We are an agency that builds websites for our clients every day – so we wanted to give you a peek behind the curtain into our process for building our own site, what we prioritized, and why.
The planning phase
Our website rebuild started by creating a strategy. If we were going to spend the time to update the site, we wanted to make sure that it would meet our strategic goals and speak to who we are now as an agency. This led us to a long-overdue Mission/Vision/Values exercise that we went through as a team to help guide the new direction of the site.
Next, we created a list of need-to-haves and want-to-haves for our website. We were missing key pieces on our old site that would help us to drive business – including a blog, case studies of our work, and up to date information about our services. We also wanted to walk the talk and create an accessible website that showcased our skills in animation & coding.
The design phase
This is where the fun started! Julia and Fyonna presented designs and inspiration to the team, and we all collaborated on choosing the final style, layout, and colours. We ran the design phase just like we would for any client – iterating on the landing page first to find the right vibe and then expanding that across all the various pages.
We wanted our website to feature our best skills. Like the awesome illustrations that Fyonna provided, bright, engaging colours, and movement on the page that felt engaging without overpowering the content.
The build
We decided to move our website from Squarespace to WordPress for this redesign. While Squarespace can be a great option for small businesses, for this build we wanted to do more than what is possible with that builder. Within WordPress, we chose Bricks Builder to build our site, and we recommend it to all of our clients who choose WordPress for their site. Why? Because it has:
- More responsive control, including setting custom breakpoints for different screen sizes
- Accessibility at the code level, meaning accessibility updates are easier to make globally
- A lightweight setup, which keeps our website fast & SEO friendly
- More playful possibilities for animation and fun on-site interactions
The launch
Deciding on a launch date was honestly the hardest part of this entire process. In the last months before the launch, we set aside “Website Wednesdays” where we could provide some dedicated time to the site each week that helped force us to prioritize ourselves. We also worked to build up excitement around the launch through social media, and restarting a long-dormant newsletter. We didn’t want all this effort to go to waste with the launch passing us by unnoticed!
All in all, it was a good lesson about how hard it is to be on the other side of the building process and a good reminder of how scary it can be for some of our clients to give that final ok. What we learned was to trust the process, believe in our work, and to remember that sometimes you need to be your own client.
