It's cool to see the website[1] of the startup/dotCom I worked at in the early 2000s captured there!
The website won the navigation award at Macromedia's fashforward event, and I still think holds up quite well even over 20 years later. The zoom navigation was quite interesting and worked well on mobile devices like the HP iPAQ PDAs we tested it on.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/gallery/relevare-2002" rel="nofollow">https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/gallery/relevare-2002</a>
Related <a href="https://thehistoryofweb.design/" rel="nofollow">https://thehistoryofweb.design/</a><p>The book is an interesting read. The death of Flash feels like the start of a dark age for web design when you compare what came before with what came now. Granted, this may be less due to the death of Flash and more due to marketers and UX professionals trying to simplify the journey from visit to purchase.
<a href="https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/exhibitions/y2k-aesthetic-in-web-design" rel="nofollow">https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/exhibitions/y2k-aesthetic-in...</a><p>Remember when tech was optimistic?
Mid 90s sites have a nice look to them. Honestly in some ways they're easier to read then a lot of websites of today.<p>Is there a reason why designers moved away from that - I'm not sure what to call it - magazine look?
What is the essence of the beauty I see in 90s websites?<p>To me, they are easier to reason about. Maybe because of a higher information density, that’s static and aligned such that it’s easier to track groups of components and their relationships; cohesiveness is probably the word.<p>Maybe it’s just nostalgia. But I don’t think so.
The evolution of the McDonalds website is a great example of playful and whimsical 90s design aesthetic gradually replaced to become the blandness that it is today.
My favorite artist at the time was Mike Young <a href="https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/gallery/designgraphik-2001" rel="nofollow">https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/gallery/designgraphik-2001</a><p>Serving 3 is in there, too bad serving phour doesnt seem to be.
I still to date prefer the older, full-of-character designs than the modern soulless minimalist designs. We also didn't have to worry about annoying cookie consent popups, "subscribe now!" splash screen popups and the general fear of clicking any link that opens a new window randomly to some walled garden.
I feel like one could turn this into a traveling, interactive, VR/AR type of experience. Enter a room with old sites projected onto the walls. Get hit over the head with fun 90s/00s nostalgia, showcase notable tech from the era, etc.
Amazing site, thanks so much for sharing! If you know enough to account for the inevitable technical improvements and changes to "popular" styles, this seems invaluable as a general writers-block-breaker for web designers.<p>I will say, after browsing 2008 for a minute: Steam is just far and away the most modern. Fascinating to see what ended up influencing the industry (or predicting it?).<p><a href="https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/all-websites/steam-2008" rel="nofollow">https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/all-websites/steam-2008</a>
When I was a kid, I wanted nothing more than make websites and be a web designer.<p>It makes me so happy to see some of the websites that deeply inspired me:<p>- 2Advanced Studios: had an incredible flash banner. <a href="https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/gallery/2advanced-studios-v3-2001" rel="nofollow">https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/gallery/2advanced-studios-v3...</a><p>- Media Temple: This is not the version I remember but (MT) always had the best designed website in hosting <a href="https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/gallery/media-temple-2002" rel="nofollow">https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/gallery/media-temple-2002</a><p>- Absolute Cross: Super cool 3D-rendered interface <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20050213040034/http://www.absolutecross.com/" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20050213040034/http://www.absolu...</a><p>- Spoono: King of the super tiny silk pixel font trend of the time imho. Always remembered their multiple colour schemes which I thought was so rad. Tonnes of knowledge on this site too. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20050209034013/http://www.spoono.com/" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20050209034013/http://www.spoono...</a><p>- GUIStuff: Some of the raddest templates, deeply inspired me <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20050209033810/http://www.guistuff.com/" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20050209033810/http://www.guistu...</a><p>Honourable mention to the GFXVoid Forums where I mostly lurked and <a href="https://javascriptfx.com/" rel="nofollow">https://javascriptfx.com/</a> for the coolest Javascript snippets of all time.
So wild! I was just thinking about 2Advanced today, Was anyone mesmerized by their site in 2006ish: <a href="https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/gallery/2advanced-studios-v5-attractor-in-2006" rel="nofollow">https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/gallery/2advanced-studios-v5...</a>
I'm grateful to Web Design Museum for keeping the history of web design alive. I love waking up and seeing something new from days gone by that rekindles that spark.
<a href="https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/web-design-history?timeline=2009-present" rel="nofollow">https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/web-design-history?timeline=...</a><p>Web Design History seems to have trickled to an end in the 2010s. Checks out, IMHO.
we are missing anti0rp / Netochka Nezvanova's m9ndfukc.org website here. I believe there were others from the same "entity" but can't remember the url.