I have been working on my coding skills in my free time by creating a website through Glitch using Y2K-inspired designs. This idea was brought to me by a post on Twitter about bringing back websites like Angelfire.
When I’m bored, I like to make websites. I’ve been playing around with web page templates since I was in middle school, and have recently expanded my coding skills through college courses at ASU and W3Schools. I’ve created and maintained several websites and blogs, both personally and professionally, throughout my life. I started out on Webs.com (which was originally called FreeWebs) in middle school when I made a site about Japan as a class project. Since then, I’ve used WordPress, Wix, and other platforms, as well as hand-coded my own author website (which I’m currently redesigning).
Creating a Y2K-Inspired Website
The tweet above gave me the idea to test my coding skills by creating a mock-up for a site with Y2K aesthetics. Think of MySpace — which, by the way, is back and called SpaceHey — and the Angelfire sites from the early days of the internet (see my profile and add me as a friend!).
Back then, the backgrounds were insanely busy and the designs were minimal; yet people had more flexibility in how they could customize their profile than they do now! Songs would play as soon as the profile loaded, users could add images and information wherever and however they wanted, and of course, there was the Top Friends list.
Plus, there weren’t as many issues with digital privacy and security with these kind of platforms. No one had to worry about their information being used for nefarious reasons like rigging an election. The ads were…weird, but not so weird that you’d think someone was watching your every move and listening to your every word. Plus, you got to actually see your friends’ posts!
For the design of this flashback website, I’m choosing the classic emo with a hint of Barbie and bubblegum. I found some reference photos on Instagram that inspired me to create a classic early 2000s look. The key to this look is having a messy background that makes reading the text difficult — but fun! As well as matching colors for accents, text, and other elements. I’m going to add an online status indicator as well as a Top Friends module (which will be static, not active). You can see my progress on Glitch!
Once I have a good template up and running, I’ll make this project open-source for anyone else who wants a fun little web page to bring back nostalgia and avoid all-knowing ads from finding out what you’ve been thinking.
Let me know if there are any features you’d like me to add to this project in the comments below!