How efobi.dev transformed from a static page into a dynamic showcase

While the previous site was performant, its minimalism was a double-edged sword that ultimately hindered our business goals.

• Architectural Overkill & Rigidity: The site was built with Next.js, which was excessive for a single-page application. This architecture was not designed for content. There was no simple way to add projects, testimonials, or articles; every update required manual code changes, making the site static and stagnant.
• Poor User Experience: The extreme minimalism led to a lack of information. There was little for a user to engage with, buttons and animations lacked a clear hierarchy, and the primary call-to-action was ineffective. This resulted in a high bounce rate and missed opportunities to connect with potential clients.
• Missed SEO Opportunities: Despite excellent raw performance scores, the single-page structure and lack of rich content meant that search engine bots had very little information to crawl. This resulted in poor search engine visibility, a critical flaw for a business-focused website.

The primary purpose of efobi.dev is to serve as our professional portfolio—a showcase to attract and convert potential clients. A secondary goal is to establish our agency as a thought leader by sharing technical insights, articles, and experiences from our work via a dedicated blog.

Our target audience includes potential clients, recruiters looking for top-tier talent, and fellow developers seeking technical insights.

The specific, measurable objectives for the redesign were:

• Achieve a Lighthouse performance score of 95 or higher across all categories.
• Integrate a headless CMS to streamline the publication of at least one technical article or case study per month.
• Create a detailed and filterable projects section to better showcase our work.
• Significantly improve the mobile user experience and overall user engagement.

A Content-First, Performance-Driven Solution

Our new approach retains a minimalist aesthetic but elevates it with better-defined sections, rich content, and thoughtful micro-interactions that demonstrate our design and engineering expertise.

The new efobi.dev was re-architected from the ground up for performance, content flexibility, and an excellent developer experience.

• Framework: We chose Astro for its content-first philosophy and its ability to ship zero JavaScript by default. This ensures an incredibly fast user experience, rivaling static HTML and CSS, while still allowing for server-side rendering (SSR) capabilities that are crucial for robust SEO.
• Styling: The site is styled with Tailwind CSS. We adopted a structure inspired by the Shadcn UI component library, allowing us to build our own internal design system with reusable, pre-styled components. This utility-first approach enables rapid development while ensuring visual consistency.
• Content Management: All dynamic content, including blog posts, case studies, and project details, is managed through Sanity CMS. This headless CMS provides a flexible and user-friendly interface for our team to publish and manage content without touching the codebase.
• Deployment: The site is deployed on Cloudflare Workers for globally distributed, low-latency performance. Our CI/CD pipeline is managed with GitHub Actions, automating the build and deployment process on every push to the main branch.
• Seamless Page Transitions: We leveraged the native View Transitions API to create fluid, animated transitions between pages. This modern browser feature enhances the user experience, making site navigation feel instantaneous and app-like.
• Dynamic Content Hub: The integration with Sanity CMS transformed the site into a content platform. The new blog and case study sections provide valuable resources for our audience and powerful assets for our SEO strategy.
• Refined Micro-interactions: Every component, from buttons to section loaders, was enhanced with smooth animations and micro-interactions. These subtle details provide visual feedback and create a more polished, premium feel, reflecting the quality of our work.

The redesign successfully met all our initial objectives and has already delivered significant improvements.

• Exceptional Performance: The new site consistently achieves near-perfect Lighthouse scores, validating our choice of Astro and Cloudflare.
  

• Improved User Engagement: By providing valuable content and a more engaging user experience, we have reduced our bounce rate by 31%.
• Goal Achievement: The blog and case study sections are fully functional and powered by a seamless CMS, making content creation effortless. The mobile experience is vastly improved, and our project portfolio is now a true reflection of our capabilities.
• Enhanced Professional Image: The new efobi.dev is a much more accurate and compelling representation of our agency's skills, design philosophy, and technical expertise. It has become a key talking point in client discussions and serves as a powerful inbound marketing engine. Furthermore, the process of writing and publishing technical articles has deepened our team's own expertise.