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Web design & development

Marketing sites and web applications, designed and engineered by one team, with Core Web Vitals, WCAG 2.2 AA and search written into the definition of done from the first wireframe.

Start with
Website audit
Ways to engage
Fixed price, time and materials
Works to
WCAG 2.2 AA, Core Web Vitals, OWASP ASVS
Reply time
Within 24 hours

Who it is for.

If you run a business

You need a site that looks credible, loads instantly on a phone and turns visitors into inquiries.

Sound familiar?

  • The site looks dated next to competitors, so you avoid sending people to it.
  • Pages take seconds to load on a phone.
  • Changing one sentence means calling a developer.
  • Inquiries are rare, and you cannot tell which page produced them.

If you lead a technology team

You need a front end or web application built to your standards: typed code, reviewed pull requests, automated tests, accessibility gates and a deployment you can audit.

Sound familiar?

  • There is no design system, so every new page drifts from the last.
  • Key templates fail Core Web Vitals in field data.
  • Accessibility is audited after launch, if at all.
  • Releases are manual, and a rollback means a restore.

What changes.

What you can hold the work to, in plain terms.

  1. 01

    Pages that paint in an instant.

    Static and edge-cached rendering, a disciplined image pipeline and a strict JavaScript budget, held to Google's “good” thresholds for LCP, INP and CLS on real phones.

  2. 02

    A design system, not a pile of pages.

    Tokens, components and states defined once, so every new page is assembled from reviewed parts and the brand stays exact.

  3. 03

    Accessible by construction.

    Semantic HTML, keyboard paths, contrast and focus checked against WCAG 2.2 AA in every pull request, never left to a remediation project.

  4. 04

    Launches that keep your rankings.

    Every legacy URL mapped and redirected, with metadata, structured data and sitemaps verified before the switch and watched after it.

The path of a page.

Two lanes, both designed rather than inherited: how a change reaches production, and how a request reaches the reader.

Ship lane: a design system, then a pull request with peer review and a preview deployment, then quality gates (types, unit and end-to-end tests, accessibility, performance budget), then an atomic production deploy with one-step rollback. Serve lane: the browser, measured with field Core Web Vitals at the 75th percentile (LCP within 2.5 seconds, INP within 200 milliseconds, CLS within 0.1); an edge network with CDN cache, WAF, TLS 1.3 and HTTP/3; rendering chosen per route (static, incremental or server-rendered); then content from a headless CMS or WordPress, and APIs, forms and search.

Fig. 1 Reference architecture for a marketing site or web application. Tools vary by project; the gates do not.
A laptop, a tablet and a phone side by side, each showing the Computese homepage laid out for its screen size.

What we bring.

The disciplines inside this service, and the detail we work to in each.

  • 01

    Product and UX design

    Information architecture, wireframes and high-fidelity design grounded in how your customers actually decide, reviewed at real breakpoints before any production code is written.

    • Content inventory and sitemap
    • User journeys and conversion paths
    • Responsive layouts at real device sizes
    • Clickable prototypes for stakeholder review
  • 02

    Design systems

    Design tokens, an accessible component library and documented states that keep a growing site coherent.

    • Tokens for colour, type, spacing and motion
    • Accessible, documented components
    • Storybook as the living reference
    • Visual regression tests on every change
  • 03

    Front-end engineering

    Typed, component-driven front ends, rendered on the server and at the edge.

    • Next.js and React with TypeScript
    • Static, incremental or server rendering, per route
    • Progressive enhancement: works without JavaScript
    • Internationalisation and hreflang
  • 04

    Web applications

    Portals, dashboards and customer tools, with the identity, roles and APIs behind them.

    • OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect sign-in
    • Role-based access control
    • REST and GraphQL APIs
    • Background jobs and queues
  • 05

    CMS and editorial workflow

    Editors publish on their own schedule, through structured content, previews and roles.

    • Headless CMS or WordPress
    • Structured content models
    • Draft previews and scheduled publishing
    • Editorial roles and approvals
  • 06

    Performance, accessibility and launch

    The non-functional work most projects leave to the last week sits in the definition of done from the first sprint, enforced by the pipeline rather than by good intentions.

    • Core Web Vitals budgets enforced in CI
    • WCAG 2.2 AA: automated and manual checks
    • Schema.org structured data per template
    • Redirect map and post-launch monitoring
    • Privacy-respecting analytics
    • Security headers and a strict Content Security Policy

Which platform, and why.

We choose how each page is built by what it has to do, not by what a framework defaults to. The plan records the choice and the reason.

PlatformFits whenHow it rendersTrade-off
WordPressFits whenEditors publish every day and rely on plugins they already know.How it rendersServer-rendered PHP behind a full-page cache and a CDN.Trade-offEvery plugin is code to patch, audit and keep fast.
Next.js, static and incrementalFits whenA marketing site where speed and search matter most.How it rendersPre-rendered at build or on publish, served from the edge.Trade-offEditors need a CMS behind it, with previews set up.
Next.js with a headless CMSFits whenStructured content is reused across pages, channels or languages.How it rendersStatic where it can be, server-rendered where it must be personal.Trade-offTwo systems to run: the content platform and the front end.
Custom web applicationFits whenSigned-in portals, dashboards and tools with roles and data.How it rendersA server-rendered shell with streamed data, and client code only where interaction needs it.Trade-offIdentity, APIs and automated tests are needed from day one.

A template is the right answer for some sites. If yours is one, we will say so.

How it runs.

Every stage ends with a document you keep and a gate you can check.

  1. 01

    Discover

    Goals, audiences, content and constraints, turned into a plan the whole team can read.

    Exit gate: You sign off the sitemap, content plan and scope.

    • Stakeholder interviews
    • Content audit
    • Analytics review

    You receiveSitemap, content plan and scope

  2. 02

    Design

    Key templates designed and reviewed at real sizes, on top of a token-based design system.

    Exit gate: Key templates approved at phone and desktop sizes.

    • Wireframes
    • Design system
    • Prototype

    You receiveApproved designs and tokens

  3. 03

    Build

    Built in short increments on a staging address, every change reviewed and gated.

    Exit gate: Every quality gate passes on staging, with your content in place.

    • Components
    • Integrations
    • Quality gates

    You receiveWorking site on staging

  4. 04

    Launch

    Redirects, analytics and monitoring in place, then a rehearsed cutover.

    Exit gate: Redirects, analytics and monitoring verified on the live site.

    • Redirect map
    • Launch checklist
    • Post-launch checks

    You receiveLive site and handover notes

What is in scope.

Written down before work starts, so nothing is assumed.

Included

  • Discovery: goals, audiences, content and sitemap
  • Designs reviewed at real screen sizes, on a token-based design system
  • Build on a modern framework or your existing platform
  • Accessibility checks against WCAG 2.2 AA in every release
  • Search baseline: metadata, sitemaps, structured data, redirects
  • Launch, analytics set-up and handover notes

Not included

  • Hosting and updates after launch (see Hosting & maintenance)
  • Search growth work after launch (see SEO)
  • Business platforms, portals and back ends (see Custom software development)

Standards and stack.

The public frameworks we measure the work against, and the platforms we run it on.

Standards we work to

WCAG 2.2 AA
Acceptance criteria for every component and page template, checked by tools and by hand.
Core Web Vitals
LCP, INP and CLS budgets checked in the lab on every build and in field data after launch.
OWASP ASVS
Security requirements for forms, sign-in and APIs in web applications.
Google Search Essentials
Technical requirements and spam policies for a site that has to be found.
Schema.org
Structured data for organisations, services, articles and breadcrumbs.

How we choose tools

Certified engineers
AWS Solutions Architect, Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Google Cloud and security certifications, held by the engineers who do the work.
Licensed tools only
Every tool comes from an approved list: commercial software under its licence, or open source under a standard licence. Nothing cracked, nothing unlicensed.
Your platform first
Where you already run something that works, we build on it.
Not on the list?
Ask. Engineers who know the fundamentals pick up a new tool quickly, and we will tell you plainly if we have not used it before.

Platforms and tools we work with

Frameworks

  • Next.js
  • React
  • Remix
  • Astro
  • Vue.js
  • Nuxt
  • Angular
  • Svelte
  • SvelteKit
  • Vite

Languages

  • TypeScript
  • JavaScript
  • HTML
  • CSS
  • PHP
  • Python
  • C#
  • Java
  • Go
  • Ruby

Back ends and APIs

  • Node.js
  • NestJS
  • Express
  • Fastify
  • Hono
  • Laravel
  • Symfony
  • Django
  • FastAPI
  • Flask
  • ASP.NET Core
  • Spring Boot
  • Ruby on Rails
  • GraphQL
  • tRPC
  • REST

CMS

  • WordPress
  • Headless WordPress
  • Sanity
  • Contentful
  • Strapi
  • Payload CMS
  • Storyblok
  • Directus
  • Prismic
  • Drupal
  • Webflow
  • Ghost

E-commerce

  • Shopify
  • Shopify Hydrogen
  • WooCommerce
  • BigCommerce
  • Adobe Commerce (Magento)
  • Medusa
  • Stripe
  • PayPal

UI and styling

  • Tailwind CSS
  • shadcn/ui
  • Radix UI
  • Material UI
  • Chakra UI
  • Bootstrap
  • Sass
  • CSS Modules
  • Framer Motion

Data and sign-in

  • PostgreSQL
  • MySQL
  • MongoDB
  • Redis
  • SQLite
  • Supabase
  • Firebase
  • Prisma
  • Drizzle ORM
  • Auth.js
  • Clerk
  • Auth0
  • Keycloak
  • Microsoft Entra ID

Site search

  • Algolia
  • Meilisearch
  • Typesense
  • Elasticsearch
  • OpenSearch

Design and quality

  • Figma
  • Storybook
  • Chromatic
  • Playwright
  • Cypress
  • Vitest
  • Jest
  • Testing Library
  • axe
  • Lighthouse CI
  • WebPageTest

Delivery and hosting

  • Vercel
  • Netlify
  • Cloudflare Pages
  • Cloudflare Workers
  • AWS Amplify
  • Amazon CloudFront
  • Azure Static Web Apps
  • Docker
  • Coolify
  • GitHub Actions
  • GitLab CI

Analytics

  • Google Analytics 4
  • Google Tag Manager
  • Plausible
  • PostHog
  • Matomo
  • Microsoft Clarity

Cross-platform apps

  • Progressive Web Apps
  • React Native
  • Expo
  • Flutter
  • Capacitor

Where we have done it.

Client cases name the industry and the stack, never the client.

How to start.

A fixed, small first engagement, then the model that fits the rest.

A first engagement

Website audit

A review of the current site before anything is redesigned: speed on real phones, accessibility, search health, content and the platform underneath.

You receive

  • Core Web Vitals per template, lab and field
  • Accessibility findings against WCAG 2.2 AA
  • Search and redirect risks for a rebuild
  • A recommendation: refresh, rebuild or replatform

What we need from you

  • Read access to analytics and Search Console
  • Access to the CMS or code repository
  • The pages that matter most to sales
  • An hour with whoever owns the site

Then, the model that fits

  • Fixed price

    Defined projects: a website, an assessment, a migration stage

    One price for that scope

  • Time and materials

    Ongoing improvement, support and discovery work

    Billed for the time used

Common questions.

Can you rebuild our site without losing search traffic?

That is the main risk in any rebuild, so it is planned first. Every old URL is mapped to a new page or redirected before launch, structured data and sitemaps are verified on staging, and rankings are watched after the switch.

Which platform will you build on?

The one that fits how you work: a modern framework such as Next.js for fast custom sites and applications, or a CMS such as WordPress when your team edits pages every day. The plan says which, and why.

How do you keep the site fast after launch?

Performance budgets stay in the pipeline, so a change that makes a key template slower fails its checks before it ships. With Hosting & maintenance, field data is watched as well.

Can our own team edit the content?

Yes. Content lives in a CMS with structured fields, previews and roles, so editors change pages without touching code.

Lighthouse scores 100, but the site feels slow. Why?

Lighthouse is a lab test on one simulated phone. Your visitors use real devices on real networks, so we also watch field data from the Chrome UX Report at the 75th percentile, the figure Google itself uses. Responsiveness to input (INP) can only be measured there.

What do we own at the end?

Everything built for you: the code repository, the design files and the content, handed over with admin access to every service the site depends on.

Guides from the blog.

Plain-language articles on web design & development, with their sources.

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Start with a conversation.

Tell us what you run and what is getting in the way. You get a reply within 24 hours.

Hours
Mon–Fri, 9:00–17:00 ET
Closed on statutory holidays
Office
110 Place d'Orléans Dr
Ottawa, ON K1C 2L9