Robert Buchanan

Additional Capability

Design It. Build It. Keep It Working.

Website design and development from both sides of the browser: how the experience should communicate, and how it actually has to work once somebody clicks it.

RoleWebsite design, UX thinking, front-end development, PHP development, content structure, copywriting, and ongoing management
StackHTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Bootstrap, analytics integrations, and WordPress / Elementor when the assignment calls for it
ApproachDesign with implementation in mind. Build for real content. Make maintenance somebody’s future problem as little as possible.

How I approach web work

I’ve never thought of development as the part that happens after design.

I’ve spent much of my career as the person who could design the site and then build the thing I just designed. That changes the decisions I make before a line of code is written.

I’m thinking about hierarchy, responsive behavior, content structure, interaction, performance, analytics, and how somebody will maintain the site after launch while I’m still working out what the homepage should say.

I’m happiest working directly in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP, but I’ve also built and maintained WordPress sites when that was the right constraint for the project.

Pretty is allowed. Useful is required. And if I designed something that cannot survive being built, I did not actually solve the problem.

Selected website work

Different businesses. Different jobs for the website.

These are a few examples of more traditional website design and development work — separate from the custom applications and internal systems elsewhere in the portfolio.

Cambridge Capital Management website homepage

Financial Services

Cambridge Capital Management

A financial-services site that had to organize multiple lending entities without making visitors decode the corporate structure first. The build also included interactive tools and distinct content paths for different loan programs.

  • JavaScript loan calculator
  • Multiple microsites
  • Interactive flip cards
  • Bootstrap 5
  • PHP / CSS / JavaScript
  • Analytics
View current site
C.H. Douglas and Gray Wealth Management website homepage

Wealth Management

C.H. Douglas & Gray

A warmer, more human approach to wealth management, built around large-scale imagery, approachable messaging, and clear service paths rather than the usual visual language of charts, handshakes, and people staring confidently at spreadsheets.

  • WordPress / Elementor
  • Copywriting
  • Custom CSS
  • Lead-capture forms
  • Analytics
View current site
IDI Fabrication website homepage

Industrial / Manufacturing

IDI Fabrication

A straightforward industrial site built to make a broad set of fabrication capabilities, products, and end markets easier to understand. The visual system uses application imagery to connect technical manufacturing services to the places those capabilities actually show up.

  • Bootstrap 4
  • PHP
  • Custom CSS
  • Custom JavaScript
  • Analytics
View current site
Montana Advanced Composites website homepage

Advanced Materials

Montana Advanced Composites

A more image-led technical site using scale, atmosphere, and real-world applications to make an advanced-materials story feel tangible. The visual direction gives a highly specialized product a much larger sense of possibility.

  • Bootstrap 5
  • PHP
  • Custom CSS
  • Custom JavaScript
  • Analytics
View current site
The White House Group agency website homepage with full-screen video background

Advertising Agency

The White House Group

The agency’s own site gave me room to push further visually, including a full-screen streaming-video environment built around the firm’s Creative + Analytical positioning. It was both a website and a demonstration of the kind of digital thinking we were selling.

  • Streaming video
  • Copywriting
  • Bootstrap 4
  • PHP
  • Custom CSS
  • Custom JavaScript
  • Analytics
View current site

Websites evolve. Links above open the current live sites; screenshots document the versions represented in this portfolio.

What this capability really adds

I don’t have to hand the idea off at the edge of the comp.

Being able to design and build the experience means I can move between communication, UX, implementation, and maintenance without treating those as unrelated disciplines.

The website is not finished when the design is approved. That is roughly when it becomes a website.