A Web Site over Time
The White House website over time (www.whitehouse.gov).
1996
- Search
- News, Informational
1997
- Page background image
- "Virtual" Library
- You can...
- Image icons as links
1997
1998
- Animated GIF flag waving:
- Good Morning / Good Evening
- Header image larger and is a photo
- Image icons for different areas
1998
1999
- Two columns
- Descriptioins with categories
- Promotion of items to home page under "What's New" and "Site News"
1999
2001
- Major redesign
- Horizontal site navigation
- Footer navigation
- Left-side policies, news
- Main content is news stores
- Photos
2001
2002
- Information density increase
- Additional left-side categories
- Visual news items
2002
2007
- Removal of fancy script font in images
- Simplified imagery in header
- left-side items built out and more spaced
2007
2009
- New administration
- Header
- Visual top stories (rotating 4)
- Mega footer
2009
2011
- Increased density
- Presence of social media links - Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Vimeo, Flickr, iTunes, MySpace, LinkedIn
2011
2015 - Early
- Top stories now primary and secondary; no longer rotating
- Increased number of images displayed
- Social media are now icons only and includes Instagram, GooglePlus; others have gone
- Footer links are now blue
2015 - Early
2015 - Late
- Decreased density (?)
- Featured stories are primary, secondary, tertiary. Every item has an image
2015 - Late
2018 - January
- New administration
- Mega footer goes away
- Header menu popout/dropdown (pancake icon)
- Visible header categories issue-oriented
- Twitter Tweets are now content
2018 - January
2021 - January
- New administration
- No top menu items are visible; only pancake menu
- Big first image not associated with a story
- Contrast / Text Size controls
2021 - January
- New administration
- No top menu items are visible; only pancake menu
- Big first image not associated with a story
- Contrast / Text Size controls
2022 - January
Screenshots from my collection and from Internet Archive Wayback Machine