Development and Engineering
Web development and software engineering connect the vision forged in strategy and design with practical implementation. Every agency does this work differently. Practical technology work is more than just flashy visuals; it has to empower website owners.
Our approach to website development is balanced, considering the many factors to determine the best way to achieve organizational goals. Our work is a foundation that allows you to be more effective now and to scale over time. Excellent technology is an asset, allowing for greater productivity and outcomes.
Areas of Expertise
Every engagement doesn’t always require every deliverable, but for end-to-end work like a redesign, this is what you can expect:
Frontend Web Development
Bringing designs to life in the browser with well-crafted HTML, CSS, and Javascript code.
Content Management System (CMS) Development
Streamlining content management allows for efficient creation, editing, and organization of digital content.
Software Engineering and Application Development
Creating custom digital solutions that allow for more efficient operations and more interactive user experiences.
API Integrations
Bridging platforms to allow for seamless data exchange and functionality between disparate applications.
WordPress
Building according to best practices with a focus on balancing the frontend experience with content management and administrative experience.
Drupal
Creating websites with robust or complex business requirements allows for high performance and scalability over time.
Responsive Development
Creating well-crafted frontend experiences that perform well on both desktop and mobile platforms.
Performance/Core Web Vitals (CWV)
Optimizing for website performance considering loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability to reinforce a positive end-user experience.
Accessibility
Developing against WCAG 2.1 standards to ensure that users have a great experience on your website
Technical SEO
Configuring the website for search engine discovery and indexing of content, leading to more effective site and page ranking.
Analytics
Providing critical insights into user behavior by tracking and analyzing data to inform strategic decisions and optimize website performance against business goals.
QA/Testing
Ensuring the functionality, usability, and performance of a website or application is free of bugs and functions as expected
Security & Stability
Protecting the website to minimize risk, maintain trust, and provide an uninterrupted user experience.
Infrastructure
Implementing the foundational technology systems that support a website or application’s operation and performance.
Development and Engineering Engagements
We enjoy guiding clients through the development process and creating effective websites that are long lasting. Here are a few ways clients can engage with us:
Website Redesigns
If you are rebuilding your website, you can hire us to create a seamless user experience that is a pleasure to use and easily maintained via CMS.
Proactive Support
If you want to consistently improve outcomes over time, you can hire us to bring your vision to live as we continue to iterate the website.
Replatforming
If your content management system or site framework is holding you back, you can hire us to rebuild the site according to best practices in WordPress or Drupal.
Migration Services
If your infrastructure is slow or ineffective, you can hire us to move your site to a high-quality platform that promotes improvement and growth.
Technology Consultation and Strategy
If you need guidance on technology trends, best practices, or architecture for your website or digital product, you can hire us as a technology consultant.
20+
clients in ongoing partnerships
11
team members with development expertise
200+
websites and web apps launched
Development and Engineering Process
We review the state of your current technology operations, including teams involved, frontend experience, CMS/administrative experience, coding practices, and deployment processes. Our review provides a baseline of where you are today, what improvements are needed, and where we need to take you to achieve your business goals.
We work with the team to determine the feasibility of our plans. Balancing the level of effort against the available budget is critical to realizing the work within the constraints of our engagement. As we make decisions, we document requirements and identify potential approaches for implementation.
We then support you in any conversations with IT, Cybersecurity, or Compliance teams to provide a technical lens and rationale for any changes we recommend. These discussions are common when changing website infrastructure, introducing a new CMS platform, or discussing security concerns.
When we have a good plan and buy-in from stakeholders, we begin to develop the site iteratively. We build crucial pages and functionality first, prioritizing what is most needed by the business. Often, our first set of priorities is establishing the design system, allowing us to piece together many pages across the site.
We test completed features to ensure completion of functional requirements, compatibility with different browsers/devices, and integrity of designs. The work is shared with our clients so they understand the progress against our plans.
If needed, we migrate content through manual migration and automated content imports. Depending on the quality and importance of information migrated, this can be a small part of the project or a significant part of the project. Any content changing its URL structure will have a corresponding URL redirect to avoid “page not found” errors.
After completing all iterations, the team reviews the work to ensure quality and launch readiness. This review is comprehensive, ranging across the entire site, considering performance, accessibility, SEO, etc. Each team member reviews according to their expertise and reports issues for prioritized remediation.
Once all activities are complete and everyone feels good about the work, we deploy the site or work with IT to make it live in the “First Public Release.” From here, the site is iterated upon and enhanced to increase its marketing efficacy and value to the organization.
FAQ
Yes, absolutely. When we say we like to empower teams, we mean the whole team, including marketing, content managers, developers, IT, compliance officers, etc. Knowing your long-term plans for the website will help us ensure we bring in key team members and meet their needs as well as yours. Our ongoing engagements vary, from COLAB fully managing the website to handing off the work to an in-house team. We are comfortable with both approaches!
Maybe, but probably not. We specialize in PHP and Javascript-based open-source platforms and frameworks like WordPress, Drupal, Laravel, or Vue.js. If you want to use one of those, we’re a perfect fit. However, we are very open-minded to other platforms and languages, having used frameworks across the spectrum. We’re always searching for new tools to use. We’re most open to this if we have a good rapport and the work seems exciting or fits our team’s capabilities (including product management, strategy, and design).
Maybe, but probably not. They aren’t our favorite tools (there’s a blog posts worth of thoughts to unpack on this). Consider whether you love the freedom that a flexible platform like Divi or Elementor allows or the experience of those tools by themselves. Suppose it’s the freedom you’re after. In that case, we’d like to take this opportunity to show you what WordPress can look like when implemented using a design system, custom blocks, and patterns in the backend. If it’s Divi or Elementor you love, an agency that specializes in website creation on those platforms may serve you better. Just make sure those platform constraints don’t drive your strategy and design work.
Never say never, but probably not. We don’t run into this as often as in our early days. Still, low-cost hosting usually represents a risk to the business that we are unwilling to leave unaddressed. Low-cost hosting is almost always low quality or needs to be supplemented by service work. Putting an expensive website on low-quality hosting is an imbalanced investment. High-quality hosting for a business website makes a massive difference in performance, security, and stability, which benefits the user experience. It also allows us to do our work more effectively and quickly, saving service cost.
