Peer Review

Web Design Museum

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Feb 28, 2021 by Teacher Education

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

Web Design Museum exhibits over 1,600 unique designs from the years 1991 to 2006. Discover forgotten trends in web design.

The main goal of the Web Design Museum project is to map out past trends in web design that were dominant on the Internet between 1991 and 2006. We would like to preserve the creative legacy of web designers from the turn of the millennium for future generations, since Internet users in 2030 would hardly guess how unique the websites in 2003 were in terms of their design.

Screenshots of websites come either from the private archive of Petr Kovář or they have been obtained through the Internet Archive, Arquivo.pt, Archive-It, Library of Congress, Stanford Web Archive Portal, Perma.cc and other services. Since launching the museum in May 2017, we have received several dozen screenshots from visitors of unique websites from the turn of the millennium, which are also included in the collection.

We are still looking for web design trends that dominated in the past (e.g. interactive flash websites, grunge design, pixel design, techno). If you have interesting websites on your PC, dating back to the period between 1991 and 2006, we kindly ask you to send us their screenshots in full resolution to info@webdesignmuseum.org.

Type of Material:

Collection

Recommended Uses:

in-class, self-paced, individual

This 'museum' would be very relevant incorporated into various disciplines in a variety of ways. For example, the most obvious use would be as part of lecture material or student research in a web design or Internet class but the materials could easily be adopted as research for either individuals or groups in art history, business, marketing and so on.

Technical Requirements:

Internet access. Some links contain materials that use Flash.

Identify Major Learning Goals:

The main goal of this site is to map out past trends in web design that were dominant on the Internet and to preserve the creative legacy of web designers from the turn of the millennium for future generations.

User can research the curated historical exhibits of websites from 1991 through 2006 and gain insight into the evolution of web design.

Target Student Population:

High School, College General Ed, College Lower Division, College Upper Division, Graduate School, Professional

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

No pre-requisite knowledge is needed.

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

The website museum website provides a gallery of websites ranging from around the beginning of the Internet into 2006. What makes this site so useful for education is that each of the examples show various graphical design concepts and design skills that were practiced at the time. Students can search the Gallery, search by Graphical styles such as Retro or Futuristic, or search by Categories such as Bad & Ugly websites, as well as Education. No matter the discipline or topic, exploring the museum to visually learn about the history of web design will help students to compare their knowledge and skills for the discipline.

Although some of the gallery examples are screenshots, others provide a video animation (with sound) of the actual webpage and others take the user to the actual website which make the examples very engaging for the learner.

Concerns:

User needs to be aware that there are links to ADULT content.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

The website can easily be integrated into various disciplines such as graphic design, art, art history, web design, and more, and at almost any level but certainly from the high school student through website creators and programmers.

Although the main goal of this site is to map out past trends in web design,the specific learning objectives are not listed but are inherent in the wealth of materials at the site. The gallery, timelines, exhibitions, and history make it easy to write learning assignments that cover Bloom's Taxonomy from recognize and compare through analyze and reflect.

Not only does the museum provide a place to explore, research, compare and analyze, but the authors have added quizzes which, at minimum, could be an assessment for visiting the site for the purpose of any of these categories:

History of Web Design Quiz-1991 – 201990s Web Design Quiz-1990 – 1999Flash History Quiz-1996 – 2017Web Browsers History Quiz-1990 – 2001Google History Quiz-1998 – 2008

Concerns:

User should be aware that some links do contain ads.

The museum would be a highly effective teaching tool.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:

Strengths:

The Web Design Museum is very easy to navigate because each concept area has a labeled link and the pages within each concept area are consistent.

This resource is very engaging because the archived websites are colorful, often funny, and very different from today's websites.

No documentation or help is needed to explore but contact information is provided and contributions are encouraged.

Concerns:

USER BEWARE: The website does include in it's gallery an 'Adult Websites in the 90's' concept area which is at least R rated.

Flash is used on many of the sites so users may be prevented from viewing some content.

Other Issues and Comments:: Send them your suggestions for interesting websites as they are still on the lookout for interesting websites from 1991 to 2006.
Creative Commons: