When you review a staging site, you’re looking at the near-finished version of your new website. The foundation is already built. The direction and structure are approved. At this stage, your feedback plays a major role in how quickly and cleanly we can move to launch.

The best feedback is clear, specific, and tied to your goals. Vague or late structural changes slow things down and work against the progress we have already made. Here’s how to review a staging site in a way that gets you the strongest final product with the fewest delays.

What to Look For During Staging Review

Content accuracy
This is the moment to verify the facts. Check phone numbers, staff names, product details, addresses, pricing, hours, and anything else that must be correct. We will take care of grammar and clean up the writing if needed.

Branding consistency
Confirm that the site looks and feels like your brand. If something feels off such as an image choice or tone of voice, point it out directly. The more specific you are, the more useful your input becomes.

Page flow and logic
Look at how each page guides the user. Are the headlines in the right place. Are calls to action clear. Does anything feel out of order, crowded, or confusing. Give feedback based on clarity, not personal style preferences.

Functionality
Click through the site. Test buttons, form submissions, links, galleries, navigation, and any interactive elements. Look at both desktop and mobile. Many users only experience your site on a phone, so mobile feedback matters just as much.

What’s Easy to Change

These are updates we can make quickly without affecting scope or timeline.

Text updates
Rewording, adjusting length, fixing typos, or updating descriptions.

Image and media swaps
Replacing photos, team headshots, icons, or simple visuals.

Minor styling adjustments
Button text, simple spacing corrections, light cleanup.

Link or routing updates
Fixing URLs, updating email routing, and adjusting button destinations.

These are normal polishing tasks during staging.

What Counts as a Bigger Change

These requests require design work, development work, or both. They often affect timeline, budget, or both.

Layout changes
Adding new sections, rearranging major page elements, redesigning headers or hero sections, or switching templates. Anything that adjusts the site structure falls here.

New functionality
Adding calculators, tools, new integrations, conditional forms, interactive features, or anything that was not in the original scope.

Navigation restructuring
Changing top-level navigation, adding new menu groups, or combining/splitting core pages. Navigation touches the entire site and requires careful updates.

Strategic repositioning
Shifting the messaging, tone, or audience focus. These are important conversations but they represent a strategic revision, not a staging tweak.

How to Send Feedback That Moves the Project Forward

Use one place for all notes
Choose a single method such as a shared doc, task list, or email thread. Avoid sending small pieces of feedback across multiple channels. Centralizing your notes reduces errors and speeds up implementation.

Group feedback by page
Structure your notes like this:

Page: About
• Update team photo
• Adjust the CEO bio
• Button links to the wrong page

Page: Services
• Headline should say Custom Web Design
• Add link to portfolio section

Clear, grouped notes help the team move fast.

Be specific and outcome oriented
If something feels off, describe why. Instead of general comments like make this pop, be concrete. For example, the headline blends into the background or this photo feels too formal for our audience. Connect your feedback to user experience and business goals when possible.

Batch feedback into one or two rounds
Take the time to review the entire site before submitting anything. Multiple rounds of scattered comments slow the project and increase the chance of missed details.

Focus on alignment
Remind yourself of the approved design direction and goals. Feedback should refine the work, not restart it.

What Happens After You Submit Feedback

Once your notes are in, we review everything, categorize each item into quick edits or larger changes, clarify anything that needs approval, and then work through revisions. We will send you an updated staging link to confirm before launch.

Clear expectations create smoother projects and stronger outcomes. Good feedback helps us launch a site that is accurate, aligned, and built to perform. When the review process is intentional, the final product always turns out better.

The post How to Give Effective Feedback on Website Staging Proofs first appeared on Factor 1 Studios.

As we started to really apply our tools, processes, and systems to ourselves, it clicked. You see, I was cutting a corner, winging it, but every draft was just not quite right. Sure, it looked good, but these designs and strategies missed the mark.

Once we really stopped watching where the puck was, and started looking where the puck was heading, it hit us. We had our targets, we had our clarity, and it really did hit like a truck. The site updates, strategy, design and eventually development flowed.

Every now and then you have to slow down and commit to the process. Even as the experts.

The post When that clarity hits you like a truck first appeared on Factor 1 Studios.

Some history
About 25 years ago, I sat in a college portfolio class, thinking of what I wanted my future to be. I knew I wanted to be in the agency space and someday run my own. As part of this class, we had to have a brand and a name. I knew at the wise old age of 18 that it wasn’t about me. I loathed the idea of my name on the door of any building. This comes down to a core principle of who I am and always will be—I’m such a ‘we’ person to my core, and this is no different.

For non-math nerds, a mathematical factor is a number that can be divided into. A factor of 1 can’t be divided. So much like how I wanted a team to operate, the size of the team will never matter as we are one and won’t be divided. Cue cheesy music, I know. After a few years of freelance, factor1 needed to be real.

In August 2004, I quit stability for the unknown; safety was out the window, and the ships were burned. It was time to embrace the journey one step at a time, making up the route as we go.

The last 20 years have been the best roller coaster. We had some highs and plenty of lows; lessons learned the hard way is an understatement. Employees came and went, but never without leaving their fingerprints on who we are to this day. We had some amazing clients, too; many have been with us since day one. The economic collapse of 2009 was an adventure I wish no one ever has to experience again. A pandemic in 2020 was scary but less of a disaster; we came to that one more prepared. At the end of the day, our central motto of “give a shit” holds true and drives our work ethic. It’s the only way we survived some of the mistakes, pivots, and blunders.

Thank you to all the family, friends, employees, clients, and partners we had along the way. None of this works without you, and we’ll only carry on because of you.

The post Oh Sh!t – 20 years of factor1 first appeared on Factor 1 Studios.

Being an expert is the fastest way to convince me that you are the right fit. So before we go too much further, how are you the expert here? Are you leading the revolution in electric cars? Sure there are cheaper electric cars than a Tesla, but they are simply fighting for second place. Tesla was not the first electric car. Tesla produced cars may or may not be better, that doesn’t matter, they lead the revolution and push the industry forward. You know they are the expert here because it shows up in their products, their image, their consistency, and their plans for the future. They are proposing things few have even thought of. They are the expert.

Experts ask questions others don’t.

A few years ago I was in need of a new AC unit. Living outside of Phoenix, you can imagine what a critical need this is. We did the usual, call 4 or 5 top-rated companies, and right off the bat one or two didn’t even show up. Odd, but okay, off the list I guess. The remaining 3 all came, did their assessments, and had a price. All the prices were within 10% of each other. I was pretty clear in the level of a unit I wanted, where I stood on quality, etc. I wasn’t about to save a few hundred dollars for lower output. Here is where the expert stood out, one, only one saw the platform our blower unit in the house was built on and had a $500 suggestion to rebuild and reconfigure it. Clearly the expert rose to the top. I no longer cared how much more their estimate was in the first place, then adding in $500. I could see they knew more than the others. I’m sure if someone called it out, the others would have agreed, but the one to call it out was the expert.

When we at Factor1 take on any new website or strategy project, we dive deep beyond the initial requests. Like a doctor, (okay maybe we are not like a doctor, but stay with me) we need to understand the symptoms you see, but we also need to ask harder questions to get below the surface. Sometimes the things we think we need isn’t everything, or even right. An expert knows the right questions to ask, where to dig in, ask more questions, and not take the surface level answer at face value. Sure you can search the internet for the issue, but when you remove the expert, you only get the answers for the questions you know to ask. So basically, you end up with a self-diagnosis that a doctor will laugh at because a few internet searches don’t replace years of medical school.

How do you establish yourself as an expert? Do you go out telling people you are the expert or do you put your head down and do the hard work? Tesla does a great job at self-promotion these days, but I have still never seen a TV commercial from them. I’m pretty sure I have never seen a print ad either. They put in the work, produce game-changing cars. In 2019 the Tesla Model-3 sold just under 200,000 cars. Making it one of the top 25 vehicles sold that year (including trucks, SUVs, and crossovers). With no ads. Compare that to EVERY other car on that list and you will see hundreds of millions of dollars spent in collective ads.

I spent years in graphic design, web design, web development. In the first few years of Factor1, we asked customers what they wanted and produced just that request. You’d be surprised how often the final product just didn’t solve any problems. It looked great, we often won awards, but the work failed to make the desired impact on the customer’s business. Fast forward a few years and we only do work that lets us dig in. We get into financials, customer service, delivery, and reviews of our customer’s products. We want to know from the earliest touch point through every aspect of the product/service delivery how it works, where the pain points are, and where improvements are needed. Like doctors, a self-diagnoses only tells us what you know, we need to know the full picture because we have 15 years of experience here, and we will see/hear things you don’t think are relevant.

You can go the easy way or the right way.

The way I see it, you have two paths to being the top. You can spend money on ads, marketing, press releases, etc to tell the world you are the product/service they need. Or, you can work strategically on the position of your products, company, and leadership to be the leader of the pack. Sure the ads get you out there sooner, but the positioning is where the real money is.

Ask the hard questions of yourself, your customers, your industry and the future. Where can you push the limits and break free from the mold of what you’ve been told to do this entire time?

The post Before I buy from you first appeared on Factor 1 Studios.

Last year, on a local design Facebook group, someone came asking for a pretty technical WordPress design and development project. One that involved MultiSite, locations around the world with offices that needed their own regional site, multiple languages per region, and some content that was shared across all the installs, with proper SEO considerations. There were a few people saying they could handle it, then 5 different people recommended Factor 1. FIVE!. This is all before I even had a chance to read the details and respond. I also saw the people saying they could do it. For the people I knew in that list, I promise you, they were not experienced for this level of a build. When you have this level of being known as the best with specificity, the consulting and sales process becomes easy. I knew exactly how to do what they needed, paired with the social proof of us being the best, all left the client trusting us and confident they didn’t need to look further.

Being known as the best makes everything easier. It also makes it 10x harder to compete with. Last week I posted a silly video, Matt on the Bike: Being the best, where I share how this shows up in my biking and business. The backstory: while road biking, I can perform what is known as a track stand. For the non-bike nerds out there, a track stand is where you are on the bike, both feet clipped into the pedals, and a dead stop hold. It’s known as a track stand from the velodrome racing world where riders were basically strapped and taped to the pedals and needed to be ready to ride from a dead stop waiting for the starting gun. I can do this for minutes on end, I think my record is almost 10 minutes. It generally wows other riders. I have done this so consistently I have a nickname in the cycling community: Track Stand. I’m very sure many people don’t even know my real name. The key here is that I’m known for something, and if anyone else came into the groups to do the same thing, they would be compared to me. They would have to be more consistent, better, and hold it for years to take my title.

Simply put, when you are the best, you create an unfair advantage in your market that is somewhat magical when you are compared to your competition. Sure they may be cheaper or have fewer features, but they are still compared to you with a clear indication you are still the best.

What are you simply the best at? How are you using this as your marketing and service advantage that no one else can touch?

Photo by VELOBAR+ on Unsplash

The post There’s magic in being the best first appeared on Factor 1 Studios.

So what is that kind of work these days? Well first and foremost, it’s work on the web. Only. That’s right, we ONLY do website strategy, design, development, and maintenance. We don’t do much else outside of that. We will work on branding, and maybe a supporting a print piece if its part of a bigger web project, but not stand alone. Our workflows, our staff, our bread & butter is rooted in the web, as it has been for the last 15 years. Yes, even in 2005 we pretty much only made websites.

Okay, so what kinds of website? Good question.

Online learning platforms and communities. These are sites where the transaction is online, for a product that is delivered by the site. We work on all kinds of platforms, but our ideal system is rooted in WordPress.

Companies that have recurring revenue. This is where you have a product or service NOT delivered by the site, but you still need to acquire and nurture customers with a great user experience online and off. Projects in this space are often consulting, management services, support agreements, and software as a service

Nonprofits. Because you too need to manage the story, the value, and the long term relationships of a great donor or partner. Our years of work have led us to the best positioning of heroes and guides, with the support of a good partner like R2D2. So many nonprofits can grow because the right story and systems make people want to connect and give. Humans are built for connection, we just need to open up the lines of communication to connect the hearts.

At the end of the day, our work is about story, strategy, and positioning of you, on the web, in a way the fosters great relationships for the long term. Want to chat about the ways your company could be a good fit for us? Reach out.

The post What kinds of projects do you take? first appeared on Factor 1 Studios.

Often, we want to dive in and spend time crafting the perfect strategy, the perfect design, and the perfect email campaign. We do our homework, we measure twice, cut once, and so on. But then the customer does something unexpected. They click the wrong link, they skip the page we put so much time and effort into and jump around like we didn’t expect.

What if we changed this mindset? Let’s call the first version test 1, like Website homepage design test 1. Then, as soon as we launch it, we measure the results. When we approach the work with a scientific mindset and assign expected inputs and outputs to a set experiment, we can measure, test, and make revisions.

So let’s say down with the one shot to get it right. That’s never how science works. When Thomas Edison was working on the lightbulb, he said, “I haven’t failed — I’ve just found 10,000 that won’t work.”

“I haven’t failed — I’ve just found 10,000 that won’t work.”

Let’s find the ones that don’t work, get them out of the way and keep moving. Maybe it does work, but it could be better. Remember that lightbulb Edison had, well it’s gone now. We did the CFL thing, and now the LED thing — they keep getting better. The original lightbulb worked just fine, but these LED bulbs work better. Improved technology outputs better, energy efficient light.

How can we build a web strategy that not only works but produces more results at fewer costs? By working together, we can build the scientific tests, to find the measurable win, and track results to every project. We find these make excellent monthly engagements where every month we plan out tests, goals, ideas, and execute on them. Let’s fail together, but eventually, build that better lightbulb.

The post What if getting it right the first time is wrong? first appeared on Factor 1 Studios.

Consistency is key.

Every time we hire a new developer, use a freelancer because of timing or skills, or just otherwise grow as developers, you can tell. It’s almost like looking at a cross section of the grand canyon. There are clear layers with a change in material. We try to be consistent, but things change. When I look at some of the cross sections, the bands are many and tight. This shows that we had a bit of growing and chaos. These projects are the hardest to maintain long term. The code is good, but could be better. The tricky part is that this code is often pretty specific to that project. This leads to gaps in our teams institutional knowledge. Conversations like “who built this, and why? “ or “Talk to Matt, he built this and is the only one who knows why its that way”.

In the end, being consistent has lead to large spans of projects that are clear, predictable and many people on our team can edit without a ton of guessing. Yes the sites are always unique and specific, but the method to the code is clear and logical.

Planning for a successful project is always hard.

Not every site comes in with a crystal clear plan. Most don’t have much clarity at all. Our clients count on us to lead them in what they want and need. I feel like I could be the host of a home buying and remodeling show, where I have to guide that prospective buyer through all their needs, budgets, and what is actually important. All while planning for surprises and managing a rainbow of personalities along the way. So that makes me feel like a hero and a villain, often in the same conversation.

Planning for success can never be skipped, and applies to all levels of projects from a $5,000 site to a $25,000 site, the devil is in the details. The biggest thing we have learned across all those sites is that good questions, communication, and clear expectations are key ingredients to winning.

Cutting corners is simply delayed pain.

We work hard to make everything as it should be. We want our work to be built right the first time. But in our earlier years, we had to deal with gaps in our skillsets, or tighter budgets while still delivering the moon. Sometimes we would use a tool we didn’t know well, or just grab a plugin to do the job. And good enough was good enough.

I can say every time we did that, I paid for it. We paid for it with support down the road. As time went on that quick fix would unravel, and because we stand behind everything we do, we’d dive in to fix it and make it right. This cost us more time to fix and get right than doing it right the first time.

Great employees lead the way.

The first sites I built by hand. It was a dark time with flash, static HTML, and tables. It was rough. I got better, the work got better, but I can say massive turning points for our organization was the right people. People smarter than me, more organized then me, and people who cared just as much as I do. It’s because of these people on our staff we have made so many amazing sites over the years, and they continue to get better. I reviewed a site we have launching next week, and I can say WOW, it’s some of the best work we have ever done. The design is award worthy, and the development is so on point it’s perfect. Oh and the client loves it too, can’t forget that part.

I look back to the first few sites we built, and its night and day different. I wish all the sites in our massive list were as amazing as the latest and greatest. And they could be, but its also fair to remind ourselves that we are always growing. If you can’t look back at past work and clearly see we have grown, maybe you aren’t moving in the right direction. I can say for us, we are for sure moving in the right direction, more so then ever.

The post Lessons Learned From Building 200+ Websites first appeared on Factor 1 Studios.

Key things we are showing you in a wireframe design concept:

1. General sizing of the major objects, content areas, images, and videos.
2. What goes on each page. This page contains the following items...  sort of thing.
3. About how much content we are expecting. An intro paragraph is not the same as a full page about us novel.
4. Key strategy points, messaging models, calls to action, forms, and interaction points
5. Navigation patterns

In a wireframe stage, we are NOT showing you:

1. Color or style. These wireframes are almost always grey and plain.
2. Typography selections. We default to helvetica for simplicity.
3. Branding elements. We may not even have your logo in place at this point, but we try to.
4. Content. Most often the headlines are instructions or what should be written here. Body copy is always gibberish filler
5. Images. These are empty shells with an image icon. Images are dynamic things that can be managed at any time in the CMS.

What feedback should you be giving at the wireframe stage?

1. Does the overall layout fit your needs?
2. Do you have the content needed? Sure this stat section is nice, and you may see the value, but do you actually have any metrics to fit that?
3. Does the page feel like it flows well for your user?
4. Do you agree with the presented strategy for positioning your company as the authority, yet still empathetic, and a clear call to action for the visitor?
5. Is there more or less content in your plan than we have designed space for?

So what is the next step after we talk through the wireframes?

Generally we expect a round or two of revisions here.  We want to try to dial this in so when we are designing the full site creative, we know the objectives are clear with the content and overall layout strategy. We can move forward with confidence that we are both on the same page and can create something great together.
Once those wireframe revisions are completed, we move to the full site design. These site designs follow the wireframes like a blueprint. The style and color, the typography and margins may push some items around a bit. But the the end result should be pretty close to what we finished with at the wireframe stage.
 
Questions? Happy to help! emails us at sayhello@factor1studios.com

The post So what is a wireframe in the web design process? first appeared on Factor 1 Studios.

I’m going to assume you already have your local project set up with a develop and master branch… So let’s move right in to setting up the remote repositories on your server.

Setting Up The Remote Repository

Login to your server via your terminal and lets create a folder for your repo to live in.

## Login to your server
$ ssh youruser@yourdomain.com
## create repo folder
$ mkdir repos
## navigate to created folder
$ cd !$

Awesome. Now lets make an empty git repository inside of /repos/.

## create and name your repo folder
$ mkdir yourrepo.git
## navigate to your repo folder
$ cd !$
## initialize empty repo
$ git init --bare

Now here is where the fun comes in. We’re going to need to setup whats called a post-receive hook to tell our repo what to do with the branches once they are received. So lets navigate to our hooks folder. Chances are, there is not a post-receive file so we will have to create one.

## navigate to hooks folder
$ cd hooks
## create post-receive file
$ touch post-receive

Now we’re ready to go… Let’s dive into the script we will be using to do the magic. The first thing we need to do in our script is tell it where our staging and production trees will be living. We are going to assume that our production lives in public_html/ and that staging lives in public_html/staging/ to make it nice and easy. Of course, you can have your environments live where ever you want on your server. Open post-receive using your editor of choice and lets get this rolling.

#!/bin/sh
GIT_DIR=$PWD
STAGING_TREE=/home/youruser/public_html/staging
PRODUCTION_TREE=/home/youruser/public_html/
GIT_WORK_TREE=

The above section is pretty straight forward. We are telling the script that the git directory, GIT_DIR lives in the previous working directory, and that the staging and production trees live in their respective spots on our server. Next we need to setup our git work tree, so that the repository knows where to place the files based on branches. So continuing in the same file:

while read oldrev newrev refname
do
  	GIT_BRANCH=$(git rev-parse --symbolic --abbrev-ref $refname)
        if (test "$GIT_BRANCH" = "master" ); then
                cd $PRODUCTION_TREE || EXIT
                GIT_WORK_TREE=$PWD
        fi
	if (test "$GIT_BRANCH" = "develop" ); then
                cd $STAGING_TREE || EXIT
                GIT_WORK_TREE=$PWD
        fi
done

What this section of the script does is check the commits and decide where to place them. If the commits exists on master then it puts it in the production tree, if its in the branch develop it moves it to the staging tree.

Next we just need to add one more piece to manage our work trees and branches. Continuing in the same file add:

if (test "$GIT_WORK_TREE" != ""); then
        cd $GIT_DIR
        git --work-tree="$GIT_WORK_TREE" checkout $GIT_BRANCH -f
fi

This just makes sure that the correct branch and work trees are checked out.

All together, your script should look something like this:

#!/bin/sh
GIT_DIR=$PWD
STAGING_TREE=/home/youruser/public_html/staging/
PRODUCTION_TREE=/home/youruser/public_html/
GIT_WORK_TREE=
while read oldrev newrev refname
do
  	GIT_BRANCH=$(git rev-parse --symbolic --abbrev-ref $refname)
        if (test "$GIT_BRANCH" = "master" ); then
                cd $PRODUCTION_TREE || EXIT
                GIT_WORK_TREE=$PWD
        fi
	if (test "$GIT_BRANCH" = "develop" ); then
                cd $STAGING_TREE || EXIT
                GIT_WORK_TREE=$PWD
        fi
done
if (test "$GIT_WORK_TREE" != ""); then
        cd $GIT_DIR
        git --work-tree="$GIT_WORK_TREE" checkout $GIT_BRANCH -f
fi

One last step we need to do on our server is set the right permissions for git to be able to execute the script. So in the hooks/ directory simply run chmod +x post-receive and we’re set.

Setting Up Your Local Repository

Now we just need to setup your local repository to have our new server side repository as a remote. Again, we’re going to assume you’re already up and running with a project using git. So let’s add the remote repository, we’re going to name it “server”.

$ git add remote server ssh://youruser@yourdomain.com/home/repos/yourrepo.git

Now, we can test our first push. Let’s push our develop branch to staging.

$ git push server develop:develop

This command then pushes our local develop branch to the develop branch on our remote server/repo which is mapped to our staging environment.

We repeat the same process for production:

$ git push server master:master
## or
$ git push server

And that’s it! You did it. No need for FTP, no need for two remote repositories, your branches push to their respective environments and your dev time just got a little easier and shorter.

The post Setting Up Server Environments For A Seamless Git Deployment first appeared on Factor 1 Studios.