About Stuff and Nonsense

Unless you’re eight years old or you’ve just finished a stretch at Her Majesty’s pleasure, you’ll likely have worked on a web site project — either for your own organization or the one that you work for. Now you’re thinking about changing it? Otherwise, why would you be here?

Over the last ten years, we have learned that not everybody's experience of working on a new web site is a good one. Often it can be time-consuming, frustrating and not something you want to repeat too often. So we listened to what people liked and what they didn't and we came up with new ways of working that make people happy.

Taking a more creative and flexible approach

Whereas most web site design and development processes are run like factories, where parts of the project are assembled like a production line and often by different people, we take a different, more creative and more flexible approach.

We get straight down to the job of solving the problems that you and your customers find when using your web site. We do this in sketchbooks or on sticky notes so we can work quickly, often around the same table with you. We try out ideas, keeping some on the table, throwing some away. Because sticky notes are cheap, there's no limit to the number of ideas we can try or suggestions you can make.

Demonstrating your design using markup and style-sheets


Our design for New Internationalist evolved publicly from simple markup and style-sheet wireframes.


To a completed set of designs and code, ready for them to implement with their own CMS.

Most web design workflows start with static visuals, then designs are interpreted as code (markup and style-sheets) before development and finally testing. Our approach combines all of these stages into a more flexible, cost-effective agile process.

Unlike web designers who spend hours or days of their time (and your money) making impressions of how a web site might look in Photoshop or Fireworks, we demonstrate how your design will really look using markup and style-sheets (the stuff that web pages are made of). It's a process that is more accurate because you will immediately see how your site will look to those people at home or in offices who you want to become your customers.

We iterate our designs gradually and naturally so you can see how your design is developing every day and you can more easily make suggestions and give us feedback. This gives you better creative control because you are more involved at every stage.

Working with you side-by-side

If you've ever watched a home decorating show on TV, or worked on a web design project before, you'll know all about the big reveal. While the reveal works well on TV, on the web, when time is pressing and money is precious, a big reveal is a big, bad idea.

So we have adopted a completely transparent design process to avoid working for days or weeks before revealing designs. Instead, we will work with you side-by-side for an intensive period and often at your offices. Here, we like to establish an incident room for your project, a place where we can work and that you and your colleagues can come and be fully involved as your project develops. Working this way, what would have taken weeks takes only days, months shrink into weeks.

When we have finished, you will have a complete toolkit of files that are developed using markup and CSS and have been tested for accessibility and search engine visibility.

Giving you options, all the time

Instead of keeping our web design process a mystery, we'll talk you through every option at every stage. For example we'll ask you whether you want us to spend our time and your money on workarounds for outdated web browsers such as Internet Explorer 6 or on features that will benefit your business and improve the success of your site. Although we love the ExpressionEngine CMS and MediaTemple hosting, we won't tip your hand towards any one software or hardware choice.

Enough about us, now tell us about you

If you like what you read and you think that working with us would be a fun, profitable experience for both of us, get in touch — we love hearing about new and interesting projects.

About Stuff and Nonsense

We have been designing and developing fantastic web sites for our clients from our tiny studio in North Wales since 1998. We may be small but we have made a big name for ourselves and we are now well-known around the world.

Our aims are simple — to make nice work for nice people — work that we can be proud of. We aim to stay small and stay passionate about what we do best: creative design for the web.

Designer and author Andy Clarke writes:

When my wife and I moved to rural North Wales to get away from the stress of living and working in and around London, word soon got around. Before we were fully unpacked, people started asking us to work for them. I am pleased that over ten years later, people are still asking.

Our clients have and do include: Disney Store UK, Liverpool University, New Internationalist, Ogilvy One, Save The Children UK, WWF UK and xStrata.

Andy Clarke

Andy Clarke has been called a lot of things since he started working on the web at Stuff and Nonsense ten years ago. His ego likes words like ambassador for CSS, industry prophet and inspiring, but actually he is most proud that Jeffrey Zeldman once called him a bastard

Andy is a member of the Web Standards Project and a former invited expert to the W3C’s CSS Working Group. He took ten months out of his life to write the best-selling book Transcending CSS: The Fine Art Of Web Design, but Andy's passion is amazing web design. He loves making designs for the web, writing about design and teaching it at workshops and conferences all over the world.