Views & news

Frontend development, collaboration, and coop working

Creative Director Paul Evans and Founder Steve Hawkes share a holistic framework for embedding trauma-informed principles into design, code, and infrastructure.

As a concept, Worthwhile AI came from the question ‘is this a worthwhile use of AI, and how can AI be worthwhile for all?’ It’s a question that we ask to ensure we’re always foregrounding our mission, communities and values.

By day I’m Operations Manager and a Director at The Developer Society, and outside of that I volunteer as Project Coordinator for The Hygiene Bank in the Tunbridge Wells area. The two roles might sound very different, but they actually overlap more than you’d expect. At The Developer Society, I’m all about solving problems, keeping things moving, and making sure projects run smoothly — and those same skills come in handy when I’m organising collections and supporting community partners.

Charities often ask about day rates — and it's a fair question. But the "day" in web development rarely looks like a single person working eight hours in isolation. This piece unpacks the quiet labour that surrounds the visible work: the code review, the QA, the coordination, the accumulated experience that lets a senior developer resolve in an hour what might otherwise take a day. For charities whose digital services sit at the front door of their mission, understanding what "done well" actually requires helps explain not just how we price our work — but why we do it the way we do.

AI's invention of false PRs and code proved human judgment is utterly vital. A simple solution avoided unnecessary custom code, ensuring sustainable tech and essential risk oversight.

The market truth is that you can’t just ‘throw your data at AI.’ Our Lead Developer offers an honest technical breakdown explaining why initial RAG and Map-Reduce attempts failed, and how the strategic use of LLM 'Tools' provided accurate, mission-critical insights for a major grants organisation.

Accessibility is hard, but it doesn't have to be overwhelming. Our Creative Director, Paul Evans, shares his trusted go-to's, the non-code checks and designer-approved resources needed to cut the guesswork. This essential framework demystifies clarity and contrast, providing the knowledge to upskill your team and guarantee a streamlined user experience.