OKDOKI

frequently asked questions.


— A different kind of beautiful.

Hi

What is OKDOKI?

OKDOKI is a custom website development company founded and run by Adele Schwab, which offers a specialised service for bespoke website design, development, and maintenance options. All our websites are finely crafted from scratch and are aimed at clients who want a unique and outstanding website in their field.

We offer an additional intensive focus for clients in an ongoing process of brand development. Each website has a completely custom-built design. Please contact us to learn more!

OKDOKI is a custom website development company founded and run by Adele Schwab, which offers a specialised service for bespoke website design, development, and maintenance options. All our websites are finely crafted from scratch and are aimed at clients who want a unique and outstanding website in their field.

We offer an additional intensive focus for clients in an ongoing process of brand development. Each website has a completely custom-built design. Please contact us to learn more!

Who is OKDOKI?

Adele Schwab is the founder and main member of OKDOKI. She has previously worked for world-leading companies as a technical engineering specialist, before combining her passion for technology with her outstanding aesthetic skill set to start OKDOKI in 2016.

Website development has allowed Adele to synergise her two big passions. First, from a very early age she has been obsessed with math and science, winning competitive math prizes in her free time, and even representing her state while growing up in North Carolina, USA. She has also always been an avid artist as well, accidentally selling her first painting-collage at the age of ten! Similarly, her first photography sale was also an accident: a performing country band from Texas stumbled across her photography portfolio online in 2005 (on one of the very earliest websites she programmed!) and asked to use one of her photographs as the cover art for their new album. After graduating from Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in Physics in 2008, Adele relocated to Berlin Germany to work as a senior engineer on the Rolls-Royce Gulfstream G650 aircraft project, the world’s fastest business jet. Working at the intersection between luxury design and advanced engineering, Adele continues to bring this desire to connect visually-stunning design with state-of-the-art technology to OKDOKI on a daily basis. She is a true perfectionist at heart.

Adele Schwab is the founder and main member of OKDOKI. She has previously worked for world-leading companies as a technical engineering specialist, before combining her passion for technology with her outstanding aesthetic skill set to start OKDOKI in 2016.

Website development has allowed Adele to synergise her two big passions. First, from a very early age she has been obsessed with math and science, winning competitive math prizes in her free time, and even representing her state while growing up in North Carolina, USA. She has also always been an avid artist as well, accidentally selling her first painting-collage at the age of ten! Similarly, her first photography sale was also an accident: a performing country band from Texas stumbled across her photography portfolio online in 2005 (on one of the very earliest websites she programmed!) and asked to use one of her photographs as the cover art for their new album. After graduating from Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in Physics in 2008, Adele relocated to Berlin Germany to work as a senior engineer on the Rolls-Royce Gulfstream G650 aircraft project, the world’s fastest business jet. Working at the intersection between luxury design and advanced engineering, Adele continues to bring this desire to connect visually-stunning design with state-of-the-art technology to OKDOKI on a daily basis. She is a true perfectionist at heart.

Who are your clients?

We have experience making many different kinds of websites, each of which has been developed for the specific specifications of a client. We pride ourselves on working to develop a powerful idea that expresses your brand or services perfectly, and we will support your online growth as a sole trader or company, allowing you to take your business to the next level.

Our clients come from various industries, including art consultancy, private banking, personal-development, medicine, academia and the visual arts. We work with private individuals and with small to medium-sized corporate clients. Most of our clients specifically want to work in close conjunction with a website designer to translate their company ideals into an authentic online message. Many also want to closely connect with their customer base in a way that simply cannot be done with off-the-shelf web design.

We have experience making many different kinds of websites, each of which has been developed for the specific specifications of a client. We pride ourselves on working to develop a powerful idea that expresses your brand or services perfectly, and we will support your online growth as a sole trader or company, allowing you to take your business to the next level.

Our clients come from various industries, including art consultancy, private banking, personal-development, medicine, academia and the visual arts. We work with private individuals and with small to medium-sized corporate clients. Most of our clients specifically want to work in close conjunction with a website designer to translate their company ideals into an authentic online message. Many also want to closely connect with their customer base in a way that simply cannot be done with off-the-shelf web design.

What makes OKDOKI unique?

OKDOKI is unique because it combines an outstanding level of technology with an outstanding level of design professionalism. We believe “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts”. We work on both the design and the technology simultaneously, knowing that the results of the two interacting together are key to the stunning look, the intuitive feeling, and the high-control functionality of your bespoke website. A deep level of expertise is required, but the experience of using a website like this is highly rewarding.

In our experience, it is very rare to find a website developer who works expertly with both skill sets, as most developers are either very skilled at the technology or at the aesthetics (and almost never at both!). Most website development on the market is therefore done in teams, in which a programmer does the code for the website, and a graphic designer does the visual layout. However the limitation to this approach is two-fold. Firstly, since the technical and visual elements are done separately, they are often out of sync, leading to either a good looking website with low functionality, or a website that works well but which does not look very appealing. Secondly, inevitably parts of the communication will be lost in both directions, allowing for neither true maximisation of the design nor the technology. At OKDOKI things are different! We know the very best websites make the visuals and the technology work in unison, and this is the key to our signature design. We give you “the look” while maximising the technical power at every stage, providing your customers with a seamless website experience.

At OKDOKI we can deliver unique designs. While many website companies use templates, we do not, and at OKDOKI designs are always made originally to the client’s needs. You may find that a lot of websites on the internet look very similar. At OKDOKI, you will have a website which has been crafted especially for you. This impresses your customers, and makes your online presence memorable.

Now there are thousands of great website developers out there, and we would very much encourage you to take the time to find someone you can develop a great working relationship with. Website development is a new and ever-changing industry, and companies are cropping up and disappearing all the time. Here at OKDOKI, we specialise at providing a personal one-on-one approach. We work closely with our clients, and to ensure the high quality of our work, we take on only a small number of clients each year.

OKDOKI is unique because it combines an outstanding level of technology with an outstanding level of design professionalism. We believe “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts”. We work on both the design and the technology simultaneously, knowing that the results of the two interacting together are key to the stunning look, the intuitive feeling, and the high-control functionality of your bespoke website. A deep level of expertise is required, but the experience of using a website like this is highly rewarding.

In our experience, it is very rare to find a website developer who works expertly with both skill sets, as most developers are either very skilled at the technology or at the aesthetics (and almost never at both!). Most website development on the market is therefore done in teams, in which a programmer does the code for the website, and a graphic designer does the visual layout. However the limitation to this approach is two-fold. Firstly, since the technical and visual elements are done separately, they are often out of sync, leading to either a good looking website with low functionality, or a website that works well but which does not look very appealing. Secondly, inevitably parts of the communication will be lost in both directions, allowing for neither true maximisation of the design nor the technology. At OKDOKI things are different! We know the very best websites make the visuals and the technology work in unison, and this is the key to our signature design. We give you “the look” while maximising the technical power at every stage, providing your customers with a seamless website experience.

At OKDOKI we can deliver unique designs. While many website companies use templates, we do not, and at OKDOKI designs are always made originally to the client’s needs. You may find that a lot of websites on the internet look very similar. At OKDOKI, you will have a website which has been crafted especially for you. This impresses your customers, and makes your online presence memorable.

Now there are thousands of great website developers out there, and we would very much encourage you to take the time to find someone you can develop a great working relationship with. Website development is a new and ever-changing industry, and companies are cropping up and disappearing all the time. Here at OKDOKI, we specialise at providing a personal one-on-one approach. We work closely with our clients, and to ensure the high quality of our work, we take on only a small number of clients each year.

What is OKDOKI “Branding”?

We have a passion to empower people to be successful with their online message. Think about what is truly your reason for doing your project or business idea... Most usually, it is not the actual product itself, but rather your project is a vessel of communication for something bigger — for something which means even more to you than the thing itself. We help you to light the way.

We can advise you on colour, imagery, content and text layout. For artistic work outside of our area of expertise, such as design of custom logos, copy text writing, or made-to-order photography, we are happy to recommend a professional in our network.

We have a passion to empower people to be successful with their online message. Think about what is truly your reason for doing your project or business idea... Most usually, it is not the actual product itself, but rather your project is a vessel of communication for something bigger — for something which means even more to you than the thing itself. We help you to light the way.

We can advise you on colour, imagery, content and text layout. For artistic work outside of our area of expertise, such as design of custom logos, copy text writing, or made-to-order photography, we are happy to recommend a professional in our network.

Why does OKDOKI not use templates?

Templates are a great way to get online and start a website on a small budget. Template providers offer the generic website builder the opportunity to purchase a pre-fabricated design to use as a baseline to build a website. Looking through template designs can also be inspirational and give you ideas as to the type of website design you may like to have. We highly recommend you do this!

At OKDOKI we offer a personalised and detailed coaching process to deliver a top quality product. We find it is better for high-end businesses to code from scratch than to use existing templates. Here’s why:

1. Modifications to templates are often highly time-consuming. Each template is quite different and takes much time to become accustomed to, usually requiring you to hire a programmer or to do the programming work yourself. Moreover, their bulky code makes alterations more difficult. Templates are marketed as simple to use and cheap, but even a simple personal website may take more than a month of full-time work to enter in the information and modify. Ultimately, it depends on whether your time is worth the money.

2. Template designs typically do not allow a sufficient enough level of customisable branding for our clients. With a template you can change general elements such as colours and sizes (for the geeks out there: anything written in the HTML and CSS parts of the code), but further customisation is either limited or disallowed by the provider. Many add-ons are either impossible, or only available with hefty monthly-fees through third-party providers. In terms of design, templates will always — still look like a template. It is somehow hard to get away from this!

3. A custom-designed website has better performance. Website developers who use templates cannot get the same speeds of integration as OKDOKI, since templates contain bulky code that accommodates “all the possibilities”. This means a lot of the code in a template website you won’t be using at all. This slows the website down, and due to having more parts, makes them more susceptible to breakages. At OKDOKI, we only program in what you need. This keeps things simple, sleek, and easy for you to use. And, we install your website on the fastest servers, so you will have plenty of bandwidth to run your website.

4. OKDOKI websites will always operate smoothly: that is, bug-free and with the highest levels of reliability. Templates do not offer this same control over website robustness and reliability. Without full knowledge of a templates’ entire code, a change to any one part of the design could break other parts. Also inherent bugs can be reported, but you as a user will have limited control over how and when the bug is resolved in future changes the template provider may (or may not) make.

5. We believe an OKDOKI website should grow with you. After a few years, templates are sometimes discontinued by their providers, requiring you to redesign your website from the beginning and at the significant risk of losing your brand image. Once you invest in an OKDOKI bespoke website with solid, clear programming foundations as well as iconic design, you will have an excellent platform upon which to further develop your website as your needs evolve.

We encourage you to take a look at all your development options before you begin. If you are considering OKDOKI, you may well have already decided that a template will not suit your needs. If you have not yet come to this conclusion, we encourage you to look at what’s online! Many template companies out there offer free trials that allow you to explore their use and content. And in the case that you decide you would like a different kind of product, your experience with the templates will serve as a great starting place for understanding the kind of website you would like to create with OKDOKI!

Templates are a great way to get online and start a website on a small budget. Template providers offer the generic website builder the opportunity to purchase a pre-fabricated design to use as a baseline to build a website. Looking through template designs can also be inspirational and give you ideas as to the type of website design you may like to have. We highly recommend you do this!

At OKDOKI we offer a personalised and detailed coaching process to deliver a top quality product. We find it is better for high-end businesses to code from scratch than to use existing templates. Here’s why:

1. Modifications to templates are often highly time-consuming. Each template is quite different and takes much time to become accustomed to, usually requiring you to hire a programmer or to do the programming work yourself. Moreover, their bulky code makes alterations more difficult. Templates are marketed as simple to use and cheap, but even a simple personal website may take more than a month of full-time work to enter in the information and modify. Ultimately, it depends on whether your time is worth the money.

2. Template designs typically do not allow a sufficient enough level of customisable branding for our clients. With a template you can change general elements such as colours and sizes (for the geeks out there: anything written in the HTML and CSS parts of the code), but further customisation is either limited or disallowed by the provider. Many add-ons are either impossible, or only available with hefty monthly-fees through third-party providers. In terms of design, templates will always — still look like a template. It is somehow hard to get away from this!

3. A custom-designed website has better performance. Website developers who use templates cannot get the same speeds of integration as OKDOKI, since templates contain bulky code that accommodates “all the possibilities”. This means a lot of the code in a template website you won’t be using at all. This slows the website down, and due to having more parts, makes them more susceptible to breakages. At OKDOKI, we only program in what you need. This keeps things simple, sleek, and easy for you to use. And, we install your website on the fastest servers, so you will have plenty of bandwidth to run your website.

4. OKDOKI websites will always operate smoothly: that is, bug-free and with the highest levels of reliability. Templates do not offer this same control over website robustness and reliability. Without full knowledge of a templates’ entire code, a change to any one part of the design could break other parts. Also inherent bugs can be reported, but you as a user will have limited control over how and when the bug is resolved in future changes the template provider may (or may not) make.

5. We believe an OKDOKI website should grow with you. After a few years, templates are sometimes discontinued by their providers, requiring you to redesign your website from the beginning and at the significant risk of losing your brand image. Once you invest in an OKDOKI bespoke website with solid, clear programming foundations as well as iconic design, you will have an excellent platform upon which to further develop your website as your needs evolve.

We encourage you to take a look at all your development options before you begin. If you are considering OKDOKI, you may well have already decided that a template will not suit your needs. If you have not yet come to this conclusion, we encourage you to look at what’s online! Many template companies out there offer free trials that allow you to explore their use and content. And in the case that you decide you would like a different kind of product, your experience with the templates will serve as a great starting place for understanding the kind of website you would like to create with OKDOKI!

How can I get involved in the design process?

We love to hear your ideas, and we specialise in helping clients to translate their vision into engaging online visual content. We offer various levels of depth for what we call “Research & Development”, to support the collaborative development of your custom design.

We love to hear your ideas, and we specialise in helping clients to translate their vision into engaging online visual content. We offer various levels of depth for what we call “Research & Development”, to support the collaborative development of your custom design.

I’m busy, can you just do the design for me?

Of course. We will gladly take over all aspects of the design for you, if this is your preferred method. We will just have some questions for you before we begin, to help us to go away and design your custom website.

Of course. We will gladly take over all aspects of the design for you, if this is your preferred method. We will just have some questions for you before we begin, to help us to go away and design your custom website.

How can I make changes to the website once it is complete?

We know a great website grows with you. This is why every OKDOKI website comes with a secured client “Dashboard”, allowing you to make changes to the text and image content from anywhere you have an internet connection. As this Dashboard is—like the website—also custom made for your needs, there will be nothing on it that you don’t need, so it will be simple, elegant, and very intuitive. Any more complex changes, such as adding new pages or changing backgrounds, can be contracted with us separately at anytime. The Dashboard allows you to perfect your text and imagery, to experiment, and to hone your website at your leisure.

We know a great website grows with you. This is why every OKDOKI website comes with a secured client “Dashboard”, allowing you to make changes to the text and image content from anywhere you have an internet connection. As this Dashboard is—like the website—also custom made for your needs, there will be nothing on it that you don’t need, so it will be simple, elegant, and very intuitive. Any more complex changes, such as adding new pages or changing backgrounds, can be contracted with us separately at anytime. The Dashboard allows you to perfect your text and imagery, to experiment, and to hone your website at your leisure.

It is clear that OKDOKI does amazing visual design, but what about the parts I can't see, what is “under the hood”?

Most clients who want an outstanding website naturally first think about how it looks, but the functionality that powers a great design should not be overlooked and is actually — essential to its iconic design. Just as a luxury car is beautiful not just for its design but also for its technology: the smoothest steering, the most responsive engine, and an elegant aerodynamic shape, so is an OKDOKI website.

The key is in the way we code. Not only have we developed a very minimal and elegant coding technique, we have also streamlined the coding components to ensure computers load your website at the highest possible speeds and deliver the smoothest, most integrated customer experience. You don’t “see” the code, but you “feel” the intuitiveness as you use the website.

The advantages of having a custom-built and web-optimised website is something experienced immediately by your customers. And once you invest in an original bespoke coded website, you will be able to easily build on this in the future. Having solid, clear, and logically coherent programming foundations gives you an excellent platform to develop your website as your needs evolve, whether you choose to have the website hosted by us or not in the long-term.

We use the latest standards of HTML5, XHTML, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, MySQL, and Python for most website builds. Other programming languages are available on request if you have something specific in mind.

Most clients who want an outstanding website naturally first think about how it looks, but the functionality that powers a great design should not be overlooked and is actually — essential to its iconic design. Just as a luxury car is beautiful not just for its design but also for its technology: the smoothest steering, the most responsive engine, and an elegant aerodynamic shape, so is an OKDOKI website.

The key is in the way we code. Not only have we developed a very minimal and elegant coding technique, we have also streamlined the coding components to ensure computers load your website at the highest possible speeds and deliver the smoothest, most integrated customer experience. You don’t “see” the code, but you “feel” the intuitiveness as you use the website.

The advantages of having a custom-built and web-optimised website is something experienced immediately by your customers. And once you invest in an original bespoke coded website, you will be able to easily build on this in the future. Having solid, clear, and logically coherent programming foundations gives you an excellent platform to develop your website as your needs evolve, whether you choose to have the website hosted by us or not in the long-term.

We use the latest standards of HTML5, XHTML, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, MySQL, and Python for most website builds. Other programming languages are available on request if you have something specific in mind.

Are your websites mobile compatible?

Yes, absolutely. An OKDOKI website responds seamlessly to all devices.

There is a term in website development called “Responsive Design”. This refers to the ability of a website to adjust to multiple screen sizes and platforms. Our websites are fully compatible across all standard desktop, laptop, tablet, and smartphone devices. With more than 200 possible screen sizes available on the market as of 2019, and more being developed each year, we design each website with an eye for flexibility.

Our websites are not only fully functional in every screen size — they also look beautiful too!

Yes, absolutely. An OKDOKI website responds seamlessly to all devices.

There is a term in website development called “Responsive Design”. This refers to the ability of a website to adjust to multiple screen sizes and platforms. Our websites are fully compatible across all standard desktop, laptop, tablet, and smartphone devices. With more than 200 possible screen sizes available on the market as of 2019, and more being developed each year, we design each website with an eye for flexibility.

Our websites are not only fully functional in every screen size — they also look beautiful too!

How do you deal with the new European policies for use of cookies in websites?

All OKDOKI code is free of cookies. Because we don’t use templates, we can guarantee a completely cookie-free experience. Nevertheless, if you need to use cookies for certain functions, we are happy to add them, setting up a disclosure form in line with the new European policies. Please note that connections to third party sites and services, such as online shops, will have their own cookies.

All OKDOKI code is free of cookies. Because we don’t use templates, we can guarantee a completely cookie-free experience. Nevertheless, if you need to use cookies for certain functions, we are happy to add them, setting up a disclosure form in line with the new European policies. Please note that connections to third party sites and services, such as online shops, will have their own cookies.

What is OKDOKI security like?

OKDOKI servers are housed in the heart of Germany with a highly reputable server provider. They are also protected under German data privacy laws. With a website from us you will always know exactly where your data is held, and know how you can access it.

Our founder comes from a career in the aircraft industry, so she knows the importance of fail-safe systems and the types of checks that must be in place. Reliability comes first!

OKDOKI servers are housed in the heart of Germany with a highly reputable server provider. They are also protected under German data privacy laws. With a website from us you will always know exactly where your data is held, and know how you can access it.

Our founder comes from a career in the aircraft industry, so she knows the importance of fail-safe systems and the types of checks that must be in place. Reliability comes first!

Can you help me to generate page content?

Yes. We love generating content! We can provide additional support for content population drawing from a strong network of talented international professionals. This covers other wishes you may have such as website logo development, the writing of copy text, and custom photography and imagery.

We are also happy to take an advisory role in guiding you on the type of content you can include in your website. We gladly give creative direction to your content and provide recommendation, so that you can go out there and source the very best information for your website!

We are an all-in-one service, and for where we don’t have the expertise to do so ourselves, we can often recommend a professional in our network. With OKDOKI, you will have a creative partner who understands your needs and can draw on a large network of other creative individuals along the way to help you as necessary. We are located in exciting cosmopolitan Berlin, the up and coming technology capital of Europe. Ask us about it!

Yes. We love generating content! We can provide additional support for content population drawing from a strong network of talented international professionals. This covers other wishes you may have such as website logo development, the writing of copy text, and custom photography and imagery.

We are also happy to take an advisory role in guiding you on the type of content you can include in your website. We gladly give creative direction to your content and provide recommendation, so that you can go out there and source the very best information for your website!

We are an all-in-one service, and for where we don’t have the expertise to do so ourselves, we can often recommend a professional in our network. With OKDOKI, you will have a creative partner who understands your needs and can draw on a large network of other creative individuals along the way to help you as necessary. We are located in exciting cosmopolitan Berlin, the up and coming technology capital of Europe. Ask us about it!

Can you build me custom tools and solutions?

We can build unique and secure online shops, for those who wish to sell their goods and services directly through the website. We are also able to offer many other bespoke solutions, such as booking forms and calendars, blogs, and other backend services.

We can build unique and secure online shops, for those who wish to sell their goods and services directly through the website. We are also able to offer many other bespoke solutions, such as booking forms and calendars, blogs, and other backend services.

What if I want to recommend you?

If we’ve already had a talk—just send your name along with the referral—we very much appreciate referrals and we will then know from whom the connection came.

If we’ve already had a talk—just send your name along with the referral—we very much appreciate referrals and we will then know from whom the connection came.

How quickly can you get me online?

We need 1-4 months once we start the design process, and you can generally expect a timeframe of 2-3 months. This allows us enough time for the complete design process, the technical work, the discussions, and the content collaborations. Our clients often find the time flies by! Call us today to understand how we can schedule a time slot for you in 2019! We offer a free 1 hour telephone consultation to discuss your potential product and online needs, and to see if we would be a good match! Open calling hours for prospective clients are Mondays and Thursdays from 9 am to 12 noon at the number +49 (0) 177 472 9802. Or just send us a note with your availability, and we’ll set up something for you!

We need 1-4 months once we start the design process, and you can generally expect a timeframe of 2-3 months. This allows us enough time for the complete design process, the technical work, the discussions, and the content collaborations. Our clients often find the time flies by! Call us today to understand how we can schedule a time slot for you in 2019! We offer a free 1 hour telephone consultation to discuss your potential product and online needs, and to see if we would be a good match! Open calling hours for prospective clients are Mondays and Thursdays from 9 am to 12 noon at the number +49 (0) 177 472 9802. Or just send us a note with your availability, and we’ll set up something for you!

Sounds fantastic! Can I learn more?

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