Many people know us as a design shop, where beautiful and vibrant designs are created. This is true of course, but only part of what we do. Beyond making things pretty, we also make things work. Like websites. A beautiful façade can only bring you so far, the site has to work for the client, and work for the client’s clients – if it doesn’t, no amount of pretty will save it.

Recently, AdBuy.com, a private media planning and media buying firm with a dedicated focus on service and media selection, came to Rhyme & Reason looking for design assistance. The site was designed and built by their previous web partner. However, since its launch, AdBuy was struggling with how to make the content, case studies in particular, more visually compelling. Some additional pictures, a unique layout and attention to content was what we suggested to make the pages pop. AdBuy agreed.

In the midst of design, Amy, our contact at AdBuy, called us frantic over the display of their home page slideshow. She was merely trying to update a plugin, when the site went haywire. Unfortunately, in the world of websites, plugins and code sometimes have a mind of their own. We called upon our WordPress guru and team member Todd to see if he could provide a solution to the problem. After a thorough review of the site, he explained that many errors were appearing on the site stemming from improper theme programming and an inordinate amount of plugins. In fact, many of the plugins were found to be unnecessary and some were even conflicting with one another. His findings prompted the AdBuy team to request that we run a full diagnostic review and subsequently reprogram the site based on our findings.

The updates we completed for AdBuy included a full site migration to GoDaddy (our preferred hosting company), integration of a backup plugin and theme and plugin recoding. Thanks to the results of these efforts, Amy and her team are able to more easily update the site without the fear of errors.

What happened to the AdBuy site is not unusual, in fact much like technology in general, plugins and code become unusable or obsolete if they are not monitored and managed by a knowledgeable partner. Whether you partner with Rhyme & Reason or another trusted design shop it is important to remember that functionality can make or break your site.