Most web projects don’t go wrong in the build. They go wrong much earlier, in a rushed briefing, a proposal based on guesswork, or weeks spent approving pictures of a website instead of the website itself.
Our process is designed around those failure points. You get a working page you can click through within days of the first call, you comment on the page itself rather than in long email chains, and the approved design becomes a production WordPress site, typically one to three weeks later.
AI makes the speed possible, but it isn’t the point. Good web projects start with understanding the problem; AI just helps us get to the right solution faster.
| Stage | What you do | What you get | Typical time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Discovery | Talk us through your business on one or more calls | A recorded, structured brief | Day one |
| 2. Proposal | Read and agree scope and cost | A proposal built from your answers | [a few days] |
| 3. Prototype | Nothing, yet | Working key pages you can click through | Within days |
| 4. Feedback | Comment directly on the page | Changes made, each one checked by a person | Hours per round |
| 5. Production | Approve the final design | A WordPress (or Shopify) site you can edit yourself | 1–3 weeks after sign-off |
| 6. Launch and after | Decide what support you want | Hosting, maintenance and content, if you want them | Ongoing |
The first call isn’t a sales pitch. We work through a structured questionnaire covering your audience, goals, competitors, content, constraints and what success looks like. With your permission we record the call on Microsoft Teams, so nothing gets lost or misremembered and you only have to explain things once.
The scope, structure, timeline and cost come from what you told us, not from a template. Thorough discovery is also why the first prototype is usually close to the mark.
We build the key pages in Lovable, an AI design tool, with your existing brand fixed in the brief from the start. We focus Lovable on the pages that set the design, usually the homepage and core service pages, rather than every page. That keeps costs down, and the rest of the site follows the patterns those pages establish.
You review the prototype in Pastel, a visual feedback tool. There’s no login and no long document: you open a link, click any element and leave a comment pinned to that exact spot. “Make this headline bolder”, “swap these two sections”, “this button should go to the contact page”. Everyone on your side can comment in the same place.
We then turn those comments into changes with AI assistance, and a person checks every change before it comes back to you. Feedback rounds take hours rather than days.
Once you approve the design, we build it properly: a custom WordPress theme with editable fields for each section, so you can change text and images without touching code, plus working forms, SEO settings and security. If you’re replacing an existing site, we keep your current page addresses or redirect them, so you don’t lose search rankings. E-commerce projects are built on Shopify instead.
For web applications, such as internal tools and dashboards, the route is different: the Lovable prototype becomes the starting point for the app itself, with a proper database and user accounts behind it.
We can host the site on a UK server, keep WordPress updated and backed up through Heer WP Maintain, and write and publish articles through Heer Content Services. All three are optional.
For Clarence Property Group, a London and South East property buyer, we built the new site as a Lovable prototype, collected their feedback in Pastel, then converted the approved design into a custom WordPress theme carrying their existing project portfolio. You can see the result in our UK Property Acquisition case study.
AI does the work that used to take a designer and developer days of repetitive effort. People make every decision that needs judgement.
| Tool | What it does | What a person does |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Teams | Records the discovery calls | Runs the conversation and decides what matters |
| Lovable | Turns the written brief into working pages | Writes the brief, fixes the brand and judges the result |
| Pastel | Pins your comments to the exact spot on the page | You decide what to change; we decide how |
| Claude | Connects Pastel and Lovable, using the Model Context Protocol, so comments become changes without being retyped | Checks every change before it reaches you |
| WordPress with Advanced Custom Fields | Gives you an editor for each section of every page | Builds the theme and sets up what you can edit |
The last column is the one that matters. AI makes the process faster; the people make it right.
How much of my time does it take? The discovery call, then reviewing the prototype and leaving comments at your own pace. For a homepage prototype, the briefing takes around twenty minutes.
Will an AI-built site look generic? Not if the brief is good. A prototype prompted from two lines looks like every other AI site; one built from a proper discovery conversation looks like your business. We explain the difference in Human Designer or Lovable?
Do I need to learn Lovable or Pastel? No. You open a link, click and type a comment. We do everything else.
Can you work from my existing site and brand? Yes. Many of our projects are refreshes. We keep your brand, carry over your content, and keep your existing page addresses wherever possible.
Can I update the site myself after launch? Yes. Every section of every page has its own editing fields in WordPress, so you can change text and images without breaking the layout.
Why not just launch the Lovable prototype? Sometimes we do, for a simple site that will rarely change. For a site you’ll publish to and grow through search, a production build is worth it; You Built It in Lovable. Now What? explains why.
That line on our homepage sums up the process. Design fast, because you should see your new site working within days, not approve pictures of it for weeks. Build smart, because the smart decision for most businesses is a production site you can edit, grow and own, delivered at a lower cost than a traditional agency build because the slow parts are now fast.
The easiest way to see the process is to try the first half of it. We’ll build a working prototype of your new homepage at no cost, with no proposal to sign first. For what a full project costs, see our guide to website costs in 2026.
David Dawkins is the founder and director of Heer Digital, a Lovable Expert Partner and WordPress specialist he founded in 2012. Before that, he worked in marketing and product management at GE Capital, GE Money, GMAC-RFC and the AA. Connect on LinkedIn.
