2026 update:
I originally wrote this article in 2015, and I’m keeping most of it exactly as it was because it contains some great examples of websites I designed years ago. Website design has changed enormously since I started building sites in 2001 (thankfully, in some cases!), so it’s interesting to look back at what businesses needed then compared with what we expect from a website today.
A long time ago, back in the days when the World Wide Web was just taking off and before Google was barely around, I designed websites.
Here are a handful of the sites I developed that are embarrassingly old hat but we all need a laugh now and then!
My first ever website
I put this together as part of a project during my study towards a Computing & IT degree back in the year 2000. It was the first time I had ever done html.
My Personal website
After creating several websites during my study, I designed a personal site with information about myself, photos, links and advice – this was before I had ever heard of blogging!
Websites for friends
I began to develop websites for friends and acquaintances. here are a few I designed for friends in Macromedia Flash… (remember Macromedia before Adobe took over?!)
This one is a very minimalist (and quite bland!) site I created in Macromedia Flash
Remember when people had background music? Here’s a video of a website I created in Macromedia Flash (not supported in browsers anymore hence the video).
At least this had an on/off button for the sound:
Then I started getting paid for my services…
So I developed a site to promote my web design services…
Yes, it’s rather bold and brash!
Many sites had an intro page made in Flash with blinking or fading-in text saying something like ‘Enter site’ that you could click on to get into the website. Mine (because my business was ‘Ding Dong Design’ with the tagline ‘Bringing customers to your door’) had a doorbell image with the text ‘Ring the bell!’ When people clicked the bell it made a doorbell sound and loaded the homepage – I actually liked it back then!
Here’s a video of how that into looked:
As my client base grew…
My skills developed and I started to provide PHP and SQL like with this lunch ordering system (before Just Eat and Deliveroo websites were around – and we didn’t have phone apps back then!).
Also this property portal for landlords and house sellers to advertise their properties.
But it was design that I enjoyed the most.
…and this design from 2004 (over a decade ago) doesn’t actually look so bad!
That’s our trip down Memory Lane. Hope it didn’t scare you too much.
What do you think about web design and how it has changed?
Can you remember all the awful features people would include?
2026 update:
What a difference 2 decades makes!
Looking back at these websites now makes me smile (and wince with some of them!). Several were cutting-edge at the time, but website design, screen sizes, mobile use, search engines and the technology behind websites have all changed massively.
What hasn’t changed is what I want a website to do for a business – look professional, make information easy to find and help turn visitors into customers.
If you’d like to see what I’m designing these days, take a look at my Website Design service and recent projects.
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