Old School Web Design: Is Your Website Stuck In The 1990s?

Way back in the mid-1990s the internet leapt out of military and educational institutions and became accessible to the masses.

At that time, business owners saw websites as a new version of a flyer, billboard, and/or newspaper ad. But unlike printed material, they could be changed in an instant with new text, images, colors, etc. No need to reprint 10,000 flyers because of a spelling mistake or a change in pricing, hooray!

So websites became the new version of print advertising, reflecting all the design techniques of the print industry.

In those early days, companies put up sites hastily. Then, as the internet evolved, those sites were replaced with better content. Technology brought incredible changes, and web pages quickly became nothing at all like flyers, billboards, or newspaper ads. The internet moved way beyond being just a new form of print advertising.

But like the zombie of an old traveling salesman who doesn’t realize what’s happening around him, some of the dead and buried practices of decades ago still linger on the web.

The next few posts will highlight some of these tragic relics of last century you can still find on the internet today.

If your site is stuck in the 1990s, have your webmaster fix it, quick!