This takes me back to the days when so much of web apps was tied to non-web things. Skeupomorphisms were pretty good UX, but also the fact that layouts looks like ads or newspapers, trying to conserve room and increase information density.
The websites themselves weren't much in the way of a destination, rather they tied you into other real world things: family, computers systems, hobbies. They were relevant only as much as they enriched real life.
Now the website is the full app and experience. No need to go anywhere else. In fact it's desirable that you stay on one property, such as Facebook for as long as possible. It's like a big box store.
But back to the point I wanted to make originally: the work has fundamentally changed. I remember coding a backend to get old scientific python scripts to run from commands via Sharepoint buttons. The web couldn't do anything so you had to tie it to systems that could. Now you have to get it all running in Javascript --- not sure how many people saw that coming :-D.
I wonder if anyone has any thoughts along those lines?
It's also become much less accessible to your average every-day person.
I remember in 2001 my brother's community college in rural America taught HTML and Flash development. Not only could you learn to make websites quickly, but you were learning technology that was exactly what you would be using when working at a company.
You could argue the technology is better these days, but it's certainly not more clear to newcomers. I recently described to my younger sister that she should learn React through FreeCodeCamp in order to make websites - but suddenly you are dropped into a world talking about declarative programming paradigms, unidirectional data flows, and lots of other foreign concepts described as magic (the virtual DOM, Babel, etc.)
If my experience had been this growing up I would have never gained interest in learning the specifics / details of what was going on when writing HTML/CSS/JS code. I would've chalked it up to "there are layers upon layers of magical things I don't understand, I guess I only need to interact with them and slap them together."
I also think the incentives have changed - it's less about making something cool and sharing it with your internet friends these days because there is money to be made - it's about buffing your GitHub profile to get a job, creating a startup that extracts $$$ from people, etc.
I feel it is very similar to early days YouTube vs. YouTube these days, and that saddens me.
My favorite part is you can drag the portfolio image around when focused (this particular interaction feels pretty modern tho, reminds me of some fun interactions found on https://cargo.site/In-Use)
Ohh if we're doing this, here's the intro to my personal site from 2007. Only the intro works, and requires Flash of course https://cv-ppguyzgojs.now.sh/
jvalencia|5 years ago
The websites themselves weren't much in the way of a destination, rather they tied you into other real world things: family, computers systems, hobbies. They were relevant only as much as they enriched real life.
Now the website is the full app and experience. No need to go anywhere else. In fact it's desirable that you stay on one property, such as Facebook for as long as possible. It's like a big box store.
But back to the point I wanted to make originally: the work has fundamentally changed. I remember coding a backend to get old scientific python scripts to run from commands via Sharepoint buttons. The web couldn't do anything so you had to tie it to systems that could. Now you have to get it all running in Javascript --- not sure how many people saw that coming :-D.
I wonder if anyone has any thoughts along those lines?
slimsag|5 years ago
I remember in 2001 my brother's community college in rural America taught HTML and Flash development. Not only could you learn to make websites quickly, but you were learning technology that was exactly what you would be using when working at a company.
You could argue the technology is better these days, but it's certainly not more clear to newcomers. I recently described to my younger sister that she should learn React through FreeCodeCamp in order to make websites - but suddenly you are dropped into a world talking about declarative programming paradigms, unidirectional data flows, and lots of other foreign concepts described as magic (the virtual DOM, Babel, etc.)
If my experience had been this growing up I would have never gained interest in learning the specifics / details of what was going on when writing HTML/CSS/JS code. I would've chalked it up to "there are layers upon layers of magical things I don't understand, I guess I only need to interact with them and slap them together."
I also think the incentives have changed - it's less about making something cool and sharing it with your internet friends these days because there is money to be made - it's about buffing your GitHub profile to get a job, creating a startup that extracts $$$ from people, etc.
I feel it is very similar to early days YouTube vs. YouTube these days, and that saddens me.
nix23|5 years ago
WD-42|5 years ago
mjcohen|5 years ago
rozab|5 years ago
nmfisher|5 years ago
hestefisk|5 years ago
slmjkdbtl|5 years ago
jaffathecake|5 years ago
byteface|5 years ago
dwohnitmok|5 years ago
DarthGhandi|5 years ago
Half the large companies today will present you with a blank screen instead of writing one line of a <noscript> tag.
xisnextbigthing|5 years ago
onion2k|5 years ago
mjcohen|5 years ago
tus88|5 years ago
Tarsul|5 years ago