Informative and concise communication starts from the beginning with a brief project estimate, summarized and broken down so it's clear where your budget is being used. We will meet, talk, email, or instant message about the vision of a successful project. Then I'll step away to contemplate, develop strategy, and generate outlines. This might include competitive research, software evaluations, or creating a content inventory; activities that reveal inspiration and enforce clarity.

Design is the most important, contentious phase of your project. My focus is on four fundamental elements of interaction design: typography, grid structure, interactivity and color. The process begins offline, sketching wireframes on graph paper for reference before assembling layouts for your review. Those initial designs will evolve through several rounds of intensive iterations — often including additional pages — before moving to development.

Great code demands simplicity, minimalism and consistency. Each navigation element, submit button and line of CSS code carefully crafted. Even though I didn't start out as a programmer, I've grown to love the building blocks of modern front-end code: HTML, CSS and jQuery. Nearly every project through Gridwork is developed on the superlative content management system ExpressionEngine.

After launching a new project, I don't just pack up and wish you good luck. Ideally, you'll keep Gridwork on contract to help fix bugs, provide training to new staff, and make ongoing improvements. Websites are living organisms, you need to feed them, be responsive to your audience, and nurture growth in order to thrive.