How we work
The ELLOR method
Five stages, always in this order. It's slower on paper than jumping straight to design — and it's the reason our projects rarely need a second round to fix what the first one missed.
Explore
Every project starts with us listening, not pitching. We talk to your stakeholders, dig through your analytics, and map who you're up against, so the brief matches reality instead of a hunch. It's also where we're straight with you on scope. If a full redesign isn't the answer, we say so now.
Layout
Before anything gets styled, we lock the structure: sitemaps, user flows, content models, and positioning on brand work. It's the dullest stage and the one most shops rush. We don't, because every design choice that comes later inherits whatever we decide here.
Layer
With the structure agreed, we add the visual layer: type, color, components, and prototypes you can click through. We test those on real users before calling anything done. Catching a bad flow in Figma costs a lot less than catching it in production.
Optimize
Here the design turns into a real, production build: clean code, performance budgets, and an accessibility pass that checks contrast, focus order, and screen readers instead of ticking a box. We do this before launch, not in a panic after a slow page has already cost you sales.
Release
Launch is a milestone, not the finish line. We come back at 30, 60, and 90 days and measure against the exact numbers we agreed on before kickoff, not flattering ones we cherry-pick later to pad a report.
Why we don't skip steps, even on a tight timeline
Every skipped step comes back as a revision. A logo drawn before the positioning is settled gets redrawn once the positioning finally happens. A site built before the sitemap is agreed gets torn apart the moment someone notices the navigation doesn't match how people actually think about the product. Running the method in order costs a little time up front and saves a lot on the back end. That trade has held on every project we've run it on.
Curious how this maps to your project?
Tell us where things stand today and we'll point out which stage you actually need to start from.