Design and Development in One Pair of Hands
Why I now build the websites I design, and when a separate developer is still the better choice.
Most of my work so far has been design that developers then built. Now I build the websites I design as well. Powermatic is one of them: I designed the site and built it in Framer. This site is another, in English and Russian. Here's why I made the change and where it doesn't fit.
Working With a Development Team
At Zeroqode I designed the interface and landing pages for Playgram.ai, a collaborative AI workspace, working closely with the team's developers. They were a strong team. On a product like that, splitting the work is the right setup: the engineers know the codebase, and my job is the interface and the design system.
Why I Build Websites Myself
A website is a smaller thing, and much of its quality is in details that only show up in the browser. How a heading wraps on a phone, what a button does on hover, how quickly the first image appears, how motion feels at real speed. A design file can describe these, but someone still decides them during the build. When I build the site, I decide them myself, while I still remember why the design is the way it is.
It also changes how I design. When I know what something takes to build, I can compare options honestly with a client. An elaborate scroll animation might take a day, and a clearer pricing table might take an hour and help visitors more. We can weigh the two in the same conversation.
- I reuse components where I can, so a later change is made in one place.
- I tune motion in the browser, where it can be judged properly.
- I test content at its real length, in both languages when a site has two.
When It's Not the Right Setup
One person has limits. A product with a large application, a backend and a release schedule needs engineers who work in that codebase every day. There I design the interface and the design system and make the files as easy to build from as I can.
For a company site, a marketing site or a launch page, one person from the first sketch to launch keeps the project simpler. You talk to one person, and nothing gets lost between the design and the build. That's what Design & Development covers, from $990. If it sounds like your project, tell me about it.