Wildflower Media

Building websites and digital systems from the ground up

Founder / Freelance Web Designer | 2018–present

Wildflower started pretty simply: I wanted to build websites, and I wanted to be able to figure things out myself.

Since then, it has grown into freelance work where I build and maintain websites and digital systems for small businesses and organizations. I've worked on everything from straightforward informational websites to online stores, registration and contact forms, payment systems, and other digital workflows.

I work directly with clients, which means I’m usually involved in the whole process. Sometimes someone comes to me with a very clear idea of what they want. Sometimes they have a website they like and say, “Can we do something like this?” And sometimes they mostly know that their current website isn't working and need help figuring out what would actually make it better.

I like the last kind.

It usually starts with figuring out what the problem actually is

A website project rarely starts with someone handing me a perfect set of requirements.

More often, there's a conversation about what isn't working, what they wish the site could do, what their customers or members need, or what they're currently doing manually that they'd really rather not be doing anymore.

Part of my job is translating that into something concrete.

What pages are actually needed? What information needs to be easy to find? Does the client need a form, a booking system, an online store, or some other way for people to interact with them? What needs to happen behind the scenes when someone submits something or makes a purchase? 

I like figuring out those pieces before jumping into the build, because a website can look perfectly fine and still be a terrible system.

I'm not just making websites

The website is usually the part people see, but there's often a lot more going on underneath it.

I've built sites using WordPress and Squarespace, including WordPress sites built with Elementor. I've designed merch using Printify. I've worked with WooCommerce for e-commerce, integrated payment platforms, built forms and registration processes, and helped connect the different pieces so they actually work together. 

That means thinking about things like:

What happens after someone submits this form?

Where does that information go?

How does someone actually pay?

What does the client have to do afterward?

Can they manage this themselves?

What happens when they need to change it six months from now?

Those questions are often more important than whether a button is the exact right shade of blue.

Sometimes the job is fixing something nobody knows how to fix

One of the useful things about working independently is that I’ve had to become pretty comfortable troubleshooting.

Websites have a way of producing problems that don't come with particularly helpful explanations. Something stops working. A form isn't sending properly. A payment integration isn't behaving. A plugin doesn't play nicely with something else. A client needs something changed that the original setup wasn't really designed to handle.

I don't necessarily need to know the answer immediately.

I need to be able to figure out what the problem is, determine where it's happening, find a solution, and know when something is beyond my expertise and needs to be handed off to a hosting provider, developer, or other technical support.

That has probably been one of the most useful parts of doing this work. I've learned to be comfortable with systems I didn't build, problems I haven't seen before, and technology that occasionally decides to make my life difficult.

I also have to think about the person who will actually use the website

A website isn't particularly useful if only the person who built it knows how it works.

I try to build things that clients can actually manage afterward, whether that means updating content, adding products, changing information, or handling routine tasks themselves.

That also means thinking about the people using the site. Information needs to be organized in a way that makes sense. Forms need to be understandable. Navigation needs to be predictable. Content needs to be readable.

The technical solution isn't always the best solution if the person using it can't figure out what to do next.

The project doesn't necessarily end when the website goes live

A lot of my Wildflower work has continued beyond the initial build.

I've maintained websites, made updates, added functionality, troubleshot problems, changed content, and helped clients figure out how to use the systems I've built for them.

That ongoing relationship has been useful because you learn things after launch that you can't always know beforehand. You see what people actually use, what clients struggle with, what needs to be simplified, and what seemed like a good idea during the build that turned out not to be particularly useful in practice.

A website is a living thing. It needs to change as the organization or business changes.

I've learned to be comfortable being the person who figures it out

Wildflower has probably taught me less about any particular platform than it has about how to approach problems.

I don't need someone to hand me a perfectly defined project and tell me exactly how to build it.

I'm comfortable starting with a vague idea, asking questions, figuring out what the actual need is, breaking it into pieces, and working through the problems as they come up.

Sometimes that means building something myself. Sometimes it means finding a workaround. Sometimes it means learning something new. And sometimes it means telling a client that the thing they want isn't actually the thing they need, and suggesting something that will work better.

I like that part.

There's something satisfying about taking a messy collection of ideas, requirements, technical limitations, and “can the website do this?” questions and eventually turning it into something that works.

What this actually involved

Digital project delivery 

Requirements gathering, planning, website builds, implementation, testing and ongoing support

Web development 

WordPress, Squarespace, Elementor, basic HTML and website customization

E-commerce 

WooCommerce, Printify, product setup, variations, payment systems and digital storefronts

Digital workflows 

Forms, registrations, payments, content management and behind-the-scenes processes

Client management

Translating ideas into requirements, explaining technical decisions and providing ongoing support

Troubleshooting 

Diagnosing technical problems, finding solutions and coordinating with external technical providers when needed