Paravel is a web design company based in Texas who recently built a website for this years 10k Apart Web Application contest. Check out this insightful post documenting their creative process.
Category: Websites
June 24, 2011
Google is so Clever
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Now you can use an image instead of words to start your Google search.
May 13, 2011
Rome – WebGL showcase
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“3 Dreams of Black” is an interactive film by Chris Milk and some friends at Google that showcases the creative potential of WebGL. WebGL is a context of the HTML5 canvas element that enables hardware-accelerated 3D graphics in the web browser without a plug-in. See it here
Here is how they made it…
May 6, 2011
Nicework’s New Website!
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We are proud to announce the launch of our brand spanking new website! It’s full of awesome eye candy and helpful information. Make sure you take a look around. We’d love to hear your feedback.
We’d also like to take this opportunity to bid adieu to our old website. Thanks old buddy. You served us well. But we are moving onto bigger and better things.
May 3, 2011
The Back of a Webpage
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For those who’ve ever wondered what’s on the other side of websites, this website has solved the mystery.
via swissmiss
April 19, 2011
Perch: A really little CMS
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Perch is a really little content management system (CMS) that is perfect for a small website. It is lightweight and easy for a developer to set up. At the very least it gives a client enough control to fix a typo or change their phone number.
It is sometimes difficult to justify adding a CMS to small websites. CMS’s take a fair amount of time to set up and tend to be heavy duty. They are better suited to websites that either have a lot of content or are going to be updated regularly. If your needs are small, developers will often try to lump you with a static HTML site. This is fine until you change your phone number and it takes them 3 months to update it. Fortunately, there are lightweight alternatives.
March 31, 2011
Denny Mo – Image Wizard
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Denny Mo is a photographer and creative director based in Johannesburg. He is also a really friendly guy. His photographic style is influenced by his oriental heritage, a love for natural subjects and a taste for international travel. He has just launched a massive portfolio of work called Our Missing Planet. Awesome stuff, check it out…
March 17, 2011
Tuks FM wins the Nicework Un-usability Award
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Every now and then we come across a website that is so spectacularly unusable that it warrants mention. The Tuks FM site cannot be navigated. In order to navigate, one is expected to hover over a portion of the illustration, endure the associated animation and then click the link adjacent. Nothing is labelled unless you mouse over it. So, using the website is a sort of lucky-packet experience – you might just hover over the nav item you want and if you are lucky, you will be able to click it. If you are able to actually click on the links, each one is accompanied by a loading page and another confusing interaction. Flash is a usability fail. Its also an SEO fail. Elements of it are great but with HTML 5 starting to gain traction, its fast becoming redundant.
Companies seem intent on pissing users off. It takes about 10 minutes to write down what you want a user to accomplish on your site and a further 10 to write down what you imagine users want to accomplish on your site. A couple of calls or short conversations with people in your identified target group about their informational goals will give you some insight into whether you are on the right track. Then all you have to do is work toward creating an environment where people can successfully fulfil their website goals – and if you have done your homework, yours.
We often draw on brick-and-mortar analogies to help contextualise user-centric web design. Would you open a shop with no windows and a tiny door 2 metres above the ground that required shoppers to climb the wall and crawl through the hole to drop into your shop? No. You wouldn’t. So why make it so difficult for website visitors to do the virtual-equivalent thereof?
November 24, 2010
Val Hotel Website
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Nicework has just finished the design and development of a website for the Val Hotel. The circular Val Hotel logo, situated at the centre of the ornate navigation bar, was inspired by a design on one of the original antique plates at the hotel. These design elements evoke the rich heritage of the Val Hotel and its quaint aesthetic. We hope you like it. Go have a look. One of our directors liked the place so much he got married there.
