Your business has grown. Your website hasn't.
- Delivered in days, not weeks
- Restaurants, shops, clinics and studios
- Remote, working with businesses anywhere
toog Design rebuilds websites from the ground up, starting with your business, not a template. We learn how your customers choose, what makes you different, and what your site needs to do. Then we design every page to do it.
Same restaurant. Two websites. Tap to compare.
Caught this morning. Plated tonight.
A twelve-table seafood kitchen on the waterfront. One long menu board, rewritten every afternoon around whatever the boats brought in.
- Kob, brown butter, capersFrom this morning's boatsN$ 245
- Oysters, half dozenWalvis Bay, lemon, mignonetteN$ 180
- Hake and chipsBeer batter, tartareN$ 165
- Burnt honey tartCrème fraîcheN$ 85
Illustration. Kelp & Brine is a fictional restaurant. Photo: Oskar Kadaksoo on Unsplash.
Customers judge your business before they ever walk in.
They find you on their phone, tap through to your website and decide in seconds. If the site looks dated, cluttered or suspiciously like every other site in town, they assume the business is too, however good you actually are.
Most small-business websites were built years ago or poured into a template that was designed for nobody in particular. And nothing on the page says why you're worth choosing.
A typical small-business homepage, examined.
Five things we find on almost every first look. None of them are the owner's fault. All of them cost customers.
- The menuA PDF that needs a magnifying glass4.2 MB
- Opening hoursLast updated two summers agoStale
- The “Book now” buttonBelow a stock photo of a smiling stranger holding a saladBuried
- The layoutShared with a fair portion of the internetTemplate
- A reason to choose youWe checked every pageNot found
Every one of those moments is a customer choosing somewhere that looks easier.
We start with your business. Design comes second.
Templates start with a layout and ask you to squeeze your business into it. DXE starts with your business and builds the layout around it. It's the difference between a suit off the rack and one cut to measure, except the rack is the entire internet and everyone's wearing the same suit.
1Study Learn the business properly.
Your goals, your customers, what they care about, how they find you and what makes them choose. We look at your brand, your competitors and your current site through your customers' eyes. No questionnaire you'll never fill in. Actual attention.
2Strip Remove every point of friction.
Confusing navigation, buried information, slow pages, dead ends, mixed messages, tired visuals. If it doesn't help a customer decide, it goes. Yes, including the carousel.
3Rebuild Rebuild it from the ground up.
Structure, journey, copy, and a visual design made for your business. Every page has a job, and every detail is chosen for you, not inherited from a theme someone bought in bulk.
4Launch and check Use it like a real customer.
On their phone, on a slow connection, slightly impatient. You get a site that's ready, not a draft with “Lorem ipsum” still lurking in the footer.
Meticulous, because the details are what customers notice.
Rooted in your business
No generic layouts with your logo dropped in like a sticker on a laptop. Every decision traces back to your customers, your goals and what makes you distinct.
Built from the ground up
Not a fresh coat of paint on the same old walls. We rebuild the structure and the journey, so the site works as well as it looks.
Designed to be used
Clear paths to book, call, order or enquire. Fast on mobile. Easy to keep up to date, no developer on speed-dial required.
Design is the first thing your customers see. We take it seriously.
Templates are built to fit everyone, which is exactly why they fit no one. The same hero image, the same three icons in a row, the same “Welcome to our website” that nobody has ever needed to read. Customers have seen it a thousand times, and they've learned to scroll past it.
We design for your business alone: a type pairing that carries your personality, a colour palette drawn from your brand and your setting, photography that shows the real thing, and layouts that give your best qualities room to breathe. The result looks current today and still feels right years from now.
A headline face with salt in it, paired with a plain, legible sans for menus and prices. Chosen for this kitchen, not for every kitchen.
From the Kelp & Brine study. Illustration only.
Distinctive, not default
If you could swap your logo for a competitor's and nobody would notice, that's not a website. That's a costume. We design a look that belongs to you.
Modern, not trendy
Clean, current design that won't date by next season.
Crafted to the detail
Spacing, type, motion, the way a button responds. Customers may never name these details, but they feel them, and they trust you more for it.
For businesses that are better than their website. Restaurants and hospitality, independent shops, clinics, studios and professional practices.
If customers love you once they walk in, but your website is the reason some of them never do, we should talk.
Everything your website needs to earn its keep.
- A full study of your business, customers and brand before design begins
- A rebuilt site structure and customer journey
- Website copy written for your customers (no “Welcome to our website”)
- A modern, custom visual design typography, colour, layout, imagery direction
- Mobile-first build, fast and accessible
- Launch support and a real-world usability check
- A simple handover so you can update the basics yourself
Now taking a small number of founding projects.
toog Design is new. We're taking on a limited number of founding clients and putting everything into making each one a showcase. Founding clients get closer collaboration, founding-project pricing, and the quiet satisfaction of having been early.
Four steps. No surprises.
- 1
Free review
Send us your website. Within a day, we'll tell you what's holding it back, in plain language. No jargon, no obligation.
- 2
Fixed quote
If it makes sense to work together, you get a clear scope, price and delivery date up front. No surprise invoices.
- 3
Build
Study, strip, rebuild, launch. Most small-business sites are delivered in days. You see progress at every stage.
- 4
Handover
Your new site, live and checked, with what you need to keep it current.
Fair questions.
How long does a project take?
Days, not weeks. Most small-business sites go from kickoff to launch in a matter of days once we have your content. Larger sites take longer, and you'll get a firm delivery date in your quote.
Do you just make it look better?
No. Looks matter, and the visual design is a big part of what we do, but we start with how the site works: what customers see first, how they find what they need and how easily they can book, call or buy. A beautiful site that's confusing to use is just a very attractive dead end.
Why not just use a template?
You can. Thousands of businesses do, which is rather the problem. A template gives you a website. We give you yours.
Do I need to have everything ready?
No. Part of the study is working out what your site should say and show. We'll guide you through what we need.
See what your website could be.
Send us your current site. We'll show you what's working, what's costing you customers and what we'd change. Free, honest, and mercifully short.