We're In Business!
As you might imagine, the first project of a web designer starting their agency is to develop a website that communicates their brand. Thus, keddyandassociates.com was born. During this process, we discovered many great resources that make web development even more straightforward for the professional web developer. We found MODx (modx.com), a distinct and formidable Content Management System (CMS), which, despite the overwhelming popularity of Wordpress, seems to be a popular choice for professional web developers. MODx gives us the ability to control every aspect of the user experience for our clients at every stage of the web lifecycle.
We also discovered Pixelarity (pixelarity.com), an incredible resource brimming with fully-responsive web design templates. In the end, as long as you have the appropriate license to use a template, does it matter that it's a template if it enables a developer to achieve the desired result? Most of what we do as developers in today's world of development is building something new from bits of old pieces. Often, there's this grand illusion with some clients that the only service worth paying for is one where the developer creates something from nothing. In reality, creating a website from nothing is a tremendously daunting task that would cost the client much more than they are willing to pay.
The Keddy & Associates website is a testament to this fact. We relied heavily on the Atmosphere template from Pixelarity to form the base structure of our website. Sure, we customize it as we go to suit the specific aesthetic we're hoping to achieve, but the bare bones are predominantly from that template. Without knowing that all of our client websites start from a Pixelarity template, you likely wouldn't even be aware of this fact.
Not Reinventing The Wheel
When we can achieve a significant portion of the UX design by implementing an existing template and making minor cosmetic changes here and there, we save our clients time and, most importantly, money. Ultimately, most of our clients want a website done yesterday by the time they are talking to us about their project. It also informs the way that we approach the web design process with our clients. We don't start by wireframing webpages and drawing out layouts for each page. Instead, we find one template from the near 100 amazing templates on the Pixelarity website. During that process, we have conversations about the different elements presented in the template and begin to form a work plan for what features we are going to customize. Once the client chooses the template, we add in the colour palette, the client's branding, and their content and functional design requests, and 90% of the website is already complete.
Projects can change on the fly during development and even months or years later. One of our clients has themed events every year and requests design changes every year to match the branded theme of that year's event. When you look deeper into our pricing, you'll notice that additional web development is not an add-on that you can tack on later. With a high-performance website, we recognize that you need a professional web developer to maintain it and keep it up to date with the latest, cutting-edge developments in web programming. That's why we bundle in website maintenance costs into our compulsory hosting services. We get the web hosting business you would otherwise give to GoDaddy for the same service quality and price, and we give you the peace of mind that all of your website's needs are taken care of, now and in the future.
100% Canadian Owned and Operated
Since launching keddyandassociates.com, we've migrated over to keddy.ca, which boasts the convenience of a much shorter URL for our domain, sub-domains, and email accounts. It also nods to our Canadian roots, and our pride in being 100% Canadian owned and operated, and prioritizing the sourcing of Canadian service providers wherever possible (like Canadian Web Hosting!).