For every real world business facet there is a corresponding cyberspace counterpart. In the case of the real estate upon which business infrastructure is located in the real world, its counterpart is the homepage of the business website on the Internet. In both cases, the asset’s usability plays a vital role to how successful it — and the business behind it — will be.

This is why in designing website homepages for small and medium businesses (SMBs), the usability factor is a very important consideration. Homepage usability dictates how efficiently your visitors turn from just traffic into conversion, and establishes that website’s presence in the Web.

The homepage should be usable and useful enough to offer visitors what they need — or a means to get what they need — as soon as they land on it. The homepage is the foremost and most important webpage in a site. Increasing homepage usability increases business value.

So how can you improve your homepage usability? There are a number of general and specific guidelines you can follow; we’ll look at nine pointers that make the most impact (aside from sound Web design principles and navigation development theory):

1. Group corporate info in a specific area

Sounds like common sense? It’s one of the most often disregarded guidelines to usable homepage design. Grouping corporate information in a single distinct area allows visitors to find out a little more about the business behind the website, and is quite essential if the website is recruiting, into PR or investor relations, and provides, offers, or is looking for B2B opportunities. If more information (like a backgrounder) follows, add a link to a separate webpage.

2. Emphasize Most Important Info and High Priority Tasks

This is another significant usability guideline that is often unheeded. The homepage should be able to provide its users with a clear starting point from which, ideally, one to four main tasks relevant to the website or business can be performed. Otherwise, you end up with a decentralized homepage that offers generic links instead of useful ones.

3.  Don’t forget the search box

The search box is a very handy feature and quite typical in homepages, but you might want to do better than putting in a generic search box. Search-dominance is the most prevalent user behavior — well over half of your traffic will be resorting to the search box to find the info they need from your website. If your search box is subpar and ends up wasting their time, they’ll soon spend it somewhere else. Also, advanced search settings might be useful for many search-dominant users. The size of the search box should be preferably 27 characters wide, to avoid obscuring some parts of the users’ query when entering multiple words. And lastly, avoid redundant design: don’t label the search area with the word “Search” when the button next to it says exactly that.

4.  Use examples of content from within the website in the homepage

In revealing site content in the homepage, use real examples of data or services from other webpages in the website. Don’t settle for just describing what’s underneath — go ahead and show them what’s in store. Prefer the specific over the abstract, and prefer to showcase the most recent updates or the best info or both.

5.  Employ meaningful graphics

Too many websites are using graphics for decorating homepages, instead of showing real content. Generic stock photos are used over photos that actually have something to do with the content or the purpose of the website. Improving aesthetics does not mean distracting users with pretty images that have no use at all. The eyes naturally gravitate towards pictures, so use them wisely. Think along the lines of infographics — these images can even standalone without website content.

6.  Don’t over-format critical elements

Your visitors often dismiss elements that are too graphical, taking them for ads or promotions. Chalk it up to banner blindness, but because of this, it is unwise to dress critical elements up with elaborate illustrations, colors, and boxes. Be careful to never use fancy formatting for important text and navigation areas, unless you want them to be mostly ignored.

7.  Do away with marketese and be explicit in what your site offers

The clever catch phrases and sales pitches may seem quite alluring to you, but your users require real services and not hyped-up promises. Use a straightforward approach and don’t hide your content beneath marketing lingo that leaves little or a bad impression on your users. Your visitors can only spare a few seconds of their time searching for what they need, so don’t waste these precious seconds with sales talk.

8.  Avoid content-free taglines and use true Web one-sentence taglines

Wait, what’s the difference? The branding slogan you spent millions to develop and trademark is all well and good, but if you want to use it, put it in with the graphic banner logo of your site where it can be ignored and use a real Web one-sentence tagline on your website homepage. This tagline, as opposed to the branding-centered effort of the brand slogan, explicitly tells your visitors what the site is all about. Don’t make your users go to an “About” page just to find out the site’s purpose.

9.  Avoid linking to your homepage from your homepage

From an off-page Search Engine Optimization perspective, this may seem like a grand idea, but really, the deep and intra-site link juice coming from all the other webpages in the site should suffice. In terms of usability, homepage links from the homepage only serve to waste your users’ time (if they click on it only to be returned to that same page) and confuse them (if they’re already on the homepage, why’s there still a link to the homepage?). For templates that have the generic “Home” link in the nav bar, try disabling it whenever the users are on the homepage, or make sure they explicitly know where they are in your website (like highlighting the ‘home’ link where they’re at).

Low Usability = Less Income Generating Potential

There are a lot of sound guidelines to follow; these nine are some of the ones with the most impact on usability. Some might seem common sense but are not often used; others still might seem nominal but in fact have great influence on homepage usability and web design. The bottom-line is that if the homepage design follows these simple guidelines, an SMB website can avoid low usability which translates to low income generating potential.

It’s that time again to look at some of the recently submitted websites on Webmaster Showcase. These submissions were added both this year and late 2010. As always, we love to hear about Australian Web Designers doing great things and share them within our community. These are truly inspiring websites – Congratulations to you all.

Well it’s that time of year again when Webmasters Showcase announces its 2010 winner. It has been an exciting year for the community, experiencing strong growth in members, content contribution and general interest. With over 270 Australian website submissions, we hope that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

This inaugural award (we can say that now because it’s the second year running!) has brought about the awareness of some very hardworking and talented designers. Selected by peers, the winning business is voted on by programmers, website designers, and the general public. Criterion encompasses a range of factors, from design features and ease of navigation, to interface intuitiveness and performance.

But let’s get to it shall we? Drum roll please…

Congratulations to Design Lots Creative! Voted by the Webmaster Showcase community, they have become our Web Designer of 2010.

Based in Brisbane, this creative design agency specialises in professional website and graphic design, which is available to both overseas and domestic markets.

With a modern look and feel to their work, Design Lots Creative’s aim is to align solutions with customers’ business goals, while establishing longevity with their designs. This is achieved by “adapting new and traditional media…”

“Our services include the design and development of corporate identity and branding, business stationery and marketing collateral, and online media including website design, iPhone websites, email marketing and online shopping.”

Bringing Intelligent Design & Marketing to the table, Design Lots Creative shows both clean and bold design elements in their work. The resulting visual impact is quite arresting, offering a great contrast between light and dark. The engaging designs allow for marketing imagery that is both aesthetically pleasing, while fitting into the professional, corporate mould.

Congratulations again to Design Lots Creative!

With another year under their belt, Webmasters Showcase is looking towards the future. A community focussed on Australian webmasters, it is a hub to discuss current projects, web strategies and designs, and provide feedback and advice. Attracting designers, developers, programmers, and an array of other web design enthusiasts, Webmaster Showcase’s aim is to become the web design Mecca of Australia.

If you are in the web design market, they want you! Communicate with industry peers, show off your work, and find new clients today!

Sign up for your Webmasters Showcase Profile, and experience the benefits, all the while being in the running to become 2011′s winner. Register now and submit your business

A collection of fantastic links for icons, icon sets and vector that we collected over the past few months. Handy for any web designer these icons are downloadable freely available for from the authors website. Be sure to follow @webshowcase on twitter for the latest on Australian and global design.
You may also like to see a blog post we did in 2010 on Eli Burfords Simple Circular Social Media Icon Set.

20 High Quality 3D Icons
45+ Quality Free Vector Files to Download
99 Icon Sets To Use In Commercial Design Projects
Vector iPhone 4 PSD File
25 Fresh And Free Icon Sets For Your Design Stash
120 Cool New Icons
35 Downloadable Iconsets of 2010
Free Designer’s Portfolio Icon Set (12 High Quality Icons)
The Cutest Freebies: Twitter Bird Icons & Illustration

If you know of any more of these great links we would love to add to this collection. Please drop them in the comments section below.

Webmaster Showcase submissions come along each month, but only the best will make it to the top of the yearly charts. Only one site can win, so we need your help by voting your favourite to the top! Here are the leading sites thus far:

(please note: this list was put together on December 9th 2010. This list is still subject to change with 23 voting days still left for 2010)

View the current yearly leaders

1st Place:

2nd Place:

Tied 3rd Place:

4th Place:

Who are you voting for, and why? There are a lot of great sites to choose from!
Click here to vote now

Every now and again we come across Australian web designers and developers producing great things. Eli Burford, a 19 year old web designer from the northern suburbs of Adelaide has created simple circular social media icon set that is absolutely brilliant. Great work Eli and thanks for allowing us to share it.

Included in the set are icons for: Blogger, Delicious, DesignFloat, Digg, Facebook, Flickr, Google, a heart icon that will work for anything (such as bookmark), MySpace, Reddit, an RSS icon, StumbleUpon, Technorati, Twitter, WordPress, Yahoo!, YouTube, AIM, Bebo, eBay, Hi5, Last.fm, LinkedIn, Windows Live, Ning, Orkut and Yahoo Messenger.

Download Social Media Icons Pack 2.0 (.zip)

Social Media Icons Pack can be used on both personal and commercial projects.

If you know of any other Aussies producing great web work or, have produced something yourself, drop as a comment below and we’ll be happy to add it to our blog.

Lets forget the rest of the world and internet broswer statistics for a minute.
We are very curious to know what internet browser(s) Aussie webmasters prefer.

1) When your designing / developing a website which browser do you intially design for?
2) What browser add-ons are your personal favourites for web design and development?
3) What do you think is the best browser available right now?

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Would love to hear your comments on this.

If you’re in the mood for some tips, tricks and inspiration regarding the Web world, then there are plenty of conferences and seminars taking place around Australia. They deal with anything from web design, development and marketing, and they are well worth looking into. We’ve put together a list below covering some of these events over the coming months.

Upcoming Events

ARIA & HTML5 Workshop

Sydney: Tuesday 23rd November. 9.00am – 12.30pm
SMC Conference & Function Centre,
66 Goulburn Street, Sydney 2000

Canberra: Wednesday 24th November. 12.30pm – 4.00pm
Conference Room, National Library of Australia,
Parkes Place, Parkes, ACT

Melbourne: Thursday 25th November. 1.30pm – 5.00pm
Ether Conference Centre (between the Swanston Hotel and Grand Mercure)
265-281 Little Bourke St, Melbourne 3000

Perth: Monday 29th November.
(Venue and time still to be finalised)

Brisbane: Wednesday 1December. 1.30pm – 5.00pm
Cliftons Conference and Seminar rooms
288 Edward Street, Brisbane 4000

Cost
WIPA and AWIA members $60.00
Non-members $90
Morning/afternoon teas will be provided

The workshops are being presented by the Web Industry Professionals Association (WIPA) and the Australian Web Industry Association (AWIA).

Bookings are now open for the ARIA and HTML 5 workshops in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Brisbane. Perth bookings will be available in the near future. You can make bookings on the WIPA site at http://wipa.org.au/html5/

WAI-ARIA: Making the interactive web more accessible

Presenter: Steve Faulkner
I will make a serious attempt to demystify ARIA. Outlining its major aspects and how it works under the hood to improve the user experience. I’ll talk about what it is and what it is not, when and where it should be used, explaining the advantages and the pitfalls. I’ll also go into how it fits into the emerging HTML5 UI ecosystem. Don’t expect any live screen reader demonstrations (but maybe a video or 2).

There will be slides, code and developer tool demonstrations and expect some lively debate on the topics of HTML5, ARIA and accessibility with my co-presenter Bruce.

Steve Faulkner
Steve is the Technical Director at The Paciello Group (TPG). He leads the development of the Web Accessibility Toolbar, Color Contrast Analyser and AViewer accessibility testing tools. He is an active member of the W3C HTML Working Group and W3C Protocols and Formats Working Group. His work in these groups is focused on HTML5 canvas accessibility, use of WAI-ARIA in HTML5 and he is editor of the W3C Draft Specification HTML5: Techniques for providing useful text alternatives. Steve regularly publishes articles and research on accessibility issues on the TPG blog.

HTML5: The good, the bad and the quite interesting

Presenter: Bruce Lawson
I’ll introduce the new features of HTML5 and show why it can help you make more robust and accessible web apps using open standards. I’ll look deeply at the new semantic elements, adding intelligent forms that can remove the need for JavaScript validation, and adding native video to a page that doesn’t use plugins (although degrades to Flash in older browsers). We’ll look at the new APIs for canvas, Geolocation, etc – what they can do and how simple the syntax is.

The workshop will be a mixture of slideware, live coding and in-browser demos. It’s intended for those who write mark-up, and doesn’t expect deep JavaScript knowledge (we look at the potential of the APIs but not the intricacies of coding).

We emphasise simplicity of authoring and accessibility of the user experience.
Bruce Lawson
Bruce evangelises Open Web Standards for Opera. He’s been active in Web Standards since 2002, working with the Web Standards Project, the British Standards Institution’s guidance on commissioning accessible web sites. He’s currently on the W3C Mobile Best Practices Working Group and co-authored “Introducing HTML5″ (www.introducinghtml5.com), the first full-length book on the subject. He once had a girlfriend named Sheila, although neither were Australian.

webDU – Sydney 14th-15th April 2011
WebDU is a growing web technology conference that discusses what is new, while also providing training on experience in the process.

Events That Have Past for 2010 – look out for them around the same time in 2011:

Web Forward – Look out for it in May 2011
Web Forward is part of the CeBIT conference and features information on everything from search to social media.

These events have already occurred this year, but they are definitely worth checking out in the next. Get the calender out now to avoid disapointment. These events usually occurr around the same time each year.
A 2011 calender list will be available here towards the end of the year.

DevFest – June 28 to July 2, 2010 in Sydney
Brought to you by Google, this week-long event full of mini-conferences deals with topics relating to Google developer topics, such as Chrome, SEO, Wave and Apps.

Web Industry July 7, 2010 (6:00 pm) in Perth
Port80 is a gathering of web industry professionals to network and connect with others in a casual environment.

Joomla Day – Australia-wide
Joomla Days occur in various cities across the country, and those involve lectures, workshops and training using the popular CMS tool. Many have already passed for the year, but it is a good idea to check the website for future dates.In addition, there are also Joomla User Groups that meet as well for less intense Joomla sessions:

–Sydney: Tue 13 July,
–Melbourne: Wed 21 July,
–Canberra: 1st Monday Monthly,
–Adelaide: Thurs 17 June,

–Perth: Mon 2 November 2010

UX Australia – August 25-27, 2010 in Melbourne

UX Australia is a user experience conference that takes place over three days – two of which are for presentations, and one of which is for workshops.

Oz-IA/2010 Conference – Oct.8, 2010 in Sydney
The Oz-IA Conference is a two-day conference that covers information architecture and includes presentation, workshops and networking.

Web Directions South – Oct.12–15, 2010 in Sydney
Web Directions South is one of the biggest web-related events in the world, and it makes its way to Australia in October. It features days of events that deal with development, design and networki

Thanks Krystie for passing on all the information from the Australian Web Awards.

Australian Web Awards ‘cocktails with a twist’
- Monday 11 October 2010, City Hotel, Sydney
It’s a tradition to run an AWIA Port80 during Web week, well this time we are going crazy and stepping it up a notch, because we know you can take it! Come celebrate the best of the Web with the Australian Web Awards “cocktails with a twist” evening in Sydney as part of Web Week.

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Australian Web Awards ‘taking hold…..of your mobile”
– Tuesday 26th October, Hotel Urban, Brisbane
Get the buzz on the latest for mobile design and development from two of the industries leading practitioners, Oliver Weidlich (Mobile Experience) and Chris Mills (Opera). Also come celebrate the best of the Web with AWIA and the Australian Web Awards presentations evening in Brisbane!

Australian Web Awards’ Gala Dinner
- Saturday 6th November, Parmelia Hilton, Perth
WA and National award presentations
Last but not least there will be the WA State Awards and at the peak of this frenzy we’ll finish with the National Awards!

So, if you’re in WA, or you’re a State finalist and in the running for a National gong or if you need an excuse for a trip west and a celebration then this is your night of nights.

This list is definitely not complete! If you know of an event that should be added, please drop it in the comments below. We’ll be updating it periodically.

One of the most important websites any freelance web designer, or web design business, will have to create is their very own online portfolio. Being a straight source for displaying past work, portraying a vision and making a sale, it simply must stand up – and it needs to stay up. So, if you haven’t taken a look at yours lately, you just might want to in order to ensure it does in fact look as fresh and bright as you remember (industry standards are always changing!), or else you could be losing potential clients.

For reference and inspiration, we have put together a number of fresh and creative Australian portfolio examples below. We hope you like the collection, and you can see more work by these designers by visiting our homepage.

Bunton is a Brisbane-based freelance web design and branding business run by Sean Bunton. Sean’s online portfolio runs on simplicity, offering the visitor a clean and clear look at all past work, and on the ability to email or follow on Twitter. Basically, Sean has taken all of the clutter out of his portfolio so that potential clients can focus on what matters – his design work.

Sarah Enid Moule is a freelance artist and designer located in Western Australia. Her portfolio displays her work in web design, graphic design and illustration, all within eye view of entering the site. If that is enough to grab your attention, she provides a little bit of her background and work experience further down the page, but all with jump-to links for easy navigation.

Alan van Roemburg is a Melbourne-based designer that focuses on graphic design and icons. He founded a studio in Melbourne called The Graphic Order. As you can see from his portfolio, he also decided to keep it very clean and simple in order to showcase his work.

Design Lots Creative is a Brisbane-based design company. They have a team of creative professionals looking to give businesses the best. Their portfolio section of the website is crisp with nice images on a dark background. The most recent work contains a description, while the rest are referenced below.

Eleven Media is a Melbourne-based, boutique design studio run by Aaron Rutley and Blaz Robar. They focus on modern design projects, which can be seen via their website. The visitor is directly taken to a portfolio of work above the fold with the information for the company below that.

Webski Solutions is a web design and development company based in Sydney. Their online portfolio features a scrolling list project images over a stagnant dark background.

Adam Trickett is a freelance web designer based in Western Australia. Adam’s online portfolio features small images that are clickable to enlarge with details of all his past projects.

Jesse Dodds is a graphic and web designer that can offer a slew of services, including interface design. Dodds’ portfolio page is great with the ability to focus on one large past work image in detail by selecting from the icons below. It’s uncluttered and to the point, especially with his “What I Can Do For You” Services page.

Bara’ Design is a Gold Coast graphic and web design company with a lot of really fresh and colourful work to show off in their portfolio. The clean white background sets off the bold images and designs, while the rest of site is calm in comparison.

Jade Nagy’s web portfolio contains simple images on a dark background, with bits of text popping out in pink. Instead of being a collage of all the work, only a few in each section are presented in images, while the rest are linked below. Jade is a Melbourne-based freelance web and graphic designer that focuses on style.

When creating a portfolio, it is good to keep a few simple points in mind. You will surely notice that these tips were a trending topic in the list above and provide for excellent portfolios.

• Get to the point without drowning your visitor in words
• Make a clean navigation system
• Go easy on the eye by not cramming many graphics into an area
• Organise your portfolio with your target market in mind

Following these steps alone can give your online portfolio a boost and help you make the most of design work endeavors. But, of course, there’s nothing more important than the bits you are actually showcasing.

Webmaster Showcase is proud to have these designers as members of our website. If you know of any other inspirational Aussie portfolios that should be added to this list, please let us know by leaving a comment.

For those who have never heard about us, Webmaster Showcase is Australian community of focused designers and developers all after the same goal: to share our work, and grow from it. At its most basic level, Webmaster Showcase can be a website to turn to in order to gain ideas and inspiration for your next design. On the other end of the scale, the site is a way to track design trends, see how yours compare with others in the same field, and to basically do some advertising for your work in the process.

How it all works

Any web designer or developer is able to join the community (remember, it’s free), but you must be based within Australia. After joining, you are able to submit your own work to the website where it will be judged – side by side – with the 135 other submissions that are currently circulating throughout the site.

Judging takes place in votes, meaning the design with the highest number of votes at the end of the month or year will be drawn to the front of the website. As a member, you have the ability to vote, but please note that we do not allow multiple voting on the same design.

Getting the most out of Webmaster Showcase

–Set up a personal profile: Creating a profile gives you the ability to list your personal information, such as a link to your personal work, as well as build a better presence in the community. One of our top users, WebbyEasy, can be seen here as taking advantage of this factor. He made sure to create an avatar – the image that displays with your comments and submissions – to make his experience much more personal.

–Create an effective site profile: When submitting your work, create a clean and informative site profile. One Man Epic | North Pole Expedition is a good example of what we are looking for as it clearly gives the design description, category, tags, and it was created by a member with a complete personal profile. The avatar for the member is clearly displayed, and if anyone clicks on the user’s name, they get to view a finished profile. Think of this profile almost like a business card.

–Vote and comment often: Take an active role in the community by giving other submissions your honest feedback through comments and voting. The more you contribute, the more likely you are to get noticed, as well as get more feedback on your own. Participation and feedback can only help you grow as a designer, in addition to getting you to the top of the Top Users list!

–Create and join groups: Groups in Webmaster Showcase allow members to share articles and information with other members of similar interests. Groups are a great way to create discussion, share and grow in the community, as well as get noticed and show an expertise in your area.

Win awards and gain credit

One of the coolest features of taking part in Webmaster Showcase is the fact that you can win awards and gain credit in the design world. Each month and year, the top voted submission will earn a place on our Winners Wall, in addition to the right to sport a Webmaster Showcase badge on your own website. Just imagine how good that will look to potential clients that your design(s) has been selected as the top among many!

Think you measure up?

Take a look at just some of our latest submissions below, and if you think your designs match or standout amongst these designs, then we would love to see your work on the showcase.

We look forward to having you as a member of Webmaster Showcase and making a great 2010. Be sure to follow us on Twitter, too, for even more tips and info relating to the web design world.

If you’re excited about design as much as we are, then you probably love to read about it just as much as we do, too. That’s why we have compiled this list of some great Australian-based design blogs that deserve a little bit of your attention. So grab a cup of coffee and get to reading; these design blogs will keep you busy for hours!

Tripping Words

http://www.trippingwords.com/

One read through Tripping Words and you, too, will be questioning the “philosophy of design”. Written by Josh, a mid-twenties PhD student and academic researcher from Melbourne, this award winning blog provides in-depth, alternative perspectives on the subjects of web design and user experience. He does so with such detailed and well-written posts that you will quickly find yourself immersed in the text and waiting in suspense to read what logical, yet eye-opening, insights Josh will reveal next.

Keep on top of Josh’s web design philosophy by subscribing to his blog, Tripping Words, or following him on Twitter.

Digitalmash

http://digitalmash.com/journal/

Digitalmash is the creative shopfront for Australian graphic designer, Rob Morris. This website not only includes a portfolio of his modernist inspired print and web work, but also a journal discussing in further detail some helpful tips, tricks and insights from a personal perspective. Recent posts, such as Ignorance Avoidance, show that Rob is in touch with his readers and willing to help anyone in the name of design.

Keep on top of Rob and Digitalmash by subscribing to the journal or by following him on Twitter.

The Pro Designer

http://theprodesigner.com/

The Pro Designer is a blog focused towards the visual learner. For those graphic designers, web designers and web developers that would rather see numerous examples of one specific point rather than read through mindless text explaining design theory, then this is the website to turn to. All posts are thorough and creative, and some will also make you laugh. A recent post, 75+ Websites, Billboards & Newspapers With Badly Placed Advertisements, gives the website a sense of humour that anyone can be interested in.

The Pro Designer is run by Adam Malseed, an Australian with an eye on design. You can keep up with him by subscribing to the blog or following him on Twitter.

Just Creative Design

http://justcreativedesign.com/

A more personal look at the life of a designer can be found on Just Creative Design, which is more than just a design blog, but also an online portfolio and CV for Jacob Cass. While the blog covers every aspect of design, from graphic design to social media, the main focus of the most popular articles center around logo design.

Jacob is a freelance graphic, web and logo designer originally from Newcastle, Australia. He just made a big move to New York to work for a design company there, but he still plans to run freelancing on the side through Just Creative Design. Keep up with Jacob on the Just Creative Design website or by following him on Twitter.

Bluewire Media Blog

http://www.bluewiremedia.com.au/blog/

Written by a team of design professionals with varying backgrounds, the Bluewire Media Blog is a website that gives an all-around look at the design world. There seems to be a trend towards usability and overall design, but it also gives a nice look at the staff of Bluewire media, what they do and how they do it. Beyond that, they do nice weekly roundups of news, tips and bits that anyone can enjoy.

Bluewire Media is a design company based in Brisbane. Keep up to date on the company’s dealings by subscribing to their blog or following them on Twitter.

Tracey Grady

http://www.traceygrady.com/blog

Tracey Grady’s blog focuses on the personal experiences, and tips brought about from them, of being a freelance graphic designer and illustrator. Even when ideas such as being sure to always recheck the facts before finalising work seems a given to any designer, Tracey blogs about a recent experience that reaffirms and reawakens the point in any reader. Overall, this blog is clean and simple while making its point, much like her design work.

Keep on top of this designer from Hobart by subscribing to her blog.

Newism Blog

http://newism.com.au/blog/

The Newism Blog is the product of a Newcastle based web design and development agency. This blog, which is written by various members of the design team, provides a closer look at the innards of the company itself in addition to tips and tricks that pertain to the products the company works with, such as ExpressionEngine. This site provides a perfect example of how a blog should be used in order to help customers put a face with a business.

Keep on top of Newism by subscribing to the blog or by following on Twitter.

Purecaffeine.com

http://www.purecaffeine.com/index/

Purecaffeine.com is the place to go for anyone interested in reading more about the experiences and work involved in user interaction and user experience design. Written by Nathanael Boehm, a Canberra-based freelancer, this blog contains a plethora of anecdotes that help readers better understand the helpful points he makes. The stories are very personable and written in a laid-back style.

Keep on top of Nathanael and his work by subscribing to his blog or by following him on Twitter.

Australian INfront

http://www.australianinfront.com.au

Australian INfront is known as a creative community in the Australian design world. It was started back in 1999 and continues in full-force to this day, trying hard to focus on the new designers on the scene. Beyond the inspiration received from the blog, there is also a very interactive forum as well as occasional meetups where members can give and get face to face advice and inspiration.

Stay on top of all the INfront activity by subscribing to their blog, posting in the forums or following them on Twitter. Twitter.

These are but a few of the great Aussie design bloggers out there on the web right now. If you know of any more amazing Aussie bloggers that we missed, please comment below so we can add them to this list!

Even though Webmaster Showcase was just released last August, 2009 was still a big year for the website. We launched our design submission website, launched our blog and grew from 0 to 114 members in just a few short months.

It was a great year to say the least, but we’re hoping to make 2010 even better. Our goal is to integrate more community involvement, triple our membership numbers and possibly give away a prize or two in the process.

But, before we can move forward with 2010, we need to answer the question we asked in our last blog post: “Who will be the Webmaster Showcase winner for 2009?”

At that time, it was difficult to say. Many of our amazing websites were tied in votes for first, second and third places, so it was really anybody’s game. But, with only a short time left, one amazing website prevailed.

And the winner is… Vuu Media!

Vuu Media is run by a Melbourne resident, David Vuu. In his Webmaster Showcase submission details, he explains that his design goal is to deliver “…clean, unique and usable websites using W3C web standards.” Congratulations, David! Your design goal has obviously paid off since your website has been voted as the best design of Webmaster Showcase for the entire year of 2009!

Vuu Media has now been added to our Winners Wall, and a nice, new winners badge is on its way so he can display his award proudly to the public. At this time, he is even our all time leader, a ranking that can be viewed in our new website category.

And, not to overlook those who put up a good fight, we had 3 submissions tied for 2nd place: Bunton, Sarah Enid Moule and Precision doors and windows. Great work!

A big thank you goes out to all our members for contributing your inspirational work to Webmaster Showcase. We look forward to continued success and more great Aussie web designs.

Webmaster Showcase submissions come along each month, but only the best will make it to the top of the yearly charts. As we near the end of the year, many of the top websites are tied with others for first, second and third places. Only one site can win, so we need your help by voting your favourite to the top! Here are the leading sites thus far:
(please note: this list was out together on December 22nd 2009. This list is still subject to change with 9 voting days still left for 2009)

Current 1st Place:

Tied for 2nd Place:

Tied for 3rd Place:

Who are you voting for, and why? There are a lot of great sites to choose from!
Click here to vote now

We see a lot of interesting designs come through on Webmaster Showcase, and we love how they give us all a bit of inspiration in the process. There is nothing quite like perusing some quality work to help you overcome your own creative rut, so we’ve decided to pick out a select few web designers whose work is sure to get the design juices flowing.

These web designs are actually brought to you from the latest submissions to Webmaster Showcase. To see these, and a whole lot more, take a look at all entries for the year. If you’re an Australian web designer who would like to display your hard work to an audience of creative individuals, do not hesitate to submit your site.

Someone who has taken on the task of constructing a site knows that a great design revolves around more details than one might initially think, and that’s where a great website steps ahead of the rest. One small error, whether that be in the CSS, linking, or overall performance, will keep it from running at its very best. Careful checking should be carried out for browser compatibility, broken links, HTML code, site speed and visual functionality.

In case this is starting to overwhelm the amateur designer, there are thankfully plenty of free tools to help with website validation and testing to note, and here are 13 to get you started.

Validation Provided by W3C

The W3C, or World Wide Web Consortium, is the international organisation responsible for deciding and promoting web standards in the internet world. In return, they have provided a number of tools to validate that a website meets these standards.

1. W3C Link Checker – The W3C Link Checker is a brilliant tool that is simply used to check a website for broken links.

2. W3C Markup Validation Service – The W3C Markup Validation Service takes a look at web documents’ specific markup language (HTML, XHTML, SMIL, MATHML, etc) and reports any errors specific to that language.

3. W3C CSS Validation Service – The W3C CSS Validation Service checks the validity of the CSS style sheet.

4. W3C Feed Validation Service – The W3C Feed Validation Service checks the syntax of Atom or RSS feeds.

5. W3C mobileOK Checker – The W3C mobileOK Checker is a way to see if a web page is friendly enough for decent viewing in mobile internet devices.

Other Testing Tools

6. Web Page Analyzer – With the Web Page Analyzer, getting page load times and file sizes is just a matter of entering the URL to search. This free tool will also give tips on how to help improve the page loading time.

7. Full Page Test – Pingdom Tools provides the Full Page Test to give a rundown on how long it takes to load a web page, including all objects, images and RSS.

8. Browsershots – Browsershots lets you check the cross browser compatibility of a website quickly and easily. Just enter the website address and Browsershots will supply a screenshot of it as viewed through a number of browsers.

9. BrowsrCamp – BrowsrCamp provides the ability to view a website in the Safari browser. Just enter your domain name, and BrowsrCamp returns the screenshots.

10. Functional Accessibility Evaluator – The Functional Accessibility Evaluator runs through a given website and addresses its code in relation to current standards. The hope for this tool is to promote more accessible websites that are cross browser friendly.

11. WebAIM Wave – Wave makes it easy to see where accessibility issues appear directly on your website. Instead of sifting through lengthy technical reports, get a clearer picture with the embedded icons and tips provided by Wave.

12. AccessColor – For those web users with decent vision, the small detail of text contrast may not have ever been an issue. But, web users with vision disabilities can quickly be turned away if they simply cannot read the site. AccessColor runs through your website and analyzes text color in comparison to background colour to see if your site is friendly for all types of visitors.

13. Colour Blindness Simulator – The Colour Blindness Simulator gives a designer the ability to see how different web colours are viewed by individuals with colour blindness. Just upload an image and see the difference.

These are just a few of the many websites out there to help you test and validate your website. Do you know of any greats that are not included? If so, please submit the site by leaving a comment.

Adding just the right amount of flash to a website can take it from boring to sensational, and the following websites have done just that. Take a look at the websites in this list to get a better idea of how much flash to use, and where to use it in order to create that special bit of interest to draw web visitors further in without getting flash overload.

Which one of these creative Australian flash designs is your favourite? As always, we love to hear from our readers, so share some more great ideas and websites by leaving a comment below!

With the customisable background option of Twitter, users have the ability to really make a mark on this social network platform. Designers, especially, get a chance to shine and show off their skills by creating a Twitter background showing their work and also advertising their business. A profile page can easily turn into a business card of sorts, so it is best to take advantage with a little effort on the design. To get you inspired, here are 10 Aussie Twitter backgrounds that rock.

Have you seen some twitter backgrounds that should be added to this list, be sure to let us know.

These 10 inspiring web designs come from Australian designers that have been in the tops of our ranks at Webmaster Showcase. These designs contain the various elements, such as a great layout, colours and imagery, which combine to create an overall pleasing and exciting design. Take a minute to browse through these sites and let us know what you think by leaving a comment below.

If you would like to be considered for future blog posts on inspiring designs, please submit your website to Webmaster Showcase.

Vector graphics are in high demand by designers, especially great resources full of FREE vector graphics. They help us save time, fill up space and fill us with further design inspiration. Webmaster Showcase has now decided to put together a list of 8 of these great resource websites to help you fulfill all of your free vector graphic design needs.

1.Vectorss.com – Vectorss.com contains pages of free vector graphics covering everything from vector icons to backgrounds. The site offers easy browsing by category, as well as a stocked collection of brushes.

2.Vecteezy – Vecteezy’s tagline is, “Stupid name. Cool vectors!” and we agree. Vecteezy contains 19 pages of some of the best looking and interesting free vector graphics out there. Easily sort the pages by category or file type.

3.Vector4Free – Vector4Free is a massive vector graphics resource with 35 pages of downloadable images. You can easily download some free vector graphics, or submit your own.

4.Vector Junky – Vector Junky’s website may not look as nice as other vector graphic websites, but it does house around 9,453 vector images!

5.QVectors.com – Qvectors.com provide free quality vector graphics including illustrations, symbols and more! They also have an extensive collection of brushes available.

6.Free Design Magazine – Free Design Magazine houses free graphics, brushes and fonts. The home page lays out the categories for the 552 various designs available for free download.

7.CLD Vectors – CLD Vectors is a smaller resource, but the vector graphics found here should not be overlooked.

8.FreeVectors.net – FreeVectors.net is an impressive image list filling 131 pages. That’s 131 pages of awesome, free vector graphics to use in your design work!

We hope you can use some of these images in your upcoming design work, and we also hope to see many more submissions coming our way now that you have these cool vector graphics to help you along with the design process!f

Thanks for stopping by our new blog!

We love Webmaster Showcase, and since you are here reading this, you probably (we hope) love it, too! The voting and comment system on the various designs on the website show us that this is a nice little community, but to get a much larger and more interactive community, we felt that a blog was necessary.

With this new blog, we can not only discuss the latest in the web design world, but also create informational posts focused on industry tips and tricks. We can even give proper salute to our weekly, monthly and yearly Webmaster Showcase winning designers as they occur.

As always, your feedback is welcome and vital to the further success of this website. Our new blog will give you the means to have a say on more than just someone else’s website design and voice both praise and concerns on various topics, or even contribute a bit of content yourself.

So, before we go further, what sort of topics do you feel would be best for this blog? Is there anything in particular you would like to discuss in relation to web design?