It’s Just Five Steps

I’ve spent a decade working in digital agencies all across the city, and with every new website I build, I learn something new. But the fundamental process I use to build websites—despite the constant influx of new web technologies, techniques, and methodologies invented and reinvented every quarter—remains tried and true.

Discovery

I don’t like surprises, and I’m sure you don’t either. In Discovery, I learn about your business and analyze your competition to determine market opportunities on the web. I get to know what you want to do. I learn about your values, your tastes, and your personality. If you’re in the area, let’s meet face-to-face.

For service providers like agencies, this may mean involving me early in your conversations with your client, so that we can best plan for your pitch. For businesses and entrepreneurs, we talk scope and plan out what’s feasible within your time and budget constraints.

User
Experience

In this phase, I plan the architecture of your site and determine the best experience for your users. This involves devising logical hierarchies for your content and implementing user interface best practices that make navigating your website intuitive to users. Depending upon the needs of your project, I may invite an expert user experience designer to join the team so that they can best execute on this phase.

The end result is the creation of a sitemap and wireframes that we can refer back to as we move into the next steps. The sitemap allows us to map out the relationship between types of content in your website, whereas the wireframe is a barebones skeleton of your website’s structural layout, indicating what goes where and how it all fits together.

Visual Design

During the visual design phase, I often team up with a local visual designer who works in tandem with me to carry over the strategies we developed in the Discovery and User Experience phases. We mock up a design of key pages in your website. Usually, this means designing your front page, pages with unique layouts, and your Gutenberg block library.

Your website’s visual design is its outer shell, exactly what your users will see and interact with once your website goes live. In visual design, all our abstract efforts earlier on are realized in a visual layout for the first time. You have the opportunity to tweak elements of the design, implement changes, or suggest an entirely different direction for your website’s look and feel.

Development

When I slice apart your website’s design and code it up for the web, you can rest assured that its markup is performant, semantic, and search-engine friendly. My best practices are in line with the latest web standards, which results in an end product that is cross-browser compatible and optimized for speed.

By building on top of the WordPress content-management system, I empower you completely to control your content after it goes live. You can update the website and create new pages whenever you want, from any web browser, code-free.

Deployment

In the last leg of the process, we move your website to a dotcom of your own. I help you navigate the process of purchasing your dotcom and selecting a web host best suited for your build. Depending on the complexity of your site, the Deployment process may involve setting up an ecosystem of staging and production servers, installing performance-enhancing services like content-delivery networks, or coordinating local environments for your in-house development team.

In the end, you’ll be able to log in to your website from the WordPress Dashboard and manage your content without having to think about all the hoops I had to jump through to get you there.

I appreciate [his] perseverance and understanding through it all … we are indeed proud of the final product.

Ken Gagne Multimedia Communications Producer — Mass Eye and Ear

A fantastic job … His work completely transformed our web presence. He’s patient, thoughtful and talented. An innovator and a tireless worker. I recommend him highly and without reservation.

Jeff Parker Co-Founder & Director — Disquiet International

I know no better WordPress developer. You’d be lucky to have him work on your site.

Chad Capellman Director of Marketing & Business Development — Balance Interactive

Daniel is extremely organized and prompt in all of his communications and deliverables… I was constantly impressed with the speed and quality of his work and the responsiveness of his communications.

Elizabeth Friend Managing Director — S3IDF

Talented, efficient, and innovative: A Bad Penny Review couldn’t be any happier with our site or with our experience. Highly recommended.

Johnny Damm Editor-in-Chief — A Bad Penny Review

Daniel is one in a million… He’s lightning fast at whatever he does while also delivering at the highest quality. He is extremely patient and always willing to help.

Anne Brown VP, Interaction Designer — Bank of America

Certain people in the world just naturally exude professionalism. No matter what, you receive more than you had ever requested and are instantly humbled by it. Daniel is that kind of person.

Fetesha Downes Communications Manager — YWCA Metro Chicago

I would trust Daniel in a heartbeat with any design or programming project… he is a pleasure to work with, incredibly skilled and creative.

Howard Stelzer Record Producer — Intransitive Recordings

Daniel’s knowledge of production techniques and sophisticated design sense made me feel totally confident. The site is edgy yet professional—I highly recommend Daniel for his ability to produce great results.

Jamie Kerry Founder — Belle Étoile Studios

Daniel consistently delivers professional and high quality work. He has a great personality and he’s respected by all.

Eric Hoffman Instructional Media Designer — Stetson University

Dan has been so responsive to both our design and support needs. We continue to get compliments on the website on a regular basis. Dan is great to work with; he is a truly unique blend of professionalism, talent, engagement, and fun.

Elizabeth Friend Managing Director — S3IDF

Get a Free Consultation

When it comes to specialized work, hire battle-tested experts to get the job done right. I build platforms that take care of brands, so you can go back to building yours. Don’t hesitate to get in touch. A consultation is free, and we can determine over a quick phone call if I’m a good fit for your project.

From My Portfolio

View All Work

Dr. Blitz

Visual Designer Michael Robbins approached me to build the website for Dr. Neal Blitz, a renowned foot surgeon who engineered a procedure called Bunionplasty® as part of his practice.

Redis Labs

Using designs provided by Redis, I developed a custom WordPress installation powered by Gutenberg, WordPress’ built-in block editor.

Women & Alzheimer’s

With the help of Beth Almeida of Proper Villains Agency, we patterned the redesign after the main Cure Alzheimer’s Fund website.