Great digital experiences don't happen by accident. They're the result of deliberate decisions about performance, accessibility, and user flow. Here's how we approach building them at Horizon Media.
Start With Performance
A site that loads slowly is a site that loses visitors. Our baseline targets:
- < 1 second to first contentful paint on mobile
- > 90 Lighthouse performance score
- < 100kb JavaScript in the critical path
Modern frameworks like Astro help enormously here by shipping zero JavaScript by default, only adding interactivity where it's explicitly needed.
Accessibility Is Non-Negotiable
We design for everyone. That means:
- Semantic HTML that works without CSS
- Keyboard navigation for all interactive elements
- Sufficient color contrast ratios (WCAG AA minimum)
- Alt text on every meaningful image
Not only is this the right thing to do, it's also good SEO.
Content Architecture Matters
Before writing a single line of code, we map out content types and their relationships. What fields does a blog post need? How does a product page differ from a service page? Getting this right early saves significant rework later.
With tools like Keystatic and Decap CMS, content schemas are defined in code, making them easy to version and evolve alongside the site.
The Result
When performance, accessibility, and thoughtful content architecture come together, you get sites that rank well, convert visitors, and hold up as your business grows.