Hi, Nathaniel here, I design and build websites! That’s pretty much the long and short of it. I also redesign websites with an eye on increasing sales, increasing conversion, and getting toward your primary business goal. See Services page for a full list. I work with small and medium-sized companies mostly, so feel free to [...]

Mobile websites will replace mobile apps, according to Jakob Nielsen’s blog post today, but it’s not clear exactly when this will happen. Summary: Mobile apps currently have better usability than mobile sites, but forthcoming changes will eventually make a mobile site the superior strategy. I agree with Jakob Nielsen that this shift will happen gradually. [...]

I was meeting with my peeps from Stylah last week and we were discussing iphone app opportunities, and more specifically the design process leading to project acceptance. I brought up that paper prototyping is a fast, economical way to show app interaction and functionality. They were skeptical, but enthusiastic. Stakeholder buy-in hello wanky business term [...]

You run a WordPress blog, your digital marketing is going well and people are starting to find you, but, so are the wrong ones – the spammers. Fear not, there are four things you can do immediately to stem the tide. First, use WordPress’ bog-standard Comment settings. Some things you can update immediately are: Number [...]

Xero aquires WorkFlowMax and more funding from investors Wellington, New Zealand-based Xero has just acquired Auckland-based WorkFlowMax. This is an amazing development, but not unexpected. I see this acquisition as a sign New Zealand is starting to join forces, breaking through the barrier that is the DIY attitude. Many hands make light work. I love [...]

There are many distractions in web and application development and lots of discussion going on about how to manage these. But what is your application’s primary function? I keep coming back to the car example in my mind. In a car the steering wheel is the primary action. We spend a lot of time telling [...]

We web designers sometimes think we’re missing out on big work and big money if we take lots of small jobs. But if we systemise our work, we can take these small projects on, add a little bit of bespoke design in, and end up ontime, on budget, and with some work we can be [...]

Twitter came out with the #newnewtwitter redesign today, available to limited accounts (I’m not sure what the criteria is for this). In a word? Twitter has forgotten its reason for being. Twitter is following instead of leading with this one. It’s clear Twitter wants to be just like Facebook, and it thinks this is the [...]

You want to start a website project, either a new website or updating an existing website, but don’t know how to start. You don’t know what questions to ask to make the project go smoothly. Being clear about what you want is key when embarking on a website project, here are 7 things that can [...]

I was inspired this morning by @alanparry asking about how to install WordPress plugins. In searching WordPress.tv I found this talk from WordCamp Orange County 2010 where some great plugins for your site are discussed. Check out the video, list, and slides url below for all the information. I use most of these but hadn’t [...]

I started Dirt and Rust back up at the end of July 2011 and it’s been an amazing learning experience. The key factor I’ve found that is going to make my business grow is speed, how fast can I get work done and how fast can I communicate to get what I need to get [...]