I’ve long viewed web development as a shifting balance of power between graphic designers and software developers.   A rough timeline would go something like this

• In the beginning: web creators used text and html, Advantage Developers
• 1997 – People discover html tables, allowing precise graphic placement.  Placement allowed graphic designers to go nuts with Photoshop – Advantage Designers
• 1998 – ASP, Perl and PHP come about, allowing developers to make content decisions – Advantage Developers
• 2000 – Flash gets easy enough to use – Advantage Designers
• 2005 – Browser standards and search engines become competant, which makes the actual code matter – Advantage Developers
• 2008 – Tools like TypePad, WordPress, and JQuery automate Javascript, SEO and CSS standardization, which had been a huge part of what developers did on a day to day basis.  The automation allows emphasis to shift to the look and feel – Advantage Designers
• 2010 – Html 5 arrives (sort of), making the web much more of an application!  - Advantage Developers

I haven’t had much time to research Html 5, but I’m impressed so far.  It’s not a sea change from anything that exists now, but Html 5 is an impressive refinement of existing technology.

photo credit: B.K. Ragsdale

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