Last 16 years have truly been a great web joyride

Couple of days back I was asked by someone as to how long I’ve been a web designer. This question’s simple answer astonished my own self because it’s been about 16 years since I dived into the Web Design and Development field.

I remember being fascinated by Microsoft FrontPage, Macromedia* Dreamweaver, and the infamous Macromedia* Flash.

Back in ’99, I had started learning HTML and made few websites using just Notepad before getting hands-on onto FrontPage which actually was a better tool than Dreamweaver for a while. However, with time Macromedia did wonders with their WYSIWYG** tool Dreamweaver, and so it was just a matter of time that I shift to Dreamweaver. Nonetheless, for the first few years MS FrontPage was my tool of choice for website design and development.

One particular website made Macromedia Flash an overnight hit….. eye4u.com. After seeing that site for the first time, I remember being dumbfounded on how immersive and interactive a website can actually be.

So I quickly learnt Flash (using books such as Macromedia Flash 4 for Dummies, and whatever was available online), alongwith the then infant ActionScript language. Soon I was making small animations, cartoons, and multimedia websites.

I was going through one of the most informative and productive period in my web design life. It was a period where the need of online content was quickly starting to instill in everyone’s mind. It also was a very enthralling period for those wanting to be Designers and Developers, in my view at least.

Just few months into the field, I landed my very first website development project for a local Montessori, made solely on FrontPage and parts in Flash. The client was extremely excited on the final product. I remember that my compensation for the project was the latest Scanner that the client bought me for a job well done. Yes, scanners were quite an in-thing technology in those days.

Learning the skills and tools was a bit harder in those days as compared to today. What helped me most though were fellow designers and developers who gladly supported, aided, and even motivated others alike on public forums without any ulterior motive.

That was a time of collective and collaborative learning of a very mysterious yet fascinating world of web design & development.

We truly have come a very long way since. From web development, rich content creation tools, to social media’s massive penetration, the last 16 years have truly been a great web joyride.

Would love to hear how the last decade has impacted your lives; be it in any field.

* Macromedia was acquired by Adobe on December 3, 2005. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macromedia
** WYSIWYG is an acronym for “What You See Is What You Get”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WYSIWYG