I had the chance to sit down with Aram, our Director of Development, to chat about his approach to web projects, his go-to tech tools, and how he balances functionality with performance. Here’s what he had to say.
1. Thank you for joining me! Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
Sure. I grew up and spent most of my life in South Florida, but currently live in Raleigh, NC. I'm at the age where when I visit gift shops, I head straight for the rack of reading glasses to check out the latest styles.
I have three kids, one of which recently told me that I remind her of "Rick" from White Lotus, Season 3, because "he wears Hawaiian shirts all the time and has a bald spot." (thanks, Ruby!)
A few boring facts about me:
- I've run out of gas at least 20 times in my life
- I cried for the better part of the whole day when Jimmy Buffett died
- Even though I haven't lived in Florida for 6 years, I still drive around with a FL license plate on my car that expired in 2020. (to any members of law enforcement who may be reading this, i’m obviously joking).
2. When you start a new web project, what are the key elements you focus on?
The first thing I like to do is ask myself a few key questions: What parts of this site matter most to the client? What’s top of mind for the designer? What kind of budget are we working with? From there, I shift into build mode, figuring out what needs to be custom coded, what can be streamlined, and who from our development team needs to be looped in to bring it all to life.
3. How do you ensure that a website is both high-performing and scalable?
I try to build sites that I consider “lean”, with everything the client needs, and nothing that they don’t. This not only keeps sites running fast and efficiently, but also makes them easier to update, manage, and build onto it in the future.
4. What role does backend development play in enhancing the user experience?
While 2TON is always available and willing to help manage clients’ sites, it’s important that our clients feel confident and empowered to make changes themselves. My goal is to build back-end experiences that are intuitive, user-friendly, and easy to navigate. And when custom code is needed, I make sure it’s clean, organized, and well-documented so any future developer can jump in without missing a beat.
5. How do you balance functionality and performance when developing a website?
There’s often an inverse correlation between advanced functionality and performance. Some elements that seem fun on the surface can actually end up frustrating users. I always try to think through the experience from every angle, like, would my 79-year-old mom know what to do if the cursor suddenly turned into a dancing cat or the site started scrolling sideways instead of down? She’d probably assume it was a virus and call GeekSquad.
At the end of the day, it’s all about what the client values most. Do they want to wow users with bold, interactive features, or is simplicity and speed the priority? Once we know that, I tailor the build to strike the right balance.
6. What technologies or frameworks do you prefer to use, and why?
We primarily build our sites on WordPress, using a theme called Blank Slate — which is exactly what it sounds like: a bare bones foundation. From there, we layer in custom code alongside Beaver Builder, a powerful page builder that gives us the flexibility to design just about anything our clients envision.
7. What’s the most rewarding part of your job?
Happy clients. When a client is happy, it means we’ve done our job well and that their website is serving the purposes they hoped it would. And a happy client is generally a lot more fun to work with!
8. Can you walk us through a time when you had to debug a major issue on a live website?
Hmmm… I don’t think we’ve ever had a major issue on a live website. Just kidding!
Recently I was on vacation, driving down the highway, when I got a call from my boss saying that an API key had been compromised, and that we were getting charged something like $8 every minute (and it was already in the hundreds of dollars). So I had to pull over on the side of I-95, tether my phone to my laptop (at something roughly equivalent to a 56k modem), and revoke the API key. An auspicious start to my vacation to say the least. (and thankfully, we got refunded.)
9. What advice would you give to someone interested in becoming a Director of Development?
Know what you’re good at, and what you’re not good at. And never be embarrassed to ask for help. And above all, surround yourself with a great team. I’ve been incredibly lucky to work alongside some truly talented people, designers, project managers, fellow developers, etc - and that kind of support makes all the difference.
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