An interesting assessment of web design over the past through years via the lens of US state web sites:
US State Tourism Web Site Design: Two Years On
My beloved home state of Maryland did have perhaps the most shameful before:
Maryaland's website before
Maryland's Website After
I recall seeing similar visual and functional upgrades across various sites back home, perhaps my favorite being: www.marylandstatefair.com. Before this update it was quite a mess, and very difficult to use. Now visitors to the site can submit entries to the fair online, which is quite useful for college students attending school out of state. But perhaps my favorite feature, that despite all the glittery imagery, you can still read the whole site with images disabled, a vital element since parts of Maryland still lack a high speed Internet provider.