friday beers

This blog can be pretty negative at times. No, don’t act so shocked – it’s true – I spend a lot of virtual ink calling people out and trying to get everyone to improve the quality of their web experiences. I think it’s high time for me to acknowledge some of the good stuff – some virtual pats-on-the-back, rather than e-tongue lashings. So, without further ado, I bring you the Friday Beers.

Kiwibank

Kiwibank’s new Internet Banking site is nothing short of spectacular. I was seriously floored – a bank, with an innovative, attractive and usable experience. Ignore the grumpy old curmudgeons, it’s an awesome change. In fact, it only falls short of the full six-pack because it sticks to the left hand side of my 24″ monitor (margin: 0 auto; plz kthx) and doesn’t include CSRF protection (you would’ve got that for free if you’d used Rails instead of .NET).

Orcon

Well, they got off to a shaky start, but boy, did they pick it up. Congratulations to Duncan Blair (their Head of Marketing and Communications) and the rest of the Orcon crew – great use of Twitter and new media, and an awesome turn around. Honorable mention to their development crew – who fixed the bugs I encountered and added an autocomplete with an impressive turn around. Have a well-deserved 5 beers guys.

Epic Beer

Well, these guys are kind of a shoe-in, seeing as I’m counting down the hours till I head on down to the Malthouse to sample their new Armageddon brew. I’m planning to try more than just 6 ;)