Case study · A website, built together

isshaela.com, built together

Her words, her pictures, her call on every page. My side built it, and two Claudes kept us in step.

Isshaela Ingham writes, presents, teaches Qigong and reads charts. In about seven weeks we went from a first conversation to a site she runs and publishes herself, fifty versions later, checked page by page against the accessibility standard organisations are held to.

Visit isshaela.com How we worked

First call: Aug 26, 2026
First build: Sept 24
Live on her own address: Oct 4
Versions: 50 so far, every one kept
Accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA

Where it started

A conversation first, then something to correct

Isshaela and I go back a long way. When we sat down on August 26 she wasn't sure she wanted a website at all. To her it felt like a storefront, and her work doesn't fit on a shelf: writing, Qigong, astrology, presentations, decades of brand work, all of it connected.

So I didn't pitch her a site. I built a private one-page sketch from that one call and sent her the link. Not to sell it. To give her something to correct. She is a writer, and when a writer has something to push against, the real words come out. They did.

A month later came the first real build: one page, from the sky down to the ground, opening on an eclipse she photographed in 2015 by looking down into a pond instead of up at the sun. That picture says how she works, and the site grew out of it.

August

A private sketch, written from one conversation. Something to react to.
September 24, version 0.1.0

The first build. One page, one scroll, her own photograph at the top.
October, version 0.1.48

Seven pages in her own voice, on her own address, published by her.

How we worked

Two people, two Claudes, one log

We each work with our own Claude, Anthropic's AI assistant. Hers helps her write and edit; mine helps me build and check. Both can change the site, so we needed a way for four sets of hands to work on one thing without ever undoing each other.

She leads, I build

Isshaela led the creative direction, wrote and edited every page, shot and chose the photographs, and made the design calls. My side built the site and its look, set up the hosting, and brought ideas to the table.

The Bridge

One plain text file at the top of her shared folder. Both Claudes read it at the start of every session and add a dated entry at the end: what changed, which files, what's next. It opens in any tool, and either of us can read it on a phone.

The relay rule

Before either Claude touches the site, it reads the log, starts from the newest version, and never redoes the other's work. It writes "I'm on version 0.1.N" before starting and "done" when it finishes. Every round is a fresh numbered copy, so nothing is ever lost.

Drafts first

Each round goes up as a private draft she can open anywhere. Changes are gathered into one round and published once, which keeps hosting costs down and keeps her in control of what the world sees.

She publishes

The site lives in her own hosting account, on a domain she owns. Going live is always her call, and she does it herself.

Talk where the work is

Notes go in the task they belong to, files go straight into her folder, and long calls are recorded, so every decision can be traced back to who said it, and when.

"I led the creative direction, wrote and edited every page, shot and chose the photographs, and made the design calls, from the layout and logo to the moon lantern and the gallery, then published and launched it myself."

Isshaela, in the credit line she wrote for her own Portfolio page

Before and after

From a sketch to a site she runs

Before, in August

No website, and doubts about having one

Her work spread across résumés, notes and social posts
No public address, no way for new people to reach her
A worry that a website would turn her work into a storefront

After, in October

A site in her voice, that she keeps growing

Seven pages: home, her story, portfolio, Sky + Soul, a thank-you page, legal and privacy
Her own domain, a public email address and a contact form that lands in her inbox
A digital business card whose code opens the site
Small touches that are hers alone: a lantern that lights at the end, a moon gate that reveals her photographs
A way of working she can carry on with her own Claude, at her own pace

The proof

Walked through like a finished house

When she was happy with the site, Isshaela asked for the list an architect walks through once a house is built, because she wanted it to meet the standard before we showed it as an example. So on October 15 we checked every page.

pages checked, every one, on a 320-pixel phone, a typical phone and a laptop

broken links or pictures, out of 85 links

6.8 : 1

the lowest text contrast anywhere on the site, where 4.5 : 1 is the bar

We measured against WCAG 2.1 level AA, the accessibility standard most organisations are held to. Every page went through axe, the industry checker, and then a check by hand: keyboard only, zoom to 400%, wider text spacing, a screen reader, and devices set to ask for less motion.

It passed most of it as it stood. The handful of gaps it found, like a missing "skip to content" link and a menu that ran past the edge of the smallest phones, were fixed in the next version, along with lighter photos for phones, a sitemap, and one clear address for Google.

WCAG 2.1 AA
Keyboard
Screen reader
400% zoom
Reduced motion

Still going

The site keeps growing with her

This is the way I like to build: the person behind the site leads, and my side makes it real, solid and easy to keep up. Isshaela keeps improving her site with her own Claude, and the Bridge keeps us in step whenever we work on it together.

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