Stiekema Studio

Case sheet · this site

The site you are reading, revised.

This portfolio site claims craftsmanship. Then it had better stand up as evidence itself. This is what a design audit produced, with the figures attached.

XBAS Business Intelligence · Almere NL · Case deze-site

Before and after

Before

The previous hero: dark background with the serif heading 'One developer. A studio of one, augmented by AI.' and a small label DATA · AI · WEB above it.
Cream editorial · Fraunces · a label per section

After

The new hero: red lead orange panel with the grotesque heading about the data foundation and the AI that stands on it, and an exploded diagram of the data layers beside it.
Technical print · Archivo · red lead on steel

Bekijk de hele vorige versie (in Dutch)

What the audit produced

  • Anti-patterns on the homepage

    Measured with the deterministic detector against the production build. The remaining hit is the hatching of a project plate that is still missing.

    Before: 18

    After: 1

  • Accent colour as text (WCAG contrast)

    The old amber on cream failed WCAG AA, in fourteen places. The red lead oxide clears the 4.5:1 threshold with room to spare.

    Before: 2.8:1

    After: 6.48:1

  • Review score (impeccable-critique)

    The first audit gave 21 out of 40, with one P0 and four P1s. The trend baseline is set; a next run compares against it.

    Before: 21 / 40

    After: to be measured again

What changed

  • From editorial to manual

    The old site leaned on a warm cream background with a serif face: precisely the aesthetic a design audit marks as the AI default. The new language is a service manual: steel stock, red lead oxide as the accent colour, tables instead of cards.

  • Every section heading was a label

    Above every section sat a small, widely letterspaced label (DATA · AI · WEB, WHAT I DO, ABOUT). One such kicker is voice; on every section it is grammar. They are gone; the sections carry their own heading.

  • The scheduler was nowhere to be found

    The booking scheduler was already running, but it lived on a sub-page only. The homepage ended in a mailto. Now the whole site leads to that one half hour, with the calendar inline.

  • No images, no evidence

    The old site showed not one screenshot of the work and no photograph. For a site that claims craftsmanship that is the weakest spot. There is real work on it now, a portrait as a printing plate, and a figure that draws out the data foundation.

To the work