Website Solutions

SoH delivers custom content-managed websites built on the Drupal platform. As followers of the Open Source Initiative, we believe in open-source software that can be “freely used, changed, and shared by anyone”. While most organizations appreciate that the software itself doesn’t incur any licensing fees, the true strength of open-source is that it is of higher quality and more secure than comparable proprietary solutions. We selected Drupal as a core tool years ago, and have committed to training and supporting our staff in delivering top-notch solutions built with Drupal. A generalist IT or web development firm cannot make the same claim.

Whether your site serves as a platform from which you publish content or a complex community that needs to integrate with a customer management system, SoH can deliver the solution. Need third-party application integration? Mapping? Responsive design techniques for viewing across all devices? We've got the answer for you. 

Our unique approach ensures that we are providing the best practices in website design and development. Our process results in high-quality websites that are targeted to your business goals, easy to navigate and stress-free to maintain.

  • Discovery
  • Content Strategy
  • Interaction Design
  • Build/integrate/test
  • Train
  • Launch/host/maintain

rulers, pencil and measuring tools


Website Design

Website design is one of the most misunderstood concepts of our time. Why wouldn't it be? The field has evolved from the layout of simple, static, single-sized pages to the design of complex interactive experiences now playing on devices that fit in your pocket to screens that hang on the wall. Often this task is so complex that it requires multiple specialists.

What defines a visual web experience? Obviously the fonts, color palette and imagery. But also the path followed to access the information, the selection of media used to present it, the format used to present it, and the controls provided to the visitor to access or manage the information. The proper pairing of all these options requires a precise understanding of the information, the audience, and the goals of the website. There are no 'one-size-fits-all' solutions, and no templated solutions.

What makes one website so much easier to use than another? The answer is found in the field of  interaction design. Designing with the end-user in mind, determining the most intuitive way to find content, and developing the user experience are the skills of the designer. Going beyond effective navigation, they determine the best way to present the content across your website.

SoH prides itself on being able to navigate through this sea of options to arrive at designs that are clean, intuitive, functional,  user-centric, and creative. Through our agile and collaborative design process we design websites that provide a unique and enjoyable online experience to every visitor. Our process examines the needs of your audience and the types of content on your site to develop visual and interaction design best suited to your audience.

  • Persona development
  • User experience
  • Architecture and navigation
  • Vocabularies and taxonomies
  • Graphical interface

 

monitor, laptop, tablet and smartphone


Website Development

For many firms in this business, this is where they begin. But good development is always based on a set of strategies and requirements that define what is needed to achieve the desired results. Web application development is more than writing code — it is literally about accomplishing your business goals online. Through our consulting process, we will gather the information needed to architect and develop your optimum website technology solution. Having strategized, analyzed, designed, prototyped and discussed, now is the time to make it happen.

Expertise, knowledge, and experience in web technologies is critical. How a website is built very much determines how it is scored and reported by search engines, thereby influencing your rank as people search for your services online. Moreover, site construction determines the level of security, performance, usability and accessibility, both for your audience and for your web team.

tandem speed bike


Training

Every site we build is custom. It is important to the success of your project that you know the logic behind how your website is structured and how to manage your content.

We provide a custom back-end interface that makes content maintenance easy and intuitive. Through our training program you are assured that you will understand how to maintain the content on your new site. We provide both in-house and web-based trainings. We stick with you until you are comfortable with your new website.

SoH Studios also provides consulting services, along with training and facilitation for digital strategy, content strategy, and brand development. Let us know your needs.

gear and wrench


Hosting and Support

A hosting server should be matched with the access, availability and performance requirements of your website. Insecure operating system components, insufficient resources like memory or disk space, environments shared with unknown users, and underpowered servers can wreak havoc with your site’s security and performance.

Outsourcing the management of your hosting to us can eliminate costly expenditures for equipment, software, staffing and connectivity. We maintain our servers exclusively for our Drupal clients. Our sites are hosted on state-of-the-art high availability multiprocessor HP systems, with round-the-clock security and monitoring for hardware failures, redundant connectivity, uninterruptible power supply, digitally-monitored security systems, fire suppression and redundant cooling systems.

We maintain a state of readiness to restore your site should catastrophic failure occur. SoH monitors your hosting platform to provide the best environment in which to run Drupal and provide services required by your website. While no one can guarantee that the web will always be secure, best practices, regular maintenance, and a prompt response when issues like this arise will minimize your risk.

Because any web platform requires regular checkups and maintenance, we’ve made it easy to subscribe to ongoing essential services. Many Drupal firms allow for one in-version software update per year. For the same cost, SoH upgrades your site regularly, performing ongoing reviews throughout the year to ensure that all available security patches and updates are evaluated and implemented.

Our offering is bundled in one convenient service package called the Backstage PAS™—Priority Annual Support. We offer a unique approach to site upgrades that completely eliminates site downtime, or reduces it to just seconds in situations where a major version switchover is required.

 

laptop on life preserver


Drupal Rescue

For a variety of reasons your Drupal website may not be delivering the results you expect. Is it reaching the right audience, delivering a clear message and engaging your visitors? Is it suffering from technical issues, configuration problems, security vulnerabilities or slow performance? Has it been awhile since it was upgraded with essential security and performance updates? Perhaps your organization finds it necessary to acquire a new provider to support or enhance your Drupal website.

It is one thing to be able to build a site from scratch, and quite another to be able to inherit an existing site, reverse engineer the intent and methods of the original developers, and plan the optimal route that will leverage existing work and accommodate Drupal's future direction.

Our team of experts can perform front-end or back-end analysis, consulting, and remediation to realign the site with your needs and expectations.

  • Website strategy, architecture and content
  • Compliance with Drupal best practices
  • Hosting configuration
  • Status and effectiveness of backup and recovery process
  • Course of action for repairing, maintaining, or upgrading the website