Here’s a fun (albeit lengthy) blog post I wrote on the FG SQUARED blog about how design has changed over the last 15 years. Here’s a sample:

Looking at websites in 1994, you saw a lot of default grey backgrounds, Times New Roman and blue underlined links. Any images were dithered 256-color GIFs and typically ugly as hell by today’s standards, not to mention looked different depending on your operating system. Designing for the web back then consisted primarily of fighting tables and compressing graphics as much as possible while retaining some measure of legibility. Aesthetics were a luxury not yet affordable. But that would soon change.

http://www.fg2.com/squaredroot/2009/11/16/the-tumultuous-relationship-of-design-and-the-internet/