Daily Design Mag

The Evolution of Design Part 2: How 10 Popular Sites Looked 10 Years Ago

Posted on 28. Nov, 2009 by Daniel in Uncategorized

Back by popular demand – ten more websites that show how even though the dot com bubble had some boom, the design during the time was more bust than anything else. Hopefully, some of these sites will bring back sweet memories of surfing the internet at dial up speeds while showing how much design has really changed in the past ten years.

1. ESPN

Not quite as interactive as the current version, I still couldn’t believe how different this site is. It does the job as a portal did during the time with information scattered all over the place.

2. The White House

Welcome to the home of the President of the United States. Simplistic, patriotic and informative. It almost resembles a menu for a fine dining establishment.

3. Geocities

Remember Geocities? They used to be one of the most popular sites on the web. The main draw was that anyone could get a free personal web site set up here. Pretty much everyone had a Geocities account. Amazingly, the URL still resolves – they are owned by Yahoo now and are shut down. Not surprising that Yahoo bought them, as Geocities was trying to be a web portal before the term was coined.

4. MIT

This is my favorite by far – the simplicity and ease of use of the site makes it appealing even now. And the logo design is just plain cool.

5. McDonald’s

Not too flashy and informative for people of all ages. Pretty good design. I couldn’t find any links related to nutritional information – I guess thats a newfangled thing.

6. Adobe

Adobe has always had well designed products, and the theme they display on their site from 1999 is the same stylistically to  the current iteration.

7. AT&T

This site is just ugly. I don’t have anything else to say.

8. Time Magazine

The site tries to simply copy the magazine format as best it can, and it doesn’t really work. Plus, having really crappy banner ads are not cool.

9. NASDAQ

I had to include this site as the NASDAQ was the scion of the late 90s era. This page is very business focused, design is more of an afterthought here. It’s pretty clear most people came here to get quick information, and the purpose was for primarily financial reasons.

10. Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal “Interactive Edition”? What makes this site interactive? This design is awful, it hurts my eyes to look at considering how their current design captures the print edition’s essence so well.

Final Word

Hopefully another run down memory lane has jogged up some good recollections. The progression of design has come to include so much more to websites that make us keep coming back to our favorites such as video and social media. Back ten years ago sites were just trying to get their footing, especially those from established business sectors who were just scrambling to get their space on the web because at the time it was the next great thing. I think its clear that where we are and where we came from has been an interesting journey!

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