term Web 2.0 came into prominence in 1994, which introduced the interactive web. User-generated content came to prominence with the rise of blogs and social networking websites, particularly Facebook, flickr and YouTube. User experience became much richer and more dynamic with new client-side technologies, such as javascript, AJAX and Flash, as well as a much greater focus on navigation structure, user interaction and intuitive flow. Web 2.0 also introduced new methods of accessing content, including RSS feeds and mobile browsing.

Prominent Web 2.0 design characteristics include strong colour schemes, cute and bubbly icons, transparency and realistic surface effects (gradients, shadows, glass etc). Webdesigner Depot recently posted a great list of Web 2.0 design examples.

What’s Next?

Many prominent Web pundits have speculated on the next stage of evolution for the World Wide Web, although there is very little consensus on the subject.

The W3C is currently developing the specifications for HTML5 and CSS3, which modern browsers have started to adopt, although support is still limited. HTML5 will implement new DOM elements, embedded rich media and the ability to manipulate DOM elements on the fly, and CSS3 will introduce rounded corners, multiple background images, colour transparency and other “rich” properties. Although many of these additional elements and properties of HTML5 and CSS3 could be considered a response to the Web 2.0 style, they are opening the door for a much greater quality and brilliance of the user experience.

In my humble opinion, Web 3.0 will not be classified by a single set of design characteristics, but rather an underlying set of technologies and functionality. The user experience will be much more personalized, in essence it will know us. With a massive amount of interconnected data available, the Web will become smarter and more engaging, with intelligent search functionality that knows what you are looking for. User-generated content will continue to flourish, as will social networking.

The homogenization of web design that occurred at the peak of Web 2.0 will be replaced by a new diversity of creativity and design style, such that there will not be any particular “look” or style associated with Web 3.0. Designers will use more neutral space (“white space”) and artistic elegance, while continuing to use column- and grid-based layouts because they are intuitive and familiar.

N.Design Studio’s new site is a great example to illustrate my perception of Web 3.0 design. It is elegant and clean, bright and bold without being overwhelming to the senses, with a familiar column-based layout.

Moving Forward

I was recently told by a potential client that the designs featured in my portfolio are not “Web 2.0″ style. While work for my previous employer certainly fit the Web 2.0 mold, due to creative oversight of my work, my freelance projects for the past couple years have been independently unique and highly functional. My design style is adaptive based on the individual needs of each project. Perhaps that is part of the Web 3.0 frontier: no particular style, but rather uniquely individual, highly-functional websites.