Develop a Strategy

Most of our clients come to us because they like the way our websites look. But they stay with us because they perform. Our very first client is still with us and we are very proud of that.

Strategy and messaging are the most important part of the web design process and the part that even seasoned professionals often don’t seem to understand. And it’s hard. Defining your messaging strategy is a lot like the game of GO. It is a question that takes a second to ask and a lifetime to answer. But don’t be intimidated, just 2% better is enough, you don’t have to be a million times better, just better.

If you can articulate what it is that you do differently and BETTER than your competition, marketing your brand is just about getting this message in front of as many people as possible, and never in the history of the world have we had more people on the planet or the sophisticated tools to get your messaging in front of them.

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This may be the coolest site we have ever built. You must absolutely click on the link below to see for yourself. Not only does it combine cutting edge coding with cutting edge Near Field Communication technology, a set of communication protocols that enable two electronic devices with AI to personalize the messaging but it also makes the world a better place by having a tangible impact on the environment.
Having been trusted by the largest companies in the world including Mattel and Walmart and working with the most recognizable brands such as The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Disney’s Princesses, the McHale Design team are specialists who bring over 30 years of experience and success.
Many agencies make their case studies to be about themselves, but the reality is: you cannot do great work without great clients and we are very blessed to have such wonderful ones. Because when you work with such delightful and magical people the results come organically.

Design Your Website

Since the homepage is the most critical page of your website – this is where in milliseconds visitors decide if they will stay or if they will go – we like to focus on that first.

We create 5 mockups ranging from conservative to a little bit out there. Then you choose the one you kind-of, sort-of like the best and we make revisions to that until you LOVE the homepage.  This is a VERY effective technique to focus in on what you are looking for and create a design that knocks people’s socks off!

Then, if we have the budget, the best way is to identify all key pages and have a designer do mockups of each, then match them on the development server pixel for pixel. These will serve as templates for the rest of the website.

If we use a platform like like Shopify or WordPress, the basic foundation is responsive, meaning the design adapts to mobile devices and tablets. But if our client needs something to look a specific way on mobile devices, we also create mobile mock-ups. For fully custom websites mobile mock-ups are even more important so the programmers know exactly what to code, eliminating unnecessary revisions and excessive QC.

When the budget is tight, we let the content guide us. Using the homepage as our model (colors, fonts and design elements), a programmer with design skills lays them out directly on the development server.

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Being a loving, respectful human being is the most important thing we can be – but unfortunately it’s not prioritized in today’s social interactions, media discourses or school curriculum. In our accelerating, desensitized, digitally-driven, winning-is-all world, there’s an epidemic of casual disrespect, bullying, incivility, and rudeness.
The most advanced, sustainable, cruelty-free, vegan skin care available anywhere. Combining science with nature, we’ve created a skin care line that enhances, nurtures and protects your skin like no other.
The Science of Saving Lives. Sensei Biotherapeutics is creating drug discovery technology that will change the nature of treatment for cancer and infectious diseases. Their unique approach starts with a library of vaccines and nanobodies that can be combined in almost limitless ways to create an overwhelming multi-modal immune response against a pathological target.

Optimize the Information, Architecture and User Experience for Conversion

Once the look and feel has been decided upon, we recommend sketching out how users will actually interact with it in real life.

The organizational structure, the connection between different pieces of information and the framework that helps the user understand those connections. The hierarchy of information, categories at the top, followed by more specific subcategories for the user to navigate through. The navigation and user experience, how the user moves through pieces of content and/or information. Information architecture is all about finding ways to help the user navigate the website in order to reach their goal.

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The Stanford Seed Transformation Program (STP) combines in-person and online sessions in a deeply concentrated learning experience for established companies. The STP is designed for business owners and up to five members of their senior management team and is led by Stanford Graduate School of Business faculty and supported by Stanford-trained advisors and experts.
The Blackrock team combines the worlds most accomplished scientists, researchers, engineers and technical visionaries who are passionate about enabling the restoration and enhancement of sight, auditory, speech and movement through their groundbreaking technology.
Amyriad is led by the people who introduced Aricept, we’re developing a combination of diagnostics, treatments and therapies to preserve function and quality of life. Their deep foundation in Alzheimer’s disease gives Amyriad the ability to iterate on different approaches, rather than relying on a single cure.

Create Content

Once you have your strategic roadmap, you need to apply it to every bit of communication your organization produces. Web Pages, Blog Posts, Articles, the list goes on and on. Every single word on your website should propel your customers towards your “shameless” goal. Be it selling products, selling services, getting donations or acquiring volunteers.

Next comes the Imagery. Perhaps the single most important part of any website is the imagery, because if the imagery is not absolutely perfect no one will ever listen to what you have to say. A terrible image will destroy your brand and lower your prices but a great image will explode sales, leads and engagement.

And video completes the trifecta. The perfect blend of storytelling and promotion will maximize your marketing dollars. We’re not talking infomercials either, we’re talking about compelling, interesting, and emotionally engaging storytelling that can make your organization come to life online.

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Project X/AV is a New Wave Entertainment brand. An entertainment marketing team that specializes in motion picture, television and video games. With seasoned veterans leading the way, we create bold campaigns that inspire and captivate audiences across the world..
Levitty: The Elevated, Immersive, Elegant Racing Experience
AdAstra builds exceptional teams within extraordinary NewSpace and Clean Tech ventures. Not only does AdAstra have a SpaceX engineer at their helm, but their team is led by a group of brilliant, disciplined high achievers who work from the same unique perspective that each of their clients has.

Code Your Website

We code the homepage on desktop first because it is the most complex and creates the foundation of the whole website. This is called the “Alpha Work Period”. The header, the footer, the colors, fonts and visual style are coded. This also speeds up the process so that we don’t have to wait until the rest of the website pages are designed in order to start.

Plugins specified in the SOW that are critical to the functioning of the pages are installed here, Woo Commerce, Events Plugins, Membership Plugins, etc…

Once the coded homepage that gone through a preliminary QC (Quality Control) round and is ready to view we send the development url for approval. So that everyone is on the same page it needs to be viewed using the Chrome, Firefox or Safari browser at these dimensions: 1400px for desktop, 768px for tablet and 360px for mobile.

After that, subpages and mobile mockups are approved and like with the homepage, we them on the development server too. This is called the “Beta Work Period”. The Beta Work Period is the longest.

Then, before we make it live, we do a more intensive QC on many different browsers and devices and a polish pass to make sure nothing was missed.

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Inspired by the past. Designing for the future. With over 25 years of experience, Tim Barber Architects are shaping the future of traditional, residential architecture. Inspired by the past. Designing for the future.
Recommending and promoting changes to U.S. policy and law to strengthen national biodefense while optimizing resource investments. The Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense is a privately funded entity established in 2014 to provide for a comprehensive assessment of the state of U.S. biodefense efforts, and to issue recommendations that will foster change. Former Senator Joe Lieberman and former Governor Tom Ridge co-chair the Commission. Former Secretary and Representative Dr. Donna Shalala, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, former Representative Susan Brooks, former Representative Jim Greenwood, and Dr. Margaret Hamburg serve as members.
Improving Food Security and Promoting Biodiversity With Locally Sourced Heirloom Vegetable Seedlings. The CultivarX mission is improving food security and promoting biodiversity. The CultivarX believes that these two concepts are inextricably linked. With greater biodiversity comes greater resilience of crops to tolerate and adapt to changing conditions, thus creating safer and stronger food supplies.

Optimize for Search, Install Google Analytics and Heat Map Software

In addition to coding these pages and optimizing for mobile devices we also do an SEO Sweep and install Heatmap and Analytics code which allows you to track the performance of your website.

We recommend doing a full SEO sweep to optimize the existing content on your website. Then, once your site has been optimized, we will develop a strategic roadmap to assess, guide, and plan an ongoing content marketing strategy for your business to make sure it continues to climb and rank well in search engines. This makes sure that the search engines can crawl and index your website as well as making sure the basic SEO elements are in place to help generate rankings for the new content you produce.

SEO is an ongoing conversation. Competitors will also be working to improve their ranking and Google modifies and adjusts their algorithm regularly. As such your website’s SEO needs to be modified and adjusted continuously if you want to keep ranking and improving your position.

If you are doing marketing, it’s our “best guess” as to what will work. Since everyone on our team is a specialist with Fortune 500 and Big Brand experience, it should be very, very good. But marketing is all about the data so you need Google Analytics to tell you what pages people are visiting, how long they are spending on those pages and what buttons they are clicking.

If you want to take your data to the next level, install “heatmap code” on your website. This can be nothing short of miraculous. Just as analytics tell you which pages are underperforming, heatmaps tell you what specific part of the page is underperforming.

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