Development requirements
After launching their first Instagram account and hashtag #PerthisOK back in 2014, local company Perth is OK! (PiOK!) have grown to become Western Australia’s largest independent media outlet and a prominent voice for all things Perth. Looking to revamp their brand, the PiOK! team required a new website that was user-friendly, highly performant and scalable to accomodate their ever-expanding user base.
The solution we provided
Using the designs provided by local creative agency Block Branding, Hatchet built a website around a headless WordPress CMS (content management system) with a modern Next.js frontend. Unlike traditional WordPress, a headless architecture enables the PiOK! content creators to utilise a familiar platform whilst simultaneously evolving the frontend for increased performance.
Next.js, a popular JavaScript framework built on top of the React library, was chosen due to the many benefits it provides users and developers. One of the main benefits is its support for pre-rendering via server-side rendering (SSR) and static site generation (SSG) methods. This enables HTML to be generated server-side for each user request (SSR) or during build time (SSG). The PiOK! website employs both SSR and SSG, including delivering static files via a global content delivery network (CDN), to minimise page load times and enhance search engine optimisation (SEO). Additionally, Next.js optimises website performance through features such as automatic code splitting and image optimisation.
GraphQL, a modern API query language, was also used to facilitate data exchange between the frontend and backend, resulting in fast and efficient data fetching.
The outcome
The new PiOK! website is more than OK! Since its successful launch, the new site has demonstrated an improved user experience (UX) as evidenced by increased user engagement, increased time spent on pages and more pages viewed per session. Additionally, the technologies used ensure that the PiOK! team have a website that is fast, can accomodate fluctuating traffic and will last them for years to come.
From the client
As the founder of one of WA’s most prominent websites perthisok.com, with over 1.5 million pageviews per month, we looked long and hard to find a web dev agency that we could trust and we couldn’t be happier that we found Dan and the local team of experts at Hatchet. Not only did they successfully rebuild and relaunch the website on a state-of-the-art framework, but they also guided us through the 6-month process with frank and accurate advice on all aspects of the complex project. We are excited at the prospect of partnering with them for many years to come.
I can’t recommend them highly enough to any potential clients, big and small, that want an independent local team to help them execute world-class web development and strategy efficiently and diligently in a friendly manner.
– Luke Whelan (Cofounder at Perth is OK!)
