Wordpress 3.0 “Thelonious” Released - We love it!

WordPress 3.0 "Thelonious" features some great new featues to make life easier for bloggers and publishers.

It is now possible top set your admin username to anything you like during installation.

A new more user centric back-end interface features a lighter look with less distractions and context sensitive help.

Using the Grand Unified Updater we can now update our Wordpress installation, themes and plugins all in one place.

A great new default theme called Twenty Ten accompanies the latest release. It has built-in support for child themes, background alterations, header customization, and drop-down menus. Twenty Ten demo.

The custom menu system means that we can hand craft the navigation for our Wordpress sites - Great for SEO.

Custom Post Types give our developers the opportunity to develop more then just standard posts and pages e.g. products, property listings or a contacts manager. Combined with improved taxonomy support, custom post types provide the CMS capabilities we have been waiting for from Wordpress.

WordPress 3.0 "Thelonious" also brings the merge of Wordpress and Wordpress MU.

Check out the WordPress 3.0 Codex page for a full run-down of features in version 3.0.

TheRugHouse.co.uk Relaunch on Magento

The Rug House are a family run business with over twenty years trading experience throughout the UK and Ireland. They pride themselves in providing a huge range of high quality rugs at low prices.

As The Rug House sell into the Republic of Ireland as well as the United Kingdom, customers can experience the on-line shop from a UK or Irish store view.

Each store has a different:

• VAT rate,
• Currency,
• Shipping options and
• Contact details.

Multi-store management is made easy using the Magento e-commerce platform.

The web site features some unique and powerful e-commerce features.

Customers can:

• Request rug samples
• Request a call from customer service staff and
• Demand a price match from most pages.

Clever use of cross sells, up sells and related products both enhance the customers' shopping experience and optimise conversion rates.

Secure shopping is made possible with a SSL cert from Geo Trust and integration with Sage Pay.

Explore rugs from around the world at TheRugHouse.co.uk.

Mattress.co.uk V2.0 Goes Live on Magento

Running on the latest version of the Magento eCommerce Platform, Mattress.co.uk boasts great performance and some exciting e-commerce features.

Customers can request call backs from customer service representatives, submit price match requests and find their perfect product using a powerful AJAX product search.

The back-end features advanced EDI order integration connecting Mattress.co.uk to their suppliers.

Secure payment processing using Realex is made possible with the Realex Payments Module from Irish web design company Studioforty9.com. StudioForty9 are Magento Web Developers who programme Magento Extensions and out-of-the-ordinary customisations for Magento E-Commerce Websites.

The next phase of this project involves building on the current search engine optimisation campaign and bringing Mattress.co.uk to the top of the organic search engine results pages for a selection of keywords and key phrases.

Mattress.co.uk is a leading retailer of Beds and mattresses in the United Kingdom.

New Web Presence For The Irish Judo Association

We worked closely with the Irish Judo Association to upgrade their web presence. Our goal was to make it easier for Irish judoka to keep fully informed and up to date.

Why not visit the Judo Ireland web site for more info.

Two Nuadesign clients named finalists for Ireland’s Digital Media Awards 2010

We are delighted to announce that two of our clients are among the finalists for this years Digital Media Awards 2010.

Nuadesign is particularly pleased that both clients are finalists in business categories - B2C Engagement and B2B Innovation. At Nuadesign, our focus is on developing businesses on-line and maximising ROI. Enough about us, lets hear about our clients!

Noobru.com

Home brewing on-line store and community NooBru.com is a finalist in the B2C Engagement category.

B2C Engagement:

"This award aims to reward excellence in a digital media product, service or website that has encouraged consumers to embrace digital media technology, or has allowed consumers easier access to digital media. Entrants should demonstrate how they developed a new technology or new use of existing technology in an innovative way."

Source: Digitalmedia.ie

Furniture.ie

Furniture.ie is an easy to use; consumer focused on-line resource to source products, services and inspiration for the home. A finalist in the B2B Innovation category at this years awards, Furniture.ie has been shortlisted for and won several industry awards over the last three years.

B2B Innovation:

"This award aims to recognise innovation in a B2B digital media project; an entry can be any digital project with a direct commercial objective, for example a B2B website, product, e-commerce project, or a mobile content business. Entrants should demonstrate the business benefits of the project, how they developed a new technology or new use of existing technology in an innovative way. This award is about a new product, strategy, idea and approach that's been developed and why it was significant to business growth."

Source: Digitalmedia.ie

About the Digital Media Awards 2010:

"Launched in 2003, The Digital Media Awards were engineered to raise awareness of the emerging digital media sector in Ireland and more importantly to act as a showcase for the varied dynamic works being created by companies and third level institutions across the broad spectrum of categories in Digital Media."

"On Thursday 25th of February 2010 the industry will assemble at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Santry to honour this year’s winners. The annual Digital Media Awards will present awards in 21 categories, to the companies, people and organisations producing the most stylish, creative and pioneering work in their field."

Source: Digitalmedia.ie

We wish NooBru.com and Furniture.ie the very best of luck at the upcoming awards and offer our congratulations to all of the other finalists at this years awards.

All categories and finalists can be viewed at Digitalmedia.ie/categories.html.

Brochure site for Inspireddesigns.ie - Independent Kitchen and Bedroom Furniture Makers

Visit Inspireddesigns.ie to explore some beautiful bespoke kitchen and bedroom furniture.

Bilingual and Accessible Web Site for Éamon Ó Cuív T.D.

Nuadesign was commissioned to develop a bilingual, easy to use, highly accessible web site for Éamon Ó Cuív T.D. the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.

The web site features details of upcoming clinics, up to date press releases and transcripts of speeches delivered by Éamon Ó Cuív T.D.

As well as being able to contact the Minister directly using his contact form, Galway West constituents can check to make sure they are registered to vote and subscribe to the Minister's newsletter.

Éamon Ó Cuív T.D. the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.

Petchums.com Shortlisted for ‘Elevate Award’

Nuadesign client Petchums.com has been shortlisted for Impact Media's 'Elevate' Award.

Now in its fourth year, the award was established to recognise and support high potential start-up companies. Two winning companies - one from Galway and one from Limerick - will each receive a prize fund of €60,000.

We wish Barbara and the Petchums.com team the very best of luck and continued success.

About Petchums.com

PetChums.com is a new and exciting place for pets and their owners to find and share information while having lots of fun too.

The PetChums.com community is free to join and members can:

Share... experiences, opinions and stories with other pet pals. Upload photos and discuss pet related topics. and resources with a community of PetChum friends.

Connect... with other pet people, invite pet friends and make new ones. Exchange pet sitting, playdates and dog walking with other pet loving friends.

Find... the best pet services in your local area by sharing ratings and recommendations. Discover pet events taking place around the country, find a group to join or create your own.

At Petchums.com You're just one cluck! away from a new network of pet adoring friends.

AssetProof.ie Launches on our Start-up Business Package

Asset Proof specialise in providing high quality copywriting and proofreading services to national and international clients from Dublin. In need of a solid web presence, Asset Proof contacted Nuadesign to develop an effective online strategy for the company incorporating a web site, graphic design, identity protection, search engine optimisation and online marketing.

Asset Proof - Tailored copywriting & proofreading in Ireland.

HealthFitz.ie - Expert Personal Training in Galway

Mary FitzPatrick, a C.H.E.K Practitioner and Personal Trainer based in Galway provides expert personal training at HealthFitz.

Training is provided at 'Results' Personal Training Studio, Liosban Business Park ,Tuam Road, Galway and consultations are performed at 7 Upper Abbeygate St.Galway

HealthFitz incorporates the best of Exercise Science and the C.H.E.K system of lifestyle nutrition and exercise coaching to deliver tailored personal training programs that work.

Visit HealthFitz.ie to see if personal training is for you.

Key Services:

Personal training Galway

Pilates Galway

Personal Trainer Galway

Cycling Superstore Launched For Irish Olympian

Irish Olympian and World Cup medalist David O'Loughlin commissioned Nuadesign to develop an online store to sell cycling equipment and accessories worldwide.

Launched this week, Hyperactive-sports.com delivers cycling products worldwide and is running on a state of the art e-commerce platform.

The store will feature over three thousand products and shoppers can browse the catalog in a selection of currencies.

Visit Hyperactive-sports.com for racing bikes, bikes and cycling accessories.

PetChums.com - The Community for Pet Lovers

Nuadesign is really happy to announce the launch of our latest client project - the fun and interactive PetChums.com.

Commissioned by Galway pet advocate Barbara Hanly, PetChums.com is an informative and interactive online community for pet lovers. PetChums is a virtual park where members can meet new friends, share advice, discuss pet related topics and even exchange pet sitting or dog walking services.

Why not visit the PetChums pet lovers community and join in the fun.

NooBru.com Home Brewing Shop & Community

After several weeks of planning, design and development we are delighted to announce the launch of Noobru.com.

The web site features a comprehensive online store selling every thing from beginner brewing kits and beginner ingredient kits to books on brewing and all sorts of supplies.

During the planning phase of the project we worked closely with NooBru to ensure that their passion for home brewing would be reflected in the web site. To make the customers' experience unique and special we incorporated a social network and several Web 2.0 elements in to the web site.

The community elements make NooBru.com much more then just an on-line shop. It is a community and knowledge base for home brewers.

From the NooBru.com blog:

"NooBru brings everything you could want or need in a home brewing website under one roof including our blog, an information resource centre and a store. Most importantly though, at the heart of it all is our online brewers community, a social space for brewers from all over the world to interact and share with each other, no matter what your level of expertise."

Why not visit the NooBru.com home brewing Ireland shop and community and try it for yourself.

Peru Childrens Charity Web Site Gets An Upgrade To Help Raise Funds

We are delighted to announce that we have been working with Peru Children's Charity to upgrade their online presence.

The Charity was set up by Michael Murphy, with his family and friends to support very poor families in Lima, Peru.

Visit the Peru Children's Charity web site.

Objectives for the web site upgrade were:

To make it easy for visitors to find information about the charity
• To enable people to get involved with the charity
• Generate funding via donations

We achieved these objectives by combining a new design with some Web 2.0 features and applications.

Following best practice for charity web sites, we clearly specified the mission statement and identified to sponsors how their generosity actually makes a difference in Peru.

We made it easy for supporters to get involved with the charity on social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Visitors can sign up for monthly newsletters, make donations and even promote the charity on their own web sites or blogs by copying and pasting some simple pre-prepared HTML code.

As well as making donations, using the web site, sponsors can:

• Tell a friend about the charity
• Promote the charity on their site or blog
• Get involved in fund raising drives
• Volunteer
• Promote the charity on social networks

Visit the 'What You Can Do' page for more information.

Visitors can promote the charity on their own web site or blog

Design before the upgrade

Google Wave - The Future for Communication and Collaboration on the Web?

Forming part of Google's vision for the future of the web, Google Wave is a collaboration tool with lofty ambitions. Combining features of email, instant messaging, wikis, photo-sharing, bulletin boards and social networking it hopes to revolutionise how we communicate on-line.

Developed by the guys that brought us Google Maps (brothers Lars and Jens Rasmussen), Google Wave is going to be open source and aims to be a powerful platform for the HTML 5 web apps of the near future.

Checkout "Google Wave Drips With Ambition - A New Communication Platform For A New Web" on Techcrunch.com for a detailed explanation of Google Wave and it's features.

Watch the developer preview at Google I/O