Web + App Development
We have over a decade of in-house experience in website development and, having provided services for many clients across the UK since we began in 2018, we know what it takes to deliver a quality product. The two systems we love most are Laravel and WordPress, but it's ok if you don't know what those are; let us worry about the technicalities while you focus on driving your business to succeed.
Whether you're a small business looking for a simple website to sell your services online, or have an existing project which you needs some love, we're here to take you through that process. Our approach is based on three key principles:
1. Honesty
It doesn't help anyone if you're promised the world and it's not delivered.
We like to be clear throughout the project about time estimates, functionality and cost so you know exactly what to expect.
We would much rather under-promise and over-deliver than the other way around.
2. Simplicity
Have you ever felt like a developer is talking in code to you? Sometimes even literally!
We prefer the "no jargon" approach, using appropriate analogies and plain English to help you understand the project from all sides
3. Best Practice
We use and promote all the best practices we can.
While we create efficiency by balancing time and functionality, we don't like to take shortcuts. In website development, time and cost "saved" by rushing is often spent twofold later on fixing problems. Best-practice solutions are more scalable and maintainable than something rushed.
New Tech? No Problem
The development landscape is a living organism with new frameworks being born regularly and old technology dying out in the blink of an eye.
If you're working with a web technology we haven't mentioned, we're willing to bet we can take on the challenge.
Bespoke WordPress Development
When it comes to WordPress websites we have specialist knowledge. It's usually better to have a WordPress developer than an implementor.
What's an implementor?
A WordPress implementor (who might refer to themselves as a WordPress developer) is someone who will install third-party WordPress themes and plugins for you, without knowing how to actually customise on a code level.
Why can this be dangerous?
WordPress plugins and themes get updates all the time and, with a lot of them on the same site, conflicts in newer versions can break your website. If the person managing your site doesn't know how the code behind these systems work the recovery process can be long, costly and a real pain.
How are we different?
When it comes to WordPress development, Ubiquity Code...
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understand how WordPress works "behind the scenes"
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effectively manage third-party themes/plugins on our WordPress sites
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can create a custom theme for your brand
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can create bespoke plugins for the functionality you need
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reduce site bloat/latency by minimising the number of third-party plugins
Sayhello to UCDF
Over the years we've been putting our most useful custom WordPress functions into a custom WordPress plugin we call the Ubiquity Code Developer Framework[ Beta ] (or UCDF for short).
This project is still being worked on but the plugin is open-source and completely free for anyone to use in its current state.
Concerns
Most of our clients are running their websites on WordPress - it's a popular choice. But as with anything commonplace in business there can be doubts about the platform. Namely:
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"it's insecure"
This isn't true out of the box. Most security issues in WordPress systems are only present due to either insecure third-party plugins/themes, failing to keep the site up to date or bad server management
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"it's a blog site"
While WordPress can still be used for blogs, it's evolved tremendously past being just a site for hosting blogs. With the introduction of full-site editing in recent times too, it really is equipped for most use cases
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"I don't know how to use it"
We've got you! Every fresh WordPress build comes with a free 1-hour training session. If your site has already been built, even by someone else, you can book a call with us to teach you whatever you need to know about your system
Self-Management
One of the best things about WordPress as a system is that it makes updating your own site a piece of cake. Content can easily be added, edited or removed without needing to hire a copywriter or a website administrator. This means that (once we've trained you, if you need it) the cost of building your website can be a "fire and forget" if you need it to be.
Project Rescue
There are many reasons that a project might fall into disrepair...
Maybe you've started a business, commissioned a website and haven't got around to updating it in the years since. Maybe you're a development agency and the site runs on a technology which there is no longer an in-house knowledge of (perhaps because of staffing changes). It could be that combination of vacations and sickness might mean that nobody who knows that technology is currently working.
It can be a real pain to try and figure out what's wrong with the site and how you can restore it functionally. Stress, lost hours and a lot of head-scratching might all be for nothing if there's something wrong which you or your team just can't figure out.
But whatever the reason, if you have a website which has broken, fallen over or any other synonym for "caused a panic" then don't worry - we've got you!
A number of businesses have contacted us in the past saying their website is down and they don't know what to do - that's where we step in. Our project rescue service will get you up and running again as soon as possible.
Highlights
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Expedited debugging + restoration
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Full "before and after" backups included for peace of mind
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Get your project back on track without lengthy customer service calls
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Mitigate disaster while the one dev who knows how the site works is on vacation
Not only will we get to work on restoring your site quickly, but we'll take a full backup of the site before the restoration and another one after. This way you can be sure we won't lose any of your data and if there's anything you don't already have when the site is back up it can be restored from the old version. Providing it was present at the time we were brought in, of course.
When your site is up and running once again, you can spend less time worrying about the issue and more time focussed on more important things!
Tech Spec Writing
It's quite common that people might not speak "developer jargon". The difference between operational/business termonology and technical/development terminology can cause a disconnect between the understanding of all parties in a project and that can lead to a lot of wasted time.
If you have an idea in mind but you're not sure of the technical details, it can be difficult to explain your requirements to multiple development companies as you try to get quotes for the work.
Worst case scenario, you end up hiring a company to carry out the work based on a misunderstood concept and they build something which is nothing like what you wanted which is not only a waste of time but your budget as well.
We offer a technical specification drafting service in which we take your idea (however exact or rough it might be) and create you a specification which you can have confidence in.
Features
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A full comprehension of the goals/objectives of the project
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Detailed report of the functionality required by the project
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Turn your idea into terminology which developers will understand
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Includes a quote for the work to be carried out by us
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No obligation for development - take the spec to get quotes elsewhere if you wish
If you have a set budget and a decided vision, a technical specification is incredibly useful to have for efficiency. With a detailed description of your project's requirements, an included quote for the work and no obligation from you to us, you can put your mind at ease when trying to describe your requirements.
