Maraid Design is a web design studio run by Jane and Richard. We've been making websites for seventeen years and enjoy every project we work on, whether it's for a local theatre company or a national museum.
Our websites are a product of our love of design, technology and problem solving. We make them clean, simple, and compliant with the latest web standards. And of course we make them stand out from the crowd and a joy to use.
We enjoy working with like-minded organisations whose activities have a positive impact on society. We’re passionate about the arts, science, education, not-for-profit and heritage. We specialise in cultural event websites and content management systems.
Because we're a small operation, you're guaranteed a personal and friendly service at a sensible price (we also make good coffee when you come to see us). We're proud that the majority of our work comes from referrals and returning clients - it's a sign that people value our professional approach and creative skills. Jane is based in Glasgow and Richard is in Bradford. Contact us for a chat.
We're committed to being an ethical and green business. We have ethical business banking and pensions, offset our CO2 emissions and walk, cycle or take public transport to work and use green hosting.
Meet Jane & Richard
Jane McDevitt
Partner & Web Designer
With seventeen years in the industry, Jane worked at the National Railway Museum and National Media Museum as a web designer for six years. She set up Maraid in 2003 and specialises in design, CSS3 and HTML5, accessibility and usability and project management. As well as being passionate about design Jane is interested in museums, photography, typography, ephemera and architecture.
Richard Claxton
Partner & Web Developer
Richard has worked as lead developer at various Leeds design agencies and managed the National Media Museum website for four years. He specialises in content management systems, web development and information architecture. He has been working as a web developer for seventeen years. Richard is interested in contemporary art and science. He is fascinated by sound art and experimenting with electronic sound making.
Our services
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Web Design & Development
Our sites always look great and stand out, but successful web design is about much more than that. We'll take the time to understand your needs and build you a site that's clear, easy to navigate and above all speaks to your visitors. We take pride in our thorough approach, from planning to launching the final site. We build and develop all our sites to international web standards, so you can be sure of their quality. Our attention to detail and hand-crafted code means that everything is just as beautiful behind the scenes! Our code is future-proof and will keep all browsers and search engines happy.
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Content Management Systems
We give you the control to update the content on your website. Our Content Management Systems are powerful but blissfully easy to use. They're perfectly crafted to meet the needs of each job, allowing you to update your own site with no hassle.
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Accessibility & Usability
We’re passionate about accessibility and all Maraid sites follow WCAG 2.1 guidelines compliant with Equality Act 2018 and level AA as standard. We understand that in order to build a good website you must have a solid understanding of all the components that make it accessible, including; good design, information architecture, clear content, clean and semantic code, regular testing through browsers and screen readers. We believe that everyone working on a project from copywriter to back-end developer plays their part in creating an accessible website. We have both completed advanced accessibility training at WebCredible, London.
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Speed
A slow website will encourage users to abandon a webpage and discourage further exploration. This can result in negative ranking from search engines. We take load speeds very seriously and have both trained with a professional Consultant Web Performance Engineer. We have used this knowledge to maximise the performance of all our sites.
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Search Engine Optimisation
We build every website with Search Engine Optimisation in mind. We can also put together a Search Engine Optimisation report on your existing website to increase your search engine rating and visitors.
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Social Media
Most people use social media to increase their web presence, but it can be a tricky thing to get right. We can put you on the right track and build social media into your website. We'll make sure you're using the right platforms to talk to your audience and that you have a consistent visual message across the web.
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Email Newsletters
A newsletter is a simple way of keeping your customers updated and encouraging return visits to your site. We custom build them using your branding so they fit in nicely with your site, and make it easy to send them out to your mailing list.
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Continued Support
Once a job is completed we won't disappear! Many of our projects have created lasting relationships with clients. We're here if you have a question, need some advice or training, or want to talk about new projects.