My First Web Site Design

22 posted on September 22, 2008

POSTED IN: Childhood Memories, Technology

I recently discovered a web site called the Wayback Machine (ht: nickasolas) that has archived over 100 terabytes and 10 billion web pages from 1996 to the present. You’ll find some interesting pieces of Internet history such as the original web sites for Internet Movie Database (Nov. ‘96), NASA (June ‘97) and Yahoo (Dec. ‘96).

You’ll even discover the original White House web site. While the government joined the internet revolution at an early date with a web presence, they neglected to register the domain whitehouse.com which was purchased and used as an adult web site through 2004 where it received ten times as much traffic as whitehouse.gov (story). That’s the first amendment for you.

DISCLAIMER: This post ventures into geek-speak territory. You’ve been warned.

My Own Internet History
Here’s my own little piece of Internet history. Back in 1997 I landed a job as a web designer at an Internet Service Provider in Michigan called The Internet Ramp. This was back in the good old days of dial-up modems and Internet Explorer 3.0. Ahhh, those were the days!

Using the collective power of the Wayback Machine I was able to take a trip down memory lane and remember my first real job and first web site design. To better set the stage you need to see the before version of the web site.

TIR BEFORE (circa 1997)

This was the web site that TIR used and had grown to tens of thousands of users with. This site was actually what landed me the job because I got so sick of looking at it every time I logged in to my ISP that I finally emailed them and asked if I could please redesign the site. That landed me a job interview and after working there for six months we launched the new Internet Ramp.

TIR AFTER (circa 1998)

While it’s hardly much by my design standards today you have to remember that graphicaly-rich interfaces were not that common in the pre-CSS days when all we had to work with was HTML tables. To give you an idea, compare my site design with NASA’s web site in 1997:

In the years since that job I’ve designed countless sites and (thankfully) improved and updated my design style. The Wayback Machine is a geek’s version of old high-school yearbooks. It’s fun to look back and see how far we’ve come.

This is the part where I rock back and forth in my rocking chair on the front porch with a far-off look in my eye and start calling you “Sonny.”

What’s your earliest Internet memory or experience?

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 22nd, 2008 at 9:32 am and is filed under Childhood Memories, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

14 Comments

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September 22, 2008

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1 jonathan said:

I can remember being in High School and everytime we would see a .com run in a commercial we couldn’t figure out what it was for.

jonathans last blog post..Don’t Know. First Time.
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September 22, 2008

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2 Brad Ruggles said:

@Jonathan – yeah, I remember being in marketing where we actually had to be conscious of reminding people that “this is our web site address … visit us online at…” because people were still trying to figure out what the heck that was.
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September 22, 2008

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3 Abbey said:

Getting free Juno dial-up. Yay. =)
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September 22, 2008

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4 Scott Gifford said:

The big thing was, Brad’s design didn’t just make us look better than before, or better than NASA. It was on par with AOL and Amazon. It made us look like a giant, multi-mullion dollar corporation instead of the rinky-dink operation running out of the back of a computer store we were then. That’s what helped us get the customers we needed to become an actual multi-million dollar corporation. I started at TIR very skeptical about the importance of good design; it seemed to me just fluff, and people would really care about our technical benefits. I left completely convinced. Perception is reality, and design matters.

Thanks, Brad, for helping to make TIR a success, and reminding me about some good times!
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September 22, 2008

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5 Brad Ruggles said:

FYI for everyone reading, the comment above comes from the best programmer I know. Scott has more information in his head and flannels in his closet that I could ever hope to have!

Thanks for the kind words Scott. We had a great team back then.
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September 22, 2008

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6 Jason Ruggles said:

Remember back when we got that 10 or 15 hour FREE AOL CD?
Only problem was that it was a long distance phone number. The folks were NOT happy
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September 22, 2008

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7 Brandee Howell said:

In response to Brad’s response to Scott Gifford…

… I have worked with both of these guys on various projects at FAAR and I can not say enough about what I have learned from them, both in the design and technical realm, and that of friendship, kindness and making the little things count.

I remember TIR. That was my very first provider in the land of all things email and web. It was the little engine that could and for those of you who knew The Ramp back then and now know Brad and Scott today… you know what I am talking about.

Thanks for the walk down memory lane. I miss working with you guys!
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September 22, 2008

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8 Brad Ruggles said:

@Jason – Ahh, gotta love those AOL CDs. They made good coasters.

@Brandee – It was fun working with you too. We worked on some cool stuff.
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September 22, 2008

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9 Nick said:

I have to say, I was pretty ashamed to see my stuff back then (I’ve only been designing for 6 years). The sad thing is, there are still sites out there that look like they are stuck in 1996! I say its time to nationalize the web and force everyone to update their lookfeel!

Who’s with me!?

BTW, I’m not talking about validation here, just common sense and caring…

Nicks last blog post..Wayback Machine
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September 22, 2008

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10 Brad Ruggles said:

@Nick – Yeah man! I’m with you! If your web site is stuck in 1996 talk to Nick or I and we’ll get you current!

And while we’re on a rant, can everyone who uses IE6 PLEASE upgrade your browser? You would make thousands of web designers so very happy.
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September 22, 2008

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11 chris justice said:

My first foray into the internet world was getting on my husbands pc while he was out of town…for good reason, he didn’t want me on it. I remember constantly calling my daughter who was away at college and spending long periods of time describing to her what was on the screen so she could help me before hubby came home. Those days I was convinced I could actually blow it up or something. what an idiot!
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September 22, 2008

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12 JudiFree.com said:

OH BOY! that is a GREAT question. My first internet/computer experience was when I was just a wee girl on an apple computer in my mom’s class room. I was playing Oregon Trail for hours on end when I accidentally clicked a button and full on porn came up on the screen. It was TERRIBLE! I can’t believe there were no safeguards on a school computer. That was probably in 1995 when I was 10 yrs old.

JudiFree.coms last blog post..Am I Ready?
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September 22, 2008

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13 Nick said:

Prodigy
Compuserve
AOL Chatrooms
I met a girl online who lived in my town and we dated for almost a year thanks to the good ‘ol AOL chat rooms

Nicks last blog post..A Night For Africa
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September 22, 2008

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14 Nick said:

I just went and checked out some old sport sites, very interesting!

Nicks last blog post..A Night For Africa