Aadhib

Web · Events · Active

Nexel events platform

Rebuilding a Framer-designed events site as maintainable production code without losing the design it started as.

Role
Head of Software Development
Category
Web · Events
Status
Active
01

The problem

A site designed in a visual builder looks finished and is not. It is difficult to extend, awkward to connect to real content, and the performance and SEO characteristics are whatever the builder decided. Rebuilding it in code risks the opposite failure: a maintainable site that no longer looks like the design everyone approved.

02

Approach

Treat design fidelity as an acceptance criterion rather than an aspiration. Rebuild in components, comparing against the original at each breakpoint, and take the opportunity — while rebuilding — to add the CMS integration, metadata and asset handling the visual build never had.

03

What it does

01
Faithful rebuild
The approved design reproduced in code, checked against the original rather than reinterpreted while being rebuilt.
02
Responsive implementation
Breakpoint behaviour implemented deliberately, rather than inherited from a builder's automatic layout rules.
03
CMS integration
Content that the team can change without a developer, which the original build could not offer.
04
SEO and structured data
Metadata and structured data added as part of the rebuild, since a visual builder rarely produces either properly.
04

The hard parts

01
Fidelity versus maintainability
A pixel-exact copy of builder output can be as unmaintainable as the original. The judgement is which details are the design and which are artefacts of the tool.
02
Animation is the expensive part
Layout ports cleanly. Motion and interaction are where a rebuild quietly loses the character of the original if nobody is watching for it.

Detail

Why rebuild at all

Visual builders are excellent for deciding what a site should look like and poor at being the thing you maintain for years. I treat the rebuild as the point at which a design becomes software: components, content model, metadata and performance all become things somebody owns.

Stack

Application
Next.jsComponent library
Content
CMS integrationAsset management
Discovery
Technical SEOStructured data

Case study

The decisions behind the build

All work