FAQ

What are the costs?

Depending on whether you’re an individual, small company, or major enterprise, you may or may not have the above question. For individuals, costs for design and development may appear huge. For companies, often there’s the consideration of investment and return, in which the website is an investment which yields returns far greater than the cost of the website.

As an individual who may be looking to have a nice website which might not necessarily be something that turns a profit, web fees can seem high.

The short answer to the why is this:

Our skills are highly specialized, we take great care and pride in our work, and are meticulous about the end product.

In this field all too often we’ve heard horror stories about those who put websites together which are not W3C valid, not cross-browser compatible, and lack accessibility features. Often they are built or designed far too quickly to be assessed for scalability and future-proofing.

Professional web designers and developers know that it takes time and a dedicated effort to create lasting, appealing web identities and user experiences worth the price paid for them.

As with contractors that you might hire for renovations on your home, past works and reputation precede us, and like others in similar trades, schooling and apprenticeships, self-education and dedication mark the biggest differences between those who excel and exemplify and those who beg, borrow and steal.

Comparable rates for similar projects from web firms are likely double what we charge. Larger firms have more overhead, and more infrastructure which are costly. Our small team accomplishes work quickly and efficiently, without the unneeded overhead, keeping fees reasonable while making sure that personable client contact is available at all times.

What happens if my site breaks after the project is done?
Will you fix it?

Of course we will. Assuming that the issue is something that either was as a result of incomplete, improperly developed or designed, or defective work that we had done. There’s a grey area here obviously- we want you to be happy and successful with the work we’ve done for you, and will indeed look into an issue you’re having and attempt to address it even if it’s outside the scope of the above, and something we can do for you in most cases.

Caveat: this does not cover you for example if your web-host, administrator, or other user deletes your files or databases without your knowledge. We will make backups for you of your existing environment at the time of launch, and of course of our work for you once done, but you’re on your own if a rascal eats your homework.

We will perform any fixes for you free of charge within 90 days of the launch date of your website or project if: those fixes do not require the addition of features not included in the original project; are merely restoring the condition of the initial project; are clerical in nature and do not require the manipulation of your content. Anything above and beyond these types of things would be covered under a separate small quote for changes/fixes/repairs/upgrades.

What tools do you use to design and develop?

Currently, we use a variety of Intel-based Macs to design and develop on, running virtualization environments for various flavours of Windows, Linux, and Mac OS to test and refine our work in.

We also run our own on-site servers to provide clients with access to development throughout the process, maintaining the privacy and security of a project from the prying eyes of the outside web.

For design and development software, we use as needed and recommend:

• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe InDesign
• CSSEdit
• Coda
• Smultron
• Transmit
• MAMP
• Headdress
• VMWare Fusion
• Apple’s Aspen iPhone Simulator

*We do not use Dreamweaver, or any other automatic code generating program. Our solutions are custom made, top to bottom*

And of course, we thoroughly check all our code to meet W3C standards, ensuring platform and browser interoperability. We also strictly adhere to industry guidelines and best practices in both design and development.