If you can even remember back to a time when web design first entered the market, it was a time when only major corporations, or well established businesses, were able to afford putting their name, and their information, into a website format. Websites used to be something that were created by professional computer programers and webpage designers.

Explaining the way that websites used to be created is like explaining to the previous generation how we used to go the movie rental place to rent VHS tapes, it seems so archaic, it is hard to imagine that it was standard practice a short time ago. Things have changed so quickly over the past decade, that the world of web design has been completely revolutionized.

There has never before in history been something as simple as website creation and web design that has changed the marketplace, affected business and changed the communication of people, than the internet and the ability to make and create webpages. Where once it was something that made the wealthy wealthier, now it is a tool that allows the average person the same power to reach people around the world, show off their children, pitch their ideas, or just to voice their opinion. Nothing has ever been so significant to change the world we live in than being able to make, design and create your own web design. No longer needing to pay a large amount of money, or to hire someone to do it for you, anyone, and I do mean anyone, is able to hop online and make their own webpage design to show off whatever it is that they want to.

Who Began Website Design?

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For every need there is someone who is able to come along and fulfill it. The internet used to just be code on a black and white screen. You would plug your computer up to the worldwide web through your phone line and wait a considerable amount of time using codes to get the information you wanted. The script would download onto to your computer and you would be able to get the information you only once dreamed of in a fraction of the time that it used to take. There has never been anything in history that has changed the lives of people all around the world. The significance of the internet will not be realized for generations to come. Only once they are able to go back and examine the ways in which it changed every aspect of the world from the marketplace to relationships and communication, will we truly understand how much of an affect it had on who we are.

When the internet was first introduced the specialty of web design arose. Seeing a demand to write script in a useable way, attractive and sensical, computer graphic designers sprang up to fill the need for businesses to display their information and whatever else they wanted. Computer programmers who used to be only concerned in writing words to connect people around the word, were now interested in how to create pages that looked a way that would be appealing. They were also now looking for a way to connect people, to add features to the website that allowed people’s lives to be more convenient, to save us time, to share things with people you knew and those you didn’t. The potential was there for an industry that did not exist and in an instant was the fastest growing business in the field. There were many different people who went into the business of web design. Not only computer programmers were drawn to the profession, but so were artists who were looking to use their skills in ways to make pages works of art. Clip art arose which was really art in computer form, that could be placed on webpages to adorn them and to make them more eye appealing. A web designer was no longer someone who sat in an office writing javascript, they were people who were taking things already created, designing things that were appealing, and making pages that were putting businesses and products on the map instantaneously. Web designers were in high demand and quickly became one of the most desirable and prosperous occupations that you could go into. Web designers were being recruited at a high rate and if you were good, you were earning a great living.

Those computer designers soon started opening up and running their own design businesses. Targeting business start ups or those looking to start making a name for themselves on the internet, they were soon designing pages that created product branding and attracting niche markets around the world that businesses would never have been able to touch if it wasn’t for the internet. Web designers were changing the world, probably without even realizing it. Designers were professionals who were trained and knew what they were doing. It took a professional to write script for the computer. You had to know how to use computer programs, how to convert sheets into html format, and how to place them on the internet. You purchased a domain and you had someone else design it. Because of the high cost of doing so, not everyone had their own page, in fact, the internet was very limited.

Next Step

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Within the first few years, more graphics began to pop up. New technology allowed graphic designers to plug in images, to make pages look like real pages, including information, designing logos, inputting information that the company wanted. Website design became less about the actual programming of the page and more of an art form. Website designers became aware that it was very important to have a page that was eye catching, and they charged their clients a considerable amount to create one for them. If a business wanted to have a webpage to represent themselves, they had to outsource for graphic web designers. The occupation of web design, if you were good, was in high demand and businesses were paying a great amount of their marketing budget to pay for not only the design and creation, but the maintenance of their website. If they wanted to make changes to it, to add things, to put in promotions, they had to turn to the web designer to make those changes for them. The web designer was the keeper of the page and the only one who knew how to access it.

Once it is Popular, it is Always Perfected

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Once the worldwide web became the “internet” every thing changed. The popularity of the internet created a niche for designers to develop a way to allow a computer-minded person the ability to design their own pages, to create, design and maintain them. It no longer took a degree to make your own webpages, you were able to create them using software available. If you had the time, the patience, and the knowledge of how the internet and script worked, you were able to make your own website. A huge advantage, it opened up the marketplace not just for those who had the money to hire a professional to create a page for them, anyone was able to do so. With that came great power. It allowed the small time business person the ability to compete with established big names in any field.

Webpages leveled the playing field. It no longer mattered if you employed 2000 employees, or if it was just you in a room in your home, the marketplace was open for you to sell your products and services alongside the fortune 500. Creating a power shift that the marketplace has never seen before, the ability to create your own webpages revolutionized the world of sales, advertising and marketing, to allow the person with a start up business to become a success overnight. Never before had something so simple made such a difference in the lives of so many, and so many businesses. When web design began to lose its mystic and people were beginning to understand how to do it, many companies began to turn away from outsourcing for their web design and creation, and hiring within. They were starting up whole departments which were solely allocated to designing and creating successful web pages and design.

That made web designers professionals. They were no longer just artists, they became marketing subspecialties who were paid well fro their time and their skills. Although it was simpler to create your own webpage, you still needed to have the training and the knowledge of how to do so.

Along Came The Web Hub

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There then came the time when you no longer needed to know web programming, or really anything about what html, or script it, to design, create and maintain your own website. Web hosting was the latest thing to hit the internet. Only further revolutionizing something that we didn’t think could come any farther, web hosting sites arose allowing the average person, any person, to create a webpage. It was no longer considered something that was used for businesses or for marketing. Web pages were now something to be created to voice your opinion, share pictures of your children with the world, stay connected to people, or just to voice what you had to say. Not only was having a webpage something you could afford, it was possible to start up a page for free, design it with a template, be your own web page design artist and professional.

For a small fee, anyone could have their own website. There wasn’t a need to really say anything at all, you were able to do whatever you wanted with your website. Some say that that was the fall of the webpage being relevant. The competition for pages that were interesting, relevant, and something that people wanted to read rose to great heights, and the search engines had to adjust their way of classifying and of categorizing to make some sense from the rush of new websites available for use. The internet has now been flooded with web pages that are nonsensical, irrelevant, and just plain silly, but it is a free market place now where everyone, and I do mean everyone, can write, say, and create whatever they want to display to the world.

So Where Are We Now?

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The web has gone from dial up to wifi in just a couple of decades. A specialized field, web design used to be something that only professionals could do, an occupation that was profitable and earned you a good living. Those days are long since past. Web hosting sites, and general knowledge of how the internet works has made everyone who wants to be, a professional web designer. As with anything in the marketplace, you start with specialization and then you perfect it to make it accessible for everyone. Decades from now people will marvel at how the web page changed every aspect of our lives.