HW1. History of Web Design

 

I actively started using the Internet when social media platforms were not popular, but the Internet became more affordable. I cannot pinpoint the exact month or year, but I am pretty sure that it was in the early 2000s. As a person that grew up reading books and spending hours to search the right piece of information, the ability to find the right article, picture or video just shocked me. In the very beginning, I could only access the Internet using a modem with a phone. Of course, there was no Wi-Fi. I had a modem in my room without autodial, and the phone was in the hallway. So, I had to dial a number in the hallway, run into my room to press the connect button, and then run back into the hallway to hang up. Moreover, it was necessary to hang up the phone at a specific moment after the sound signal. So, whenever I wanted to connect to the Internet, I had to complete this quest.

            In my opinion, the most significant jump in advancement happened in the period between 2006 and 2010. As was mentioned in the article, the iPhone launch in 2007 changed the Internet landscape. People no longer needed to be tied to their personal computers or laptops to browse the Internet. The first model of the iPhone was far from the best smartphone on the market. However, it significantly outperformed its competitors and revolutionized the mobile device industry (Molla). In 2008, the AppStore was launched. At that time, it had only 500 apps. According to Statista now there are over 2.1 million apps in the App Store (Ceci).

            Also, with the appearance of smartphones equipped with high-quality cameras and related photo editors, users got the opportunity to take many photos and videos and use various social resources as a platform for publishing them. Therefore, web developers had to start playing catch-up games to adapt the Internet to a tremendous amount of content.

           The web browser has also become one of Apple's trump cards. Now any Android smartphone user can access any website and enjoy the mobile-friendly version of it. However, in 2007 the "mobile" versions of web pages looked just like the original ones. Safari on iPhones was the first browser that attempted to make the Internet experience on the phone different (Zakas). Of course, many functions did not work. Still, taking your phone out of your pocket, going to The New York Times website, and reading any article as if you were sitting in front of a computer screen became one of the main advantages of the iPhone over its competitors. 

            I decided to compare the Apple website https://www.apple.com/ in 2012 and 2022. The difference between them is impressive. When we first look at both, the layout of the websites looks almost the same. But it is just the first impression. The color scheme became a little darker. The navigation menu on top of the page now has a few more buttons: "Watch," "Air Pods," "TV & Home," "Only on Apple," and "Accessories." What changed a lot is the number of services the brand provides. It is impressive to see how Apple evolved in 10 years. The website shows us that now the company does not just focus on how to sell more devices but helps students, veterans, and state and local governments. Overall, I like the style of the Apple website. Even 20 years ago, it looked very simplistic. Perhaps, Apple web developers always cared a lot about website performance, so we do not see any irrelevant elements on the front page. 

 

Three original questions:

Do you think Android web designers one day will outperform their colleagues in Apple?

Why do you think flat design is so popular?

How increasing browser support of CSS3 and HTML5 helped web designers?

Works Cited

Ceci, L, and Aug 11. “Biggest App Stores in the World 2022.” Statista, 11 Aug. 2022, https://www.statista.com/statistics/276623/number-of-apps-available-in-leading-app-stores/.

Molla, Rani. “How Apple's Iphone Changed the World: 10 Years in 10 Charts.” Vox, Vox, 26 June 2017, https://www.vox.com/2017/6/26/15821652/iphone-apple-10-year-anniversary-launch-mobile-stats-smart-phone-steve-jobs.

Zakas, Nicholas. “The Evolution of Web Development for Mobile Devices.” The Evolution of Web Development for Mobile Devices - ACM Queue, https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2441756.