Interview with Materiell

Materiell is a Washington DC based Web design and development agency that specializes in WordPress, handcrafted websites, and responsive design.

What do you think about the do-it-yourself website builder software?

We are an advanced development team, so we don't have a lot of experience with the do-it-yourself services. We think they're great for micro businesses, especially starting out. Our expertise lies in advanced development, advanced functionality, and also developing in content management services. These content management systems are highly functional for specific client's needs, it is also easy to have their internal marketing or communications department perform updates, edit content, and add content.

Do you primarily use WordPress to do all of your development?

We have used Drupal, Expression Engine and WordPress, but we're primarily WordPress developers – enterprise WordPress developers.

What business objectives do you think a client needs to define before selecting how they should build a website?

They need to interview competent firms and choose a good fit.  That agency should then put the appropriate tools in place to analyze and collect data about how their current site is performing and provide the client with real data that shows what is working and where improvements can be made. The client can then determine what their goals, objectives, and success metrics should be for the redesign.

For example, we're getting a fair number of requests on the commercial side for companies that have done a lot of business with the federal government, and now, because the federal government has cut back spending, they are looking to add more commercial business to their portfolio. The goals and success metrics for their sites are based on converting commercial buyers to inquire about their services or products. We've helped multiple law firms and government contractors assess their needs and set their goals for their new site.

Some law firms in Washington, D.C., have done an enormous amount of work, and they had dedicated business development personnel to obtain government contracts, and now they're shifting their goals towards bringing in more commercial business. They engage us, and the first thing we do is advanced analytics. We look very carefully at their model, and work with them on the strategy of what those goals and objectives are. Every client is individualized, and every client has their own unique needs. The discovery process that we go through helps them define those goals and objectives. It sees what they're doing right with their current digital assets and what can be improved.

Would you say that this discovery process happens with every project that you take on? Do clients sometimes come to you already having done that discovery process within their own company?

Both. We're currently working on the Arlington County public schools family of sites. We are redesigning and developing their 44 school websites and district site. They issued a well-organized request for proposal, and we bid on it. During that process, we really dug deep and looked at their analytics to provide a response. As this project has moved forward, we've done additional discovery, but they had done a lot of that homework and legwork initially.

Are you still able to use WordPress for some of these more complex projects?

We are specifically experienced with a WordPress install, called WordPress Multisite, which is ideal for when a commercial business has multiple locations, or a school system has multiple schools, or a higher education institution has multiple academic departments and sports, et cetera. Multisites can be very valuable and that's something that's a premier specialty of ours. WordPress Multisite is one of our favorite tools for these large enterprise-type builds.

Do you find that there are any limitations to using WordPress?

WordPress has continuously moved forward in robustness, it has come a long way. It was introduced around 2003, and it started out as a blogging tool. Today, it is a full-featured, robust content management system that, with the latest release, applications can also be built in. WordPress is a lot different than people's perception of it years ago. It has an enormous amount of power and extensibility.

Can it do absolutely everything? Sometimes, a different tool is a better solution. However, especially for a lot of education sites, whether it is for kindergarten through 12th grade or higher education, we see WordPress Multisite as a very good option. It can have very robust functionality but also an ease of use on the client side, especially in terms of content editing. It’s very friendly; the learning curve is minimal with the proper documentation and training that we provide to clients. We’ve seen it as a great tool, for not only commercial but also education clients. Law firms that publish a lot of posts regarding recent events or court cases, they seem to like it a lot also.

Why do you choose WordPress instead of Drupal or some other CMS?

It really depends on the individual client and their goals and objectives. Drupal is certainly a very good answer for many cases, and WordPress is a very good choice in other cases. We evaluate a client's needs and objectives, the functionality and the integrations that they're going to require. If those are compatible with WordPress, then we choose WordPress as the CMS.

Do you have an example of when WordPress was not the right solution to use for a project?

I would say that for sites that need financial-level bank security, WordPress would not be the best choice.  For example, we were asked to do a Bitcoin exchange site, and we absolutely declined. We didn't feel like WordPress was the right CMS to use for a Bitcoin exchange.

What are the key drivers of cost in building a website?

These include the complexity and the functionality. What are the functionality needs? Will there be multiple calendars? Will there be e-commerce functions, and/or donations? Will the site have application programming interface (API) integrations? Will the site require advanced levels of permissions? Will it use a sign-in system, like Onelogin? Will it integrate with something that doesn't have a clearly written API?

Will we be providing the imagery, or will the client be providing the images? Will the client be providing the content, or will we be providing the content? Does the client have clear goals and objectives? The strategy component has pricing to it. Of course, the complexity of the design is a component as well. I would say responsive, but every project we do is in responsive design. Everything we've built for the last three years has been friendly on mobile, tablet, and desktop.

How about the maintenance costs? Do you follow up and provide training and support after you build the website?

We provide documentation, and we build it right into the WordPress dashboard: the documentation, frequently asked questions, and help videos. We provide onsite training or Skype training. We also offer full maintenance and hosting packages, where we're responsible for the uptime monitoring, backups, and server management. We also have retainer packages where some clients want us on-call to perform content edits or design or development changes, and they have us on retainer.

We like to build the site and then have a long-term relationship with the client. We have multiple clients that have long-term relationships with us on the maintenance and hosting – basically the Webmaster component – along with retainers for any changes they want in the future. In the last 12 months, we've also added an advanced analytics and digital marketing offering, where we evaluate the site with heat maps, scroll testing, and A/B testing. We meet with clients on a regular basis to discuss what's working and what's not, and what adjustments we can make to better reach their goals and objectives. Once the site is built, we often go back and make adjustments to it based on what we're seeing as visitors interact with it.

How does your company go about pricing projects and charging clients?

We evaluate any documentation that a client sends to us – any requirements that they have specifically outlined. We like an in-person meeting with them, so that we can ask very specific questions about what we just went through when it came to the price. Are they going to be providing the content? Are they going to be providing the images? Who do we look to for access to these integrations? Who are the decision makers on the project?

The number one step we do is an exhaustive content inventory of the existing site. We do a lot of redesigns and developments. The first thing we do is hook the old site up to advanced analytics. The second thing we do is an exhaustive content inventory where we crawl every page, we look at what's there, and then we collaborate with the client on what content will be on the new site. We determine what needs to be updated before the new site is finished, what is not going to come over, and what is going to be legacy or archived. That's a big step for us. We just did that with Arlington, and it was 14,000 pages of content inventory with Arlington public schools.

While we're designing and developing the project – and content is such a big part of the design, we need to know what the content is so we can design with it – it gives the client a road map where they can be developing, updating, and deciding on what content stays and goes while we're working. At the end of the project, we don't just say, "Hey, where's your content? We're ready to migrate." They've got the proper lead-time to get that done. So, we do think it's pretty important.

Does your company require a minimum budget to take on a new client?

I would say that most of our projects range from $20,000 into the six figures.

I would say that $15,000 is probably our minimum. If it's something we're really passionate about, we'll take some things that aren't around that minimum. We did the Washington-Lee Crew Boosters website. It's a small site for a sports team for a local high school in Arlington, Virginia. That certainly didn't meet the minimum, but it was something that we felt really good about doing. We were excited and happy to do it, and we did some nice graphic design work for them. That would be an outlier. For the most part, our projects are complex and my staff is very energized by complex projects.

What are some of the benefits of hiring a web design company?

An invested partner throughout the process, from discovery to strategy and planning, to designing, delivery, launch, and optimization. There is maintenance and hosting in the ongoing relationship.

The biggest advantage is, this is what we do for a living every single day. We don't try to be anything other than a Web design, development and digital marketing company. These are our passions. Everyone that works here loves what they do; they don't grudgingly come to work.

We spend thousands of dollars a year on training to stay up with the latest and greatest, most upgraded code and design concepts. I just had two of my personnel go to WordCamp Orange County, and I had four people at WordCamp San Francisco. We went to the ARTIFACT Conference last year in Austin, and we're going to the Project Management Summit in Philadelphia in October [2015]. Last year, we spent about $29,000 on conferences.

We also use the very latest versions of the best graphic software. We have top-of-the-line iMacs, we have multiple devices for testing, Windows PCs, Samsung phones, Apple iPhones 4, 5 and 6, tablets, iMacs, and Surface. So, we can test on various devices, and we also have the best software to do cross-browser testing. Basically, we invest in the best knowledge, equipment, and software. We also give back to the WordPress community by sponsoring WordCamps. We were a silver sponsor of WordCamp Baltimore last year, and a silver sponsor of WordCamp Boston for the last two years.

What unique value does Materiell provide?

We do nationwide projects for large companies and educational institutions. We know the mid-Atlantic, and especially the D.C. Metro area, extremely well. I am a 20-year-resident of Northern Virginia, and we have a very keen understanding of the business climate here. We're also an alliance partner with Instructure, the maker of the Canvas Learning Management System It has been widely adopted with K-12 and higher education. We're attending their InstructureCon conference in June.

We've won multiple awards for design and development. Last year, we won the Best in Class Award from the Interactive Media Awards, for our website that we designed and developed for the American Press Institute. We scored more points than the American Dental Association's site that was built by one of the largest and most prestigious agencies in the country. So, that's the level and the quality of work that we do.