Website design had lots of evaluation since the start of Internet. The first website in the internet is just a simple document with black text. The website was created by Tim Burners Lee, the founder of internet. Since then, websites have evolved into the combination of design and code. In 90s, websites were designed using colors and text effects. The design was really simple and the web pages looked just like brochures of that company.

The internet boom and the opportunity to do business online changed the look and feel of websites entirely. People were looking to tap the online market and get the advantage. They developed great looking sites to attract visitors and more sales. Initially websites were full of information and there were many colors on a single page. Most of the people didn’t like those websites. Those websites had overlapping colors, big text and some eye popping text effects which used to you're your attention away from the main product/service.

Then, came the internet recession, and that was a greatest period for website designs. People learned from their mistakes and started to design some good looking sites that allowed the visitor to focus on the main product/service they were offering. But there was one drawback; the internet was going through a learning phase and they used to think that simple websites are designed cheaply and used to run away. So, most of the big players changed their website design to interactive flash based movies to impress visitors with the uniqueness of flash based design.

At those times HTML, DHTML and Flash were used to create website designs. The table based design was good but lots of codes to write and implement style on each and every object on the web pages.
To address this problem, CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) was introduced and many designers adopted it to get rid of long codes. CSS is the latest trend in web design. There are no tables to draw. Div tag can be used to assign styles to any object or component on the web pages.
The latest trend in web design is the result of a 15 year evolution that occurred step by step. Now website designs are more mature and they are centered on the content of the website; not the other way. Good web designers are using layouts to direct visitor's attention to the content and not the design. The designs are developed to so the visitor eyes and keep them engaged.

Now designers are more towards creating perfect layouts and keeping the background simple. The website is intentionally left blank outside the layouts to avoid distraction. The images and icons are also used to highlight certain points and now a day’s videos are embedded on the sites to provide dynamic content that will attract the visitors instantly. Subtle and light colors are used to complement the design. 3D gradients and reflection effects are current trends.

Website designs are getting better day by day.
The mature and professional look is more important than stuffing of images, icons and other design components. Less design and more content is the rule of today's online era and it has given visitors reason to think about the product/services they are interested in rather than appreciating the design of a website.