for excellence in Australian Web Design
The McFarlane Prize is awarded by a jury of Australian experts in various fields of the web profession. 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 their aesthetic appeal. These criteria are outlined in detail below.
The top 20 sites from this phase will be individually assessed in four areas by members of the jury who have expertise in that field.
These areas are
Based on the two rounds of judging, the McFarlane Prize shortlist will be announced on October 7th 2010.
The winner will be announced at Web Directions South, on October 14th 2010.
We thank all our judges for their generosity with their time and expertise. The jury for this years' McFarlane Prize is:
Kai Brach is a German-born, Melbourne-based web designer at brizk design. When he's not on the road to clients in the US or in Germany, Kai is hiding behind Photoshop and HTML editors as he has been for the last 10 years. Specialising in the design of functional, high-quality websites, he likes the challenge of creating artwork within the confines of usability and the results-driven objectives of his clients, which range from large enterprises to small startups and are spread across industries and continents. As a continuous part-time student (this time 'Web Communications' at Curtin University in WA) he loves working from Melbourne's finest cafes and riding scooters off into the sunset.
Kai is the design judge for 2010.
Dylan Fogarty-MacDonald is a web developer with Sydney-based Plus2. Coming from a fine arts background, Dylan now spends his time crafting dynamic interactions for the web and is involved in the entire process from requirements gathering through to deploying applications. He has a passion for JavaScript, Ruby and well-executed user interfaces. If he's not answering his phone, he's probably surfing.
Dylan is the coding judge for 2010.
Scott Bryant is a Senior Experience Architect working on online news media and classifieds within the User Standards and Innovative Technology Team for News Digital Media. His career began as a visual artist before working in university and local government libraries, and finally into new media. He completed two Masters Degrees, in Media Art and Information Studies (while working as a Project Manager, Content Producer and IA). Upon returning from the US working on the Ask Jeeves innovative search interface he concentrated on UX, specialising as Information Architect and lecturer in information and interaction design University of Technology, Sydney.
Scott is the usability judge for 2010.
Ruth Ellison is a Principal Consultant at Stamford Interactive, a user experience company dedicated to helping organisations provide useful and usable user experiences. She is fascinated by the psychology of design and the way humans interact with technology. Ruth is extremely passionate about inclusive design and believes in a holistic and pragmatic approach to accessibility, with people as the key focus. Ruth strongly believes that accessibility is more than a checklist; it is integral to any part of design. She has spent over eight years working with numerous government and private organisations helping them design usable and accessible user experiences.
Ruth is the accessibility judge for 2010.
Danielle is a co-founder and digital design specialist at Binalogue. If it involves pixels of any shape or form, she's right in the midst of it - which is the reason she loves working at Fox Sports Digital, and has mixed live visuals for Ministry of Sound. Danielle is particularly fond of anything that mixes interactivity, beauty and fun.
Danielle is the aesthetic appeal judge for 2010.
In the first round of judging, sites will be objectively assessed for their use of best practices in the areas of
In each of these areas a score will be awarded. The 20 highest scoring sites according to these criteria will be then assessed by our jury of experts. At the jury's discretion, sites may be added to this list, or fewer than 20 sites may be considered for the second round.
Scores will be allocated as follows in the first round.
The home page of the site will be tested using accessibility testing software such as Cynthia Says. Sites will be assessed for their compliance with Level A and AA of the WCAG2 content accessibility guidelines.
The home page of the site will be assessed for how valid its HTML or XHTML is, and how appropriately it uses HTML.
Points will be added for use of more sophisticated aspects of HTML, such as HTML5, and good use of structured and semantic HTML.
The home page of the site will be assessed for whether it uses valid CSS. Pages will be validated with the W3C's CSS validator.
Points will also be added for use of more sophisticated CSS as appropriate - including advanced CSS3 and browser-specific extensions (where appropriate).
Starting in 2009 we have also engaged what we call our "blink judge" to award points for aesthetic appeal at this first stage, as well as the machine testing for the 3 criteria above.
In the second round of judging, each of our expert judges scores each of the sites in their area of expertise. These scores are then totaled, to produce a shortlist of six sites.
This shortlist is then discussed by the judges, who name the winner, and any highly commended sites.
As experts in their fields, the members of the jury have worked with many organisations, and on many projects. This gives rise to the possibility that a nominated site has an association, either direct or indirect, with a member of the jury. Our policy is that should this be the case for shortlisted sites, this association will be explicitly declared.