Transmuting Lead Into Gold

The most common definition of alchemy is the ancient belief that there was a power that could transform the base metals into valuable metals. We've all heard about alchemy, the precursor to science, and its attempts to turn lead into gold. This was but one of the many goals of alchemy.

A more practical and less ethereal example is a single kind act can transform a horrible day into a wonderful day. The day didn't magically get better. But how we looked at it did. It shifted our perspective.

So it can be with coding. A client may come to you with a lot of incomplete ideas and vague notions. They may not be able to see how those "base metals" can be transformed into a beautiful website. They may not be able to see the forest for the trees. Indeed, they may not even know they have wood.

A web developer's job is take those ideas and notions and meld them into code that will create an attractive an usable website for all. Code is just words in a text file. But the sum of them is greater than the whole. Coding mystifies the average client and a wall of non-understanding of the technology goes up when they hear "tech speak." So the developer is responsible for transforming those ideas into something that will give them the product they desire so they can achieve their goals.

We also strive to explain to the client how what we would say in "tech speak" can meet their needs, without bogging them down in terminology and technology they don't understand. They honestly don't need to. All they need to do is communicate their vision to us, however incomplete, and we'll take it from there.

Let's start a conversation today. Let us hear your vision, and let us see if we can turn your lead into the gold to which you aspire. After all, your ideas are not really lead. They are just not yet gold. They need to be in the state they are meant to be, not in the state in which they are currently. We can help you transmute them to something that help you meet your needs in the ever-changing digital marketplace.

Leave the technical aspects to us and focus on how we are transforming your ideas into reality. Did the ancient alchemists ever achieve transmutation of lead into gold. Science would tell you no. But there is something about seeing your vision on a web page that goes beyond simple words in a text file on a server. The average client doesn't care how it works. They just care that it works reliably and to their satisfaction.

For 18 years of learning about how to code and what to code, Code Alchemy has been transforming dreams into reality, sometimes meeting a client's need they didn't know they had. To use a different metaphor, a client brings us the clay, and we sculpt it the statue that inspires them.

The other thing about coding is that is a lifelong learning journey. It's not about the destination. A website is never truly finished (unless the client says so, of course). There are always new technologies to learn and new practices to employ. There is also, of course, maintenance and updates. This is what is meant by a website never being done. Its design and content may not change, but how it works behind the scenes may, as technology evolves. Let managing that to us.

About Us

Code Alchemy brings 14 years of industry experience to the table with any project. Knowledge from a variety of sources is distilled into a singular practice and style to produce what a client needs. That knowledge, as explained, is always evolving, and we keep up with that. We build our websites in a technology called Laravel

Never heard of Laravel? Laravel is the most popular PHP project on GitHub, the code storage site now owned by Microsoft, and where most code is stored. The project has almost 50,000 stars (a rating of popularity on Github), and uses the industry-standard Symfony framework as its backbone. It also has a robust ecosystem of other frameworks that can be added to Laravel, easily (but very powerfully) extending its functionality with little work. For websites of any size that require any kind of customization, Laravel is the way to go.

Many people ask, but what about WordPress? They say, I can have a website up and running in hours with WordPress, with a custom theme. While it is true, WordPress has many plug-ins that easily extend its functionality. But at a certain point, the functionality of a plugin is limited to what the plugin developer wrote. Extending the functionality can be time-consuming if all you want is one additional tweak. You simply do not face these issues with Laravel. Selecting a framework with a point-and-click installer can have its drawbacks. Why not start with the freedom to custom tailor your code to exactly and only what you need?

Other services are available through Code Alchemy, including Laravel/VueJS websites, Angular (MEAN stack) web applications and more. The difference between a standard Laravel website and a Laravel/VueJS or MEAN stack website is that they are more interactive or dynamic. Both use a language called JavaScript. With JavaScript, you will see more animations on the page, and the page will interact more with the user as they use the site. This can lead to a more user-friendly experience, leaving the user with a warmer feel about your product or service. JavaScript-oriented websites are fast becoming the norm, and will dominate the web landscape in the future.

In addition, a background in journalism in our experience means that the text on your website is grammatically correct and free of typos. Words matter, as do grammar and spelling. Text makes as big an impact as graphics and something as simple as a missing hyphen can change the intended meaning, potentially into something very professionally undesirable.

The other area that should be of vital importance to a client is website accessibility. What is that? Accessibility is about making a website a usable experience for someone with a disability such as red-green color blindness. WHile that may not seem of vital importance, and more of a "nice to have," accessibility is the number one source of website litigation. At Code Alchemy, we write code from the start that is usable to anyone, regardless of ability. That way, the client doesn't have to worry about litigation, and has the satisfaction that anyone at all can use their website.

Accessibility is but one of the many trends happening in the world of the web today, but it is certainly a dominant them. Many Fortune 500 companies are retrofitting their existing websites or build new websites from the ground up to avoid or even settle multimillion-dollar lawsuits. It is about much more than "Wouldn't it be nice if everybody could use our website?" It is about leveling the playing field for all users. Often, improvements for users with disabilities can help users who aren't disabled, sometimes unknowingly.

This is example of how the web is an ever-evolving place. Phones have transform the web, as well. Mobile was the major trend before accessibility. Everyone suddenly realized that their websites were unusable on a phone because the text and images were illegible. So the design, even if the look remained the same, had to be revamped so that it was usable on all of the many sizes of tablets and phones. Our code is written from the start to work on devices of all sizes. Phones are much more commonly used for web browsing that desktop users, so much so that today's youths are unfamiliar with how to operate a desktop computer. So mobile browsing experiences are critical to the success of your website.

Technologies

Front-End

  • HTML 5
  • VueJS
  • Angular
  • SASS
  • LESS
  • CSS 3

Back-End

  • PHP
  • Laravel
  • Drupal 8
  • MySQL
  • NodeJS / Express
  • Mongo

APIs

  • Stripe
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Services

  • Amazon Web Services
  • Digital Ocean
  • Apple
  • Android
  • Git
  • cPanel