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Shasai Studio
Software development

Website development

Most websites lose people for the same three reasons: they cannot be found, they are slow on a phone, and changing a sentence means emailing a developer. All three are decided in the build, and the build starts with the structure rather than the home page.

Businesses replacing a site that no longer reflects them, organisations putting something new online, and campaigns that need a page which opens quickly on a phone.

How we work through website development

Structure first, pages second

Before anything is designed we agree what pages exist, what each one is for and what a visitor should be able to do on it. A site built from a page inventory is cheaper to change later, because a new page drops into a template that already exists rather than inventing one.

  • A page inventory and the templates it needs
  • Navigation written around what visitors actually look for
  • Titles and descriptions written per page, not templated once
  • Copy planned for English and Swahili where both are needed

Built for a phone on mobile data

Most people who open a Tanzanian website do it on a mid-range Android phone they are paying to use data on. That makes page weight a deciding factor rather than a technical detail: images are sized for where they appear, and nothing important waits on a script nobody needs.

  • Images served at the size they are actually displayed
  • Pages that show their content without waiting for scripts
  • Checked on a real phone on an ordinary connection, not on a laptop

Findable in the structure, not in the footnotes

One page per subject and one URL per page, with a redirect from every address the old site used, so a search engine and a visitor both land in the right place. Where a site replaces an older one, the list of old URLs is mapped before launch rather than discovered in a report afterwards.

  • Canonical URLs, a sitemap and structured data
  • Redirects mapped from the previous site before launch
  • A 404 page that leads back into the site

Your team can change it

The people who update a website every week are not developers, and the screens they use are built for them. Where a content management system is part of the build, the pages that change most are the ones made easiest, and the handover is a session with the people who will publish.

  • A short written guide for the people editing
  • A handover session rather than a manual sent by email
  • A clear line between editing content and changing the build

What you receive

  • A page inventory and template plan in writing
  • Design applied to real content and reviewed on a phone
  • The built site, deployed to hosting held in your name
  • Redirects mapped from the previous site
  • Canonical tags, a sitemap and structured data
  • A handover session with the people who will publish

Questions we are often asked

  • How long does a website take?

    It depends on how many pages there are, whether the content exists, and how many people have to approve it. Rather than quote a duration we cannot hold, we agree a schedule in writing that includes what we need from you — copy, photographs, sign-offs — because a schedule without the client's part in it is only a guess.

  • Can you work with the brand files we already have?

    Yes, and we check them before designing anything: the logo files, the colours, the typefaces. Where a file cannot be used well on screen we say so at that point, rather than building around something that will cause trouble later.

  • Who writes the words on the page?

    Either side, and it is agreed at the start. Some clients arrive with finished copy, which we edit for the page it sits on. Where we write it, we ask for the facts only you hold — what you offer, who you serve, the questions customers actually ask — and then read the result back to you.

One studio

What this connects to.

The other service lines this one meets on a real project, and what the two of them share.

  • Security hardening

    Logins, forms and admin areas are configured and checked as part of the build rather than treated as a separate project later.

  • Branding

    The identity's colour, type and tone are applied to the build, so the site reads as the same organisation as the printed material.

Where to go next

Next step

Talk to us about website development.

A short description of the project is enough to start. We will reply with how we would approach it, what it needs and what it would take.

Start a projectshasaistudio@pm.me0799 003 003