stardoll!!!
stardoll was one of my first "proper" introductions to the mid-00's internet. many hours of my childhood were dedicated to this site, so i thought it was only fitting to write about it on my website!! so, without further ado....i introduce you to stardoll!
stardoll is a browser-based game which launched in 2004 under the name "paperdoll heaven", coined by the creator's (Liisa Wrang) passion for paper dolls. by 2005, the name changed to stardoll and the website we know today was born.
the concept of stardoll was to allow players to create their own virtual doll, or dress up celebrity dolls, in various styles of make up & clothing. there was also the option to decorate your own "suite", allowing for even more creativity to be used on the site.
website designs!!
one of my favourite things is to look through websites which i used to used, a reminisce on how they used to look. so let's take a look into the designs stardoll used and how they evolved!!
2004/2005
these are some of the earliest designs for the site, with the image below on the left still being called "paperdoll heaven". this design is very basic, and i assume is only using html and very simple css to achieve this look. at this point, the site was just a dress-up doll site, and hadn't yet expanded into the social website it would become.
2006
by 2006, the website had gone through a period of change such as renaming the site to "stardoll", as well as updating the design. this layout is still very basic, but the "stardoll" branding had been born. now the site pushed the social aspect more, as seen below you have a "friends online" section for sending messages, as well as a section to see who's just "signed in" so you knew who was online.
2007
by 2007, the main focus of the website wasn't just the paper dolls which you could dress up, but more about your own customisation. with the ability to make friends on the site, the desire to have the perfect looking "medoll" (your own doll to dress up), was of the up most importance. shown below, the main banner on the site was advertising that day's "covergirl", which, was a daily competition which required on other site users to vote for you. imagine it's prom queen, but for everyday.
