Western Australian Museum takes out the McFarlane Prize at Australian Web Awards
A small in-house team at the Western Australian Museum won the industry’s top honour at the Australian Web Awards. It’s the second time the Museum has taken out the prize for most outstanding; they won in 2009 in conjunction with digital agency Equilibrium.
Bret Treasure, chairman of the Australian Web Industry Association (AWIA), which runs the awards, was enthusiastic about the quality of work submitted.
Says Treasure: “What’s great about the Australian industry is that quality work comes from all quarters. Small agencies, clients with in-house teams and even individuals, all took out awards. You don’t have to be a large company or organisation to compete.
“The transition to mobile is nearly complete among professional developers. We’re dropping ‘mobile’ as a category next year; it’s de rigueur now for sites to work on multiple devices.
“There’s a noticeable shift in recent years in user experience. The association’s members are combining attractive design with a well-thought through user experience.”
Humaan were back-to-back winners in the Commercial category, winning the prize this year for Skydive Jurien Bay. They also won the Education category this year for Thrive, an alcohol survey and education tool for the tertiary education sector.
Two dance sites were successful: Juicebox Creative won the Culture and event category for the Strut Dance site, and Moble won the Not for Profit category for Dirty Feet.
Social Media winners were the Department of Food and Agriculture and Clarity Communications for Buy West, Eat Best. It’s two years running for Clarity Communications in social media.
Chris Duell and Matt Trimarchi elevio won the innovation category for a module-based service which integrates help desk/support services and an existing web site.
Clever Starfish won the eCommerce category for Just in Time Gourmet, a hamper-building service and gamer/developer Tim Oliver won the Personal category for his engaging, content-rich blog.
The awards are sponsored by PayPal+Braintree and Anchor Managed Hosting.