Get Back To Where You Once Belonged
Now that you’ve dusted yourself off after that rough journey back 5 years ago, let’s recap what we’ve learned so far. Five years ago these popular resources where just starting out, and whether they knew it or not, their sites would eventually become heavily trafficed and depended upon resources. These two sites survived the so called “dot com boom”, and continued serving up content to a database of visitors that continued to grow. So how did they match the changes in the years?
Neowin – 2006
Neowin today reminds you off just logging onto your desktop. With its streaky blue gradient and rounded design, Neowin looks much like a Windows theme itself. So there, that covers the design issue they faced five years ago. How ’bout that code situation? Neowin is now coded in full xhtml & css, without any more tables in sight. It’s yummy portal 2.0ish at its best.
Sitepoint – 2006
Sitepoint has also undoubtably came a long way since that earlier version in 2001. The design is now simple, clean, and straight-forward, but they still continue to serve up the article content that has been bringing people back since 2001. Their coding? Of course, it’s been updated to xhtml & css, much like Neowin and Co.
And so, the point was?
The point of this article was to very subtly demonstrate how good sites that last don’t just sit dormant and let themselves be overcome by what’s new in the web world. While it’s plenty possible to continue to do well while practicing old standards (Mediatemple’s latest design is still using tables, even though it looks damn good), it’s much better to choose the modern path and get on the ball with what is the best and newest solution to getting things done. While you might not get on loads of talk shows and have a highly viewed movie on Youtube like that Evolution of Dance guy, you will be improving your own skills and demonstrating to your users that you’re up to date with all this new web stuff. Brush them cobwebs off, and keep them there.
The simple solution: Let your design and development process evolve.
