Author

Hanabi

Product design and web development studio

Hanabi is a product design and web development studio. The studio writes about clear websites, brand systems, and product interfaces for founders.

September 26, 2026Studio Practice

A founder's map from brand to site to product

Move from a clear identity, to a site that explains it, to a product interface that behaves like the same idea. Keep one sentence stable across all three.

By Hanabi

A workshop where one person points at colorful sticky notes while others sit with laptops, the kind of review that belongs in the weeks after launch.

September 26, 2026Websites

The first 90 days after a site launches

After launch, watch the queries, fix lines people misunderstand, and publish into the real gaps. Give the new site a quarter before you redesign out of nerves.

By Hanabi

Hands typing on a laptop at a wooden desk near a window, a review of the few numbers that show whether the site earned a conversation.

September 26, 2026Websites

Measure calls booked, not vanity traffic

Judge a company site by intro calls or emails from the right buyers. Sessions and pageviews are context for that number, not a score on their own.

By Hanabi

Skyscrapers photographed from street level against a pale sky, a scale a small site should not try to imitate when it says who it is for.

September 26, 2026Websites

Niche positioning on a small site

A small site should name its buyer and its offer on the first screen. A specific position is easier to prove than a claim that you do everything.

By Hanabi

A bright office window ledge with a laptop, a closed notebook, white chairs, and a tall indoor tree, a calm desk for deciding which posts a product needs.

September 26, 2026Websites

Planning a blog that supports a product

Plan each post around a search a buyer already has, then point it at the product or service. Unrelated essays do not carry the product.

By Hanabi

A silver laptop open to a code editor on a white desk, with a monitor, mug, and phone behind it, where a page and the data that describes it are written together.

September 26, 2026Engineering

Schema markup for a company site, in plain language

Schema for a company site should describe the organization, the articles, and any FAQ people can actually read. Clear writing still does the work.

By Hanabi

A person gesturing in a meeting, with a laptop showing a colorful layout, a notebook, and a phone on the table, the kind of working session a case study should explain.

September 26, 2026Studio Practice

Case-study pages that do more than show screenshots

A case study should name the constraint, the decision, and what changed in the work. Screenshots illustrate those sentences. They are not the whole piece.

By Hanabi

A close view of a fountain pen writing on lined paper, the slow choice of a title the page will have to keep.

September 26, 2026Websites

Titles and descriptions that earn the click

A title is a promise the page keeps. Write a concise, accurate title and a description that states the point, then make the visible heading agree.

By Hanabi

A hand pinning string between printed mobile screens on a wall, a physical map of how one screen leads to the next.

September 26, 2026Websites

Internal linking for a small site

On a small site, link from the sentence that needs the next page. A few specific links do more than a footer that lists every URL.

By Hanabi

Hands typing on a laptop at a wooden desk near a window, the quiet work of writing answers a buyer could actually use.

September 26, 2026Websites

FAQ sections that help buyers and search engines

FAQ sections earn their place when they answer questions buyers already ask, in text those buyers can read. Markup should describe that same visible text.

By Hanabi

A close view of a fountain pen writing on lined paper, a sentence slow enough that another person could quote it without guessing.

September 26, 2026Websites

Writing pages that AI search engines can cite

Write pages an AI answer can quote: define the term first, attach a real source to any number, and skip keyword stuffing. The GEO study measured a cost for stuffing.

By Hanabi

A dim desk with an iMac showing a code editor beside a portfolio page, a second monitor with a mountain wallpaper, and a lit lamp. The page on screen is what search has to understand.

September 26, 2026Websites

Make the site search-ready before decorating it

A new site is search-ready when titles, headings, speed, and a plain sentence say what the company is. Decoration on a vague page does not earn the click.

By Hanabi

A workshop where one person points at colorful sticky notes while others sit with laptops, the room where access and ownership should be settled early.

September 26, 2026Studio Practice

Questions to ask about performance, access, and ownership

Ask who writes, who builds, what you will own, how reduced motion is handled, and how the site stays within Core Web Vitals. Specifics are the answers to trust.

By Hanabi

A dim desk with an iMac showing a code editor beside a portfolio page, a second monitor with a mountain wallpaper, and a lit lamp. The pair of screens asks what the work is and whether it was built.

September 26, 2026Studio Practice

How to read a studio portfolio

Evaluate a studio portfolio by the problem, the restraint, and whether they built the work. A gallery of screenshots with no decision is decoration.

By Hanabi

A person in a purple shirt typing on a bright blue laptop at a round table, writing a reply while the question is still the same day.

September 26, 2026Studio Practice

What a same-day response should mean

A same-day response is a human email that names the next step, sent the day you write. The design itself stays on the project schedule.

By Hanabi

A long, quiet office corridor with glass rooms, a teal sofa, and a dark kitchen, a settled workplace for work that continues after a launch.

September 26, 2026Studio Practice

Fixed project or ongoing partnership

Choose a fixed project when the launch has an edge you can describe. Choose an ongoing partnership when the product keeps changing and you want the same people on it.

By Hanabi

Hands sketching a user-flow diagram labeled user goals, the sheet a round of design feedback should stay attached to.

September 26, 2026Studio Practice

How to give design feedback without restarting the project

Give feedback against the goal: clearer, more serious, or easier to scan. Redesigning in the margin restarts the work unless the goal itself was wrong.

By Hanabi

A hand pinning string between printed mobile screens on a wall, planning that depends on an approver and on access already being in place.

September 26, 2026Studio Practice

What to have ready before kickoff

Before kickoff, gather the accounts, a rough offer, access to the current site, and the name of the person who can approve. Missing access spends the first week on waiting.

By Hanabi

A person gesturing in a meeting, with a laptop showing a colorful layout, a notebook, and a phone on the table, a review where working habits become visible.

September 26, 2026Studio Practice

Quality, clean code, flexibility, speed, and communication

Quality, clean code, flexibility, speed, and communication are behaviors you can see on a project. Each one shows up in the work, the repository, or the way a change is handled.

By Hanabi

Five people working on laptops around a wooden table, a shared session where a build's decisions can be written down in one place.

September 26, 2026Studio Practice

Communication habits that keep a build on track

Keep a build on track with one shared channel, decisions written down, and a cadence both sides keep. Clear updates and honest timelines prevent late surprises.

By Hanabi

A workshop where one person points at colorful sticky notes while others sit with laptops. The notes are a way to separate what is known from what is still a guess.

September 26, 2026Studio Practice

Scoping a project when the idea is still loose

When the idea is loose, name what you do not know and scope a first slice that will teach the rest. A scope that pretends the whole product is clear will slip.

By Hanabi

A person in a purple shirt typing on a bright blue laptop at a round table. The scene is a short working conversation, not a presentation.

September 26, 2026Studio Practice

What a good intro call should decide

A useful intro call ends with fit, a rough shape of the work, and a yes or no on writing a proposal. It is a decision meeting, not a free strategy workshop.

By Hanabi

Five people working on laptops around a wooden table. A small group is a different seat from one specialist or a full-time hire.

September 26, 2026Studio Practice

Studio, freelancer, or in-house for a first serious site

Use a freelancer for one narrow skill, hire in-house when the work never stops, and bring in a studio when a defined launch needs design and production code together.

By Hanabi

A workshop where one person points at colorful sticky notes while others sit with laptops. This is the working session you are hiring, not a pitch deck.

September 26, 2026Studio Practice

How to hire a design and development studio

Hire a studio whose portfolio matches the work, whose own people will do it, and who will leave you owning the repository, the domain, and the content.

By Hanabi