for excellence in Australian Web Design
Founded in 2006, in memory of the late Nigel McFarlane, The McFarlane Prize is awarded to an Australian designer or team for a site launched or significantly upgraded between September 20th 2009 and September 21 2010. Sites may be designed for Australian or non Australian individuals, organisations, companies or governments, but must be designed and developed by an individual or team which works in Australia for an Australian company, or by Australian citizens or permanent residents. Anyone may nominate a site, and there is no cost for nominating or being nominated for the prize.
Nominations close September 21 2010.
Named in memory of noted Australian web pioneer Nigel McFarlane, the McFarlane Prize aims to recognize and encourage excellence in web design by Australian web professionals.
The Prize rewards excellence in web design in the broadest sense, from the appropriate use of technology, to design aesthetics, to its impact more broadly on the web.
The Prize is a showcase of the best in Australian web design, to inspire other Australian developers in their own endeavours.
The McFarlane Prize is awarded by a jury of Australian experts in various fields of web design and development. The decision process has two stages. In the first stage, entries are assessed for their adherence to best practices in accessibility and standards based coding (correct and valid use of CSS and HTML) as well as aesthetic appeal. These criteria are outlined in detail here.
The top 20 sites from this phase will be individually assessed in four areas by members of the jury who have expertise in a particular area.
These areas are
Based on the two rounds of judging, the McFarlane Prize shortlist will be announced on October 7th.
The announcement of the winner of the inaugural McFarlane Prize will be made at the Web Directions Conference, October 14th 2010.
Congratulations to 2009's winner, Swinburne University of Technology. The judges also decided to award a highly commended to J2Build.
Congratulations to them, to our shortlist and all the entrants. 2009's standard was without doubt the highest yet, in every area, something that would have doubtless pleased Nigel McFarlane greatly.
In 2009, the Judges and organisers decided to recognize the significant achievement of Dmitry Baranovskiy, developer of the widely acclaimed Raphaël JavaScript Library, used at such high profile sites as the Washington Post. Dmitry's site for Raphaël also made the short list for this year.
After grueling rounds of judging the shortlist for 2009 was (in alphabetical order):
The winner of the McFarlane Prize, 2008, is Pro Plaster Products by Propeller Global. Billy Hughes at War for the Old Parliament House, by IceLab was highly commended by the judges. Congratulations to the team at Propeller, at IceLab, and all the finaists, and a huge thank you to the entrants.
2009's shortlist (in alphabetical order) was:
The winner of the McFarlane Prize for 2007 has been announced. Michael Koukoullis was awarded the prize by the Jury for his site Andrews Must Resign
After an arduous decision making process, the Jury in 2007 McFarlane Prize has decided on the shortlist. The shortlisted sites were:
The winner was announced on Thursday September 27th 1007 at Web Directions, by Dean Jackson.
Congratulations to the web development team from Museum Victoria, winners of the inaugural McFarlane Prize, for Caught and Coloured. It is a beautiful, well developed, usable and accessible site.
The Prize was awarded on Thursday 28, at the end of the first day of Web Directions South. We were very honoured to have Nigel McFarlane's parents at the ceremony, and the Prize was awarded by Nigel's sister, Colleen.
Congratulations too to Glass Onion, developers of the The Australian College of Physical Education site - highly commended by the Jury.
Thank you to all the nominees, and a particularly big thank you to Andy Coffey, for his painting "Page Impression" which was awarded to the winners of the prize, and to the Judges for their huge efforts and their expertise in deciding this year's winner.
The following six sites were the finalists for the inaugural award in 2006. Congraulations to them, and indeed to all our entrants. The quality of the work entered was of a very high standard.