Our History In Web Development
What’s the difference between web design and web development? Web design, like graphic design, is about the layout, look, feel and cosmetics of a website. Web development: the systems that run under the design to carry out the work. E-commerce, SEO performance, website speed, databases, connections to other sites, logins and user management, image manipulation, form processing: that’s the shortlist of what web development does for a website.
We build websites to be attractive, but we always build them to be smart.
We build web applications that power your corner of the Internet.
For the last 24+ years, our lead developer, Shawn DeWolfe, has developed websites powered by server-side and client-side coding languages. They delve into data sources large and small to deliver clear, relevant information to your target audience. We have worked with a litany of programming languages, so we’ve experimented to discover what works best. Today we ply our trade with a smaller, more focused, and carefully-selected palette of technologies. Through PHP programming, Javascript development, MySQL database we craft custom applications.
We build high end original, yet affordable W3C compliant web sites which work PCs, Macs, tablets and phones. Our own search-engine-friendly design architecture gives your site the best chance of being found on Google. User-friendly and intuitive browsing experiences are our priority. We add in galleries, slideshows, contact forms, estimator, opt-in forms, eCommerce– the list goes on. If you want it, we’ve likely built it once already.
Web design has evolved. The ability to deliver user controlled content, to share, to make a website effective from every device is within reach. We develop versatile, powerful websites for our clients. We have worked in a number of niches were performance and flexibility are critical elements.
WordPress – Pretty And Smart In One Package
WordPress is ideal for B2B website design projects that want a turnkey solution to publicize their website. WordPress is made powerful through its thousands of plugins and themes. WordPress has climbed in popularity. It runs over 33% of the websites on the Internet. It is a versatile system. We do lots with WordPress:
- Web design with WordPress
- Gravity forms – building forms and extending functionality
- Custom plugins – custom plugins to fill a special role
- Custom themes – custom themes to match the look you want
- Performance Improvements – we put afterburners on websites
- Maintenance and Support – we care for websites to keep them safe and well supported
- Tutoring and advice – we show people how to make the most of WordPress
- Advocacy and web strategy – we speak to the merits of WordPress and how a good web presence can help an organization
Our History In Application Development
Our First Generation
The early days of the Web
1996 – 2000
Our Technologies
In the ancient days of the Web, we developed with:
- HTML
- Javascript*
- Perl
- Flash
- Parsed text files
- PHP
Our Victories
In the early days, users wanted functionality. We built content management systems and e-commerce systems from scratch. Some tools were out of the reach of most budgets, so we came up with creative workarounds: parsed text files in lieu of relational databases. Systems built with Perl stood in for quarter million dollar content management systems.
Pre-history
Before the dawn of the Web, we built applications using C and C++ on IBM PCs. Before that, we built programs using Applesoft Basic in the 1980s. Our lead developer has over 35 years of coding experience.
Our team is the definition of “veteran.”
Our Second Generation
Applications Built From Scratch
2000 – 2008
Our Technologies
In the 2000’s, we developed with more technologies. Here is a partial list:
- HTML4
- CSS
- Perk/Tk
- Javascript
- ASP
- ASP .Net with C#
- PHP
- MySQL
- Access Databases
- SQL Server
- Oracle Databases
- JSON calls
- RSS Feeds
- OAuth
- XML data
Our Victories
During the 2000s, our team built their own ASP driven CMS, dubbed Daccor. It ran notable sites, including the BC Conservative Party site.
We built a record-keeping system for alternative currency systems. We built RBlog– an RSS builder that allowed people to construct RSS feeds and combine them as they saw fit. We helped get the Apolloguide movie review site to gain market share.
We also started work with PHP Nuke, Post Nuke, DotNetNuke and the early versions of Drupal and WordPress.
When Social Media pushed its way to center stage, we built Twiller: a Twitter API tie-in that gave metrics on a user’s Twitter feed. We built “Movie Tonight”, which tapped into the Yahoo movie API and produced data for a Facebook app. We even tried our hand at mobile app development.
Our Third Generation
Content Management & Frameworks
2008 – 2020
Our Technologies
The Web grew more sophisticated. While we discontinued the practice of some older technologies, they are a part of the foundation: our coding DNA. We adopted new technologies and improved on our craft:
- HTML5
- JQuery
- SVGs
- CSS3
- The Twitter Bootstrap CSS Framework
- Foundation Framework
- 960gs
- MariaDB
- MongoDB
- Git
- SVN
- Node.js
- Python
- Joomla
- WordPress
- Drupal
Our Victories
By this era, we knew what worked well and what didn’t. We’d seen trends emerge, subside and come around for a second try. We built a Drupal site with 30,000 pages to replace a legacy website. We built Drupal modules. We built WordPress plugins. We built standalone Javascript applications.
And websites. We built so many websites.
We tallied up the number of websites we have worked on over the last 24+ years; those we handled start-to-finish and those we helped with. We have built or helped to build over 200 websites.
Advice for New Web Designers
Web designers need to dabble to discover which technology combinations work best for them: both which technologies deliver the best solutions, and which technologies feel easy to use. Try it all: static coding, Squarespace, WordPress and other technologies. After the dabbling and the experimentation, set into a suite of tools and tech that deliver the best successes. In the early days, take any work as long as it doesn’t tie you up for more than a month– you need to be able to deliver a design and references it to get more work. Build up expertise with your toolset and stand atop that level of expertise. Always keep an eye out for new technologies that can make your life easier, then experiment and adopt it. Don’t be afraid to work smarter instead of harder.