Member Avatar for ChrisLala

hi im studying a degree in multimedia and have to think about my disseration idea. i thought about something to do with the history of web design like looking at past present and future web design and maybe linking it with sci fi or something on the side.

like how things are gona be in the future.

anyone got any tips for me? or ideas?

thx in advance.

  • 4 Contributors
  • 3 Replies
  • 263 Views
  • 4 Years Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by MidiMagic

Dani AI

Generated

Good starting idea. The thread already sketches a historical path and a speculative future; the missing piece is a tight research question, a reproducible method, and deliverables that show original scholarship. Three focused directions that build on the posts by , , and are practical and defensible.

  • Comparative history of patterns: trace a small, well‑defined set of sites (3–5 per era) and code/visual features across milestones (layout, navigation, media, accessibility). Deliverables: annotated timeline, taxonomy of pattern shifts, and a short prototype that reimplements an old site with modern techniques to show tradeoffs.
  • Speculative design / design fiction: create 2–3 short interactive prototypes that embody different plausible “future web” scenarios (bandwidth-rich streaming UIs, ambient AR overlays, or AI-driven adaptive pages). Evaluate through expert critique and lightweight user testing; write reflections linking design choices to technological constraints.
  • Standards and labour study: use case studies to document how changes in standards forced rewrites. Combine archival snapshots with interviews (or public commit histories) to estimate effort, and propose workflow recommendations to reduce churn.

A practical research workflow (compact): define scope → literature review → pick sample sites/years → collect snapshots and screenshots → code/feature coding using a small rubric (layout, responsiveness, media use, accessibility) → qualitative interviews or expert reviews → prototype + evaluation → writeup. Metrics can include task completion time (for usability tests), simple accessibility checks, and a qualitative rubric for aesthetic/interaction change.

Cautions: keep scope small and reproducible, get supervisor sign‑off on data sources, avoid grand predictions without evidence, and document methods so results remain useful years later. Linking the historical comparison to a tangible deliverable (timeline, prototype, or practical guidelines) strengthens assessment and makes the dissertation more than a descriptive essay.

Recommended Answers

All 3 Replies

Member Avatar for kevin_smithers

There is a website out there (Not too sure what it is called) but it has cached websites for the past 10years so you can go back in time and have a look at Yahoo 5 years ago and stuff like that.

And just think within a few years websites will not be like they are now!!!!! a website in the future will be like a T.V programme because internet if they still call it that in the future will be 1,000 Meg a second data transfers, so full video streaming will be the NEW Div tag and fully interactive 3D AI moddeling will be the next generation of CSS.

Well we can all hope ;-)

Kev

Member Avatar for dpwriter

Hi,
You have selected a nice topic and you can even make it better by including a comparison between the past picture of web design with today's web designing technology.

Member Avatar for MidiMagic

How about writing on how designers have to waste time rewriting web pages that used to work, because the software makers and the W3C keep changing the standards.

It's just like the forced change to DTV that everyone hates. The clowns in charge can't leave the standards alone.

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.