From time to time, we’re all asked that standard question: “What do you do?” And as I start to explain what Square Lines does, it often gets summarized thusly – “Oh, you do tech design and development and stuff.”
Well, yes and no.
Yes, we do those things. In fact, we bill ourselves as “Design & Development,” specifically so that people get a quick sense about what part of the world we occupy. But that’s not really the best description of the scope of what we do.
We are, in the truest sense, solution providers. Over the last decade or two, that phrase has become so pervasive as to be meaningless in the tech world (which is why we don’t really plaster it all over our website). But for us, it really is the case.
So what’s the difference? Well, if all you want is a quickie web design, you can get that for free. Just find one of the tons of templates out there and call it good. Of course, your site will be from a cookie cutter, may not work the way you want, and certainly won’t represent your brand as well as it should, but hey — it’s free. You get what you pay for.
What we do starts with listening and thinking – two skills that the cookie-cutter chop shops don’t have. What is the problem that you’re trying to solve? Who are the audiences? What do you want them to do and to feel? How will this work be changing over time?
By getting a sense of the big picture, we can look at a whole array of options — some might even call them solutions! — whether it’s web design, app building, or something entirely different. The goal is to meet the client’s needs and solve the problem, not just to churn out another bland product that looks and works vaguely like everything else out there.
So what do we do? Design and development, yes. But really? We provide solutions.