gestaltware designs and builds custom web application solutions that are critical to the business and competitive positioning of select clients, specializing in helping organizations establish a solid, sustainable Information Architecture with a user-centered Web Strategy. We are guided by these philosophical pillars:

  • Business objectives first... We believe a solid, sustainable Information Architecture is as important to a successful web strategy as a financially sound business plan is to managing a company. Before a single line of code is written, we will conduct a thorough business process investigation and analysis to ensure your business objectives are accurately reflected throughout the development process.
  • The user is what matters... We view Web 2.0 as a lot more than the acronym soup that enables bells-and-whistles (AJAX, RSS, XHTML, XML, SOAP and the rest, all of which we of course speak fluently). Web 2.0 is ultimately about transforming information silos into sources of functionality that engage end users: your customers, employees and/or partners. Whether establishing a new or revitalizing an existing web strategy, our user-centered Web Strategy consulting recommendations start with qualitative and quantitative user research and incorporate usability best practices.
  • Align your solution with client interests... We recognize that clients come to us for a unique solution often with the objective of gaining some competitive advantage in their market, and for this reason, work as a strategic partner on an exclusive basis while they remain a retainer customer. In addition, we will never use your funded development and sell the same solution to your competitors... ever. If you choose to release the solution to the open source community, that is your business.
  • Open source makes a solid foundation... We are strong proponents of open source software, and strive to leverage and integrate open source as a foundation to our solutions whenever our clients' existing infrastructure investments allow. The primary reason for this is to enable clients to realize the twin benefits of freedom from dependence on a single source (including us!) and increased reliability coming from a larger developer and user base.
  • Listen, refactor, release, test: rinse and repeat... For your benefit and ours, we practice Extreme Programming which does not involve skateboard ramps, but recognizes that ongoing changes to requirements are both a natural and desirable aspect of software development projects. We embrace iterative coding and provide full client access to development snapshots during the engagement, ultimately giving the client more control over the development process.