5 years ago - Website Platforms

I was recently working on a mobile platform for a website and it suddenly hit me, how much website technology has changed since my first web design class in 2009, just a little over 5 years ago.

Remember these

In 2009...
• There was no such thing as a mobile platform.
• Cell phones made phone calls and if you wanted to go online you found a computer.
• Laptops had internet but Wifi was rare. If you wanted internet on your laptop, you plugged into a phone line or bought one of those expensive internet chips. So if you wanted to go onto the internet, chances are that you were looking at a 20"-30" screen.
• When you bought a web domain, you paid for the amount of memory. Which means, unless you were a big company, your websites graphic quality was limited. HD was a new concept that took up a lot of memory and was therefore out of the question.




Remember when bigger was better? 
For most, the days of the big screen are long gone but in some ways we still live in that world. After all almost every classroom is equiped with a 70" smartboard and many lecture halls have even bigger screens. Plus some of us still prefer working on a 30"computer to squinting over a 4" cell phone screen. Then of course there are all those tablets and laptops that span somewhere in between the cell phone and PC.

In a world where technology comes in so many different sizes, how do you create a website that looks good on every device?

In 2009 websites could get away with crappy graphics that only looked good on a desktop. Our biggest challenge was reducing file size without taking away too much quality. Today, we may have a little bit more leeway in that respect, but instead we entered the world of creating multi-platform web design. Now we have to create a website and then move things around so that they look good on smaller devices. And then every time there is a small change made to the website, the mobile platform needs to be updated as well. (not complaining though, happy to have the extra work)

It is incredible how much technology has changed in just a few short years. On one hand it's not easy to be in a technical field when so much is readily available to anyone who looks for it. It can be frustrated that most 10 year olds can perform tasks that I once was good money to perform. But in retrospect, I absolutely love living in an ever changing world. The ability to overcome those challenges are what separate hardworking and educated professionals from the person who learned how to create a website from a youtube video.

  Life would be so boring without a constant flow of new challenges and I can't wait to see what the next 5 years will bring.

So much more to say on the subject, but will save it for another day.