Online Web Design Degree

Twenty years ago, computers were dense behemoth machines reminiscent of vintage arcade games in size and appearance. Today, we have computers at work, and personal computers we can fold into a purse. The Internet has become an inescapable part of our lives, influencing everything from our social lives and the way we conduct business to how we spend our free time. We can even access the Internet on our phones and literally carry a world of information in our pocket.

It is nearly impossible to overstate the importance of the Internet. The online industry is expanding exponentially and will continue to do so. And behind every good web page is a better designer. Web design barely existed just twenty years ago, but is one of the hottest professions out there right now.

History of Web Design

The history of web design is, of necessity, brief. The Internet as a tool for popular use has only been around for a couple of decades. However, a rudimentary version of the Internet was used as early as the 1960s, principally by the U.S. military as a method of exchanging information. By 1969, a link had been created between certain universities. In 1980, the invention of the HyperText Markup language (HTML) by CERN researcher Tim Berners-Lee changed Internet technology. About a decade later, Berners-Lee produced a set of protocols and software–the first web browser and editor–that let computers browse information in the Internet. He called it the World Wide Web. Berners-Lee combined Internet communication with hypertext. He created the first web page, which went online in August of 1991.

Early web design was fairly minimalistic. However, as HTML evolved, it increased in both complexity and flexibility. Soon, web designers could add images to pages. Web server technology evolved rapidly. Soon, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and server-side scripting enables users to customize pages in ways previously unavailable.

The first Internet browser, Mosaic, was developed in 1993 by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). Mosaic let the public into the Internet, allowing people to view text and graphics. However, it only worked with a limited web page layout, which strictly limited the creative possibilities for web design. Consequently, early web sites were text-heavy and cumbersome to navigate.

In 1994, standards were set to regulate the future development and evolution of HTML so as to allow for more dynamic web content. In 1995, Microsoft released Windows 95, complete with a new user interface and a new browser called Internet Explorer. Soon, the web took off as a place of international communication, expression and commerce. With this digital explosion, design standards such as CSS changed substantially. These changes provided many more opportunities for web designers and web developers.

Macromedia Flash was introduced in 1996. Flash allowed web designers to add animation and integrate sound and video into web pages. Flash eventually evolved into a full-fledged presentation tool; some designers even skipped HTML entirely in favor of Flash. Many websites built during this period were crowded with colored backgrounds and distracting animation.

Modern web designers continue to integrate multimedia into the websites they design. These sites are heavily focused on creating user-friendly websites with clear purpose. Websites are developed specifically for educational purposes, entertainment, news, or commercial enterprises with an aim for helping people access information easily and efficiently.

What is Web Design? (as a career)

The Internet consists of untold thousands of pages of information, which are linked to one another with hyperlinks. Generally speaking, web design describes any of the components of creating a web page–specifically, the front-end of the page, which is the presentation with which users interact.

The HTML protocol invented by Tim Berners-Lee of CERN is used to communicate to the browser the way in which information should be presented. By using HTML (or a stricter version, called XHTML), web designers tell the browser what a web site should look like. HTML has several variable factors which contribute to the challenge of web design. For one thing, different browsers interpret HTML in different ways. That means that the same page can look completely different when opened with two different browsers. Sites can also be viewed in different formats, so designers needs to be able to create dynamic content without sacrificing function while working with certain limitations. Some designers also use Flash for a different style of web design.

Most web designers were self-taught in the past. However, with an increasing number of excellent online web design schools, that is becoming increasingly rare. The best schools offer classes in technical writing, website architecture, search engine optimization, programming languages, information systems, networking, and project management. Top programs will let you customize your education to fit your specific needs.

The Future of Web Design

You would be hard-pressed to find an industry with more potential for employment than web design. As technology continues to grow and evolve, web designers will be in very high demand.
The world is increasingly dependent on Internet technology, and will only become more so in the future. As more businesses gain an Internet presence, the need for competent web designers who are capable of creating easily navigable sites will only grow. Not only will there be a need for a greater number of sites, those sites need to be of exceptionally high quality to compete with a saturated market.