PiP Coders

01/20/2022

We are looking to hire an experienced business content writer to join Pip Coders, an award-winning website development and digital marketing company in Baltimore City. We specialize in building enterprise-quality websites for medium-sized businesses, non-profits, schools, and institutions. Your experience should include writing for digital or traditional media, focusing on business. Initially, this position will be part-time / freelance but could transition to full-time. We pay above the industry standard, with remuneration dependent on experience. If interested, please forward your CV with links to your published work to [email protected].

08/19/2021

How to Choose a Website Designer – The First 5 Questions to Ask

Your website will probably be a client's first introduction to your business or nonprofit. Therefore, it is highly consequential to find the right website developer for your web project. Not only will they be working closely with you on the initial project, they probably will provide support with a longer-term service agreement. It is vital to have an expert on your website ready to help. They will be able to assist with website training for employees and keep your site's code up to date and secure.

The first step is to arrange a meeting. As with interviewing a prospective employee, the more you can define your requirements, the easier it is to find the best website development company for your particular project. These requirements can be easily measured, such as whether the company has successfully completed similar projects or they can provide positive testimonials. There are also 'soft' requirements, such as perceived professionalism, friendliness, and company culture.

Question 1: How do you approach website usability?

Every website company should have an immediate answer to this question. The answer will separate professional website development companies from newbies that can only customize a template.

Is your company or nonprofit identical to all others, or does it stand out from the competition? The website development company you choose must understand your business and, even more importantly, understand your clients and customers. If the goal of your new website is to connect, then truly understanding the requirements of your customers must be all-consuming.

A competent web designer will focus on your customers and clients, teasing out as much information as possible. At Pip Coders, we prioritize understanding your business, creating client stories for every type of user that will interact with your new site.

Question 2: Have you examples of similar projects that you have successfully completed?

Unfortunately, like nearly all businesses, there are website developers who overstate their ability. You want your chosen website development company to go over and above, not to underdeliver. The easiest way to answer this question is to check out their previous work.

It is not whether they have built sites for a similar company, but rather have built sites with similar functionality. Do you require a login facility where trusted employees can add new content or a media section that automatically imports your Instagram posts? Have they experienced building out that type of functionality? There are plenty of web designers that populate a template. If you want your website to do something more than display text and images, you need a web design company that can write code. At Pip Coders, we have designers, coders, and content creators.

Question 3: Do your previous clients enjoy working with you? Can you provide recent testimonials?

How can you trust a new company with your critical website project? Are they professional? Have they a good reputation? The easiest way to answer this question is to read their recent testimonials. The best web development companies actively solicit reviews from their clients. If they have built a fantastic website, the client will undoubtedly write a positive review. Check for completed websites without testimonials - there omission may not be an accident!

Question 4: Is my website future-proof? How easy is it to add new content or update the design?

Website future-proofing can be challenging for a non-technical client to ascertain. It is an important question, and all reputable website development companies should have a decent, non-technical answer. At Pip Coders, we separate website code from design and design from content. If the site requires a fresh look after several years, you don't need to update the content or the code. Also, it is important to check that the development company uses the latest, stable versions of code libraries, frameworks, and stacks. It is practically impossible to keep a website secure if the code isn't updated regularly.

Question 5: How can we measure the success of our website project?

A reputable website developer should have a decent, non-technical answer. They should be able to explain terms like unique visits, bounce rates, time spent on site, unique page views, inbound links, search engine rankings, optimization, and conversion rates. Dive deeper if their answer is too technical. Have them explain website jargon and geeky buzzwords! If they can't explain it, they don't understand it!
The bottom line is that you should feel 100% happy with a website development company before you sign a contract. You need to trust their ability, their professionalism, and their word.

06/10/2021

We have just completed another website for Richard Wright Public Charter School, a local DC nonprofit. We offer a special discounted rate for local nonprofits!

Being so busy we have just started on some case studies. These help to explain our process, using previous websites as examples.

Richard Wright Public Charter Schools have a mission to transform lives in an engaging, student-centered environment with a caring, highly qualified staff to develop students for college and beyond. With its unique focus on journalism, media, creative and performing arts, RWPCS offers a myriad of opportunities, both on and off campus, for all students to thrive and achieve.

Richard Wright PCS outgrew its previous building and upgraded their school facilities, moving into a brand-new, purpose-built property, next to the National Mall. Their website was originally built with WordPress and had become slow to load and difficult to maintain. As with all schools and non-profits, it was extremely important that their new website was accessible, conforming to ADA and WCAG website accessibility standards.

Our goal before starting any code development is to complete a thorough inventory of the existing website content. By reorganizing the original content, we can start to rebuild a clean, easy to navigate website ready for any future copy and additional functionality. Working closely with Michelle Santos, Richard Wright PSC's Chief Creative Officer, we developed a plan to seamlessly upgrade their site to one that would serve them well for years to come.

Please visit https://www.richardwrightpcs.org to view the site!

06/03/2021

We have just completed a few websites for local nonprofits. We offer a special discounted rate for local nonprofits!

Being so busy we have just started on some case studies. These help to explain our process, using previous websites as examples. Please take a look at the case study for Maryland Family Network.

Maryland Family Network is a leading non-profit, whose mission is to ensure that young children have strong families, quality learning environments and a champion for their interests.

Maryland Family Network's original site had grown unwieldy due to business expansions and acquisitions at the successful non-profit. Their site was built with WordPress and had become cumbersome for employees to manage and for clients to navigate. By adding new areas to the site, the navigation had become multi-layered, therefore increasing the complexity and time for users to find important information. The site had become slow to load and it's aesthetic tired.

Maryland Family Network needed a modern and fast site that would allow for employees to regularly add new content. Clients, from childcare service professionals to the general public, needed the site have a consistent approach to content, so becoming simple to search and easy to navigate.

Please visit https://pipcoders.com/case-studies/maryland-family-network for more information

05/29/2019

LOCAL BUSINESS WEB DEVELOPMENT

See: https://www.pipcoders.com/content/dewdrop-ukuleles

Four Hour Day on the Harford Rd is a music school and cozy concert venue. Opened in 2015, it serves as a musical workspace for the local community and Baltimore at large. Tyler St. Clare, who owns the shop with his father Gabe, has developed a wonderful way of making ukuleles, utilizing an interesting selection of sustainably-harvested, native woods, with saddles and bridges that use offcuts and reclaimed pieces.

His web project was multi-faceted. He needed a site to create awareness, explaining his eco-friendly approach to ukulele design. He also needed a secure platform, where he could sell ready-made and custom-built ukuleles. He already had clarity regarding the site’s design aesthetic, wanting to exemplify the craftsmanship of handmake wooden instrument manufacturing. It was our job to craft his vision into a well-structured, modern responsive website, that would scale organically as his business grew.

As I state to all clients - great websites are created before the first line of code is written! Firstly, we had to gather all the content, product variations, design ideas and technical specifications to aid in the creation of user stories and page wireframes. The website needed to look great, work smoothly and allow the client to securely access a simple yet powerful administration interface. They needed to be able to add new articles and manage their shopfront, without calling a web developer!

Tyler had some great design ideas. We worked closely with his sketches to turn his ideas into web pages. His hand drawn images of his ukuleles were perfect for the shop front. Even through Dewdrop sells one type of ukulele, his custom build process allows customers to choose a selection of woods, inlays and neck details. This turned one product into over 6,000 different product variations. And each variation had to have it’s own image, description and price!

Once we had sketched-out all the wireframes it became apparent that his site needed a CMS solution, with a modern e-commerce facility. The shop architecture was perfect for a custom implementation of Drupal 8’s Commerce module. It could handle the many custom product variations, allow clients to browse or build their ideal ukulele, process purchases through a range of providers and it would scale wonderfully in the future. Also, unlike many other solutions, it is completely customizable, and the module’s developers don’t charge a monthly fee.

Once Dewdrop’s new site was completed, we thoroughly tested all the custom code. Being build using solid OOP design and employing Drupal 8’s modern framework, automated testing is a breeze (ask your web developer if they code unit tests – we doubt it!). It also making future specification updates easier.

It was great working with a local client to turn his vision into a superb, modern, user-friendly website! Please call or email Pip Coders if your business needs a new website. With our years of international experience, we are consistently ranked in the top three SMB website developers in Maryland. We deliver international quality at local prices!

05/29/2019