An internal architecture case study covering information architecture, domain modeling, and cross-linked content relationships in a Next.js App Router system.
The website needed to support deeper technical storytelling and cross-domain discovery for buyers and developers, not just a static set of marketing pages.
Balance editorial quality, conversion pathways, and technical maintainability while avoiding disconnected page silos.
Multiple information-architecture options were evaluated: flat content listing, service-first only architecture, and a graph-connected domain model. The graph-connected model was selected because it improved reuse and made evidence pathways clearer.
A flat portfolio structure and a service-only site were both rejected for the same reason: neither could connect a technical decision to the business problem it solved, which is what buyers and AI retrieval systems both need to trust a claim. A multi-hub architecture with typed relationships between services, work, technologies, and insights was selected so any single page can prove its claims by linking to the evidence behind them.
Too weak for connecting technical proof to business decisions.
Would not surface engineering depth or educational credibility.
Best fit for discoverability, trust, and long-term content governance.
Implemented a multi-hub architecture where each domain can stand alone but remains strongly connected through relationship slugs and route helpers.
Domain models in lib/content/types.ts and schemas in lib/content/schemas.ts provide shared structure. Route helpers centralize links. Collection providers support MDX and TypeScript content sources.
Pages were restructured into conversion-oriented hubs with deeper detail templates and connected content components. This reduced isolated pages and improved internal navigation pathways.
Defined canonical types for services, projects, case studies, technologies, insights, and problems.
Added zod schemas for runtime validation of frontmatter and structured objects.
Rebuilt Services, Problems, Work, and Case Studies into narrative-first experiences with connected content.
Aligned slug relationships and route helper usage to prevent stale links.
Automated link-integrity checks are being added so relationship slugs (related services, technologies, projects, and insights) are validated at build time, catching stale references before a page ships instead of after.
HA Web Studio is a web design and development agency, and this site is our own product: it needed to sell services, teach implementation thinking, and stay maintainable as content expanded — the same three requirements we design into client websites.
The team compared lightweight marketing structures against a connected-domain architecture. The simpler approach would have shipped faster, but it does not support technical storytelling depth or let a claim on one page link to the evidence behind it.
A connected content system was implemented so each domain page — Services, Problems We Solve, Work, Technologies, Insights — can route users to the next relevant decision instead of ending in a dead end.
A case study hub is more credible when it documents constraints and decision trade-offs, not only polished outcomes.
The same domain model we use internally — typed content, shared schemas, and route helpers instead of one-off pages — is what we bring to business website development and website redesign work. Concretely, that means a client site's services, case studies, and location or industry pages are built as related content types from the start, so adding a new page later doesn't mean rebuilding navigation or duplicating metadata by hand.
The trade-off is the same one described above: this approach takes more up-front planning than shipping isolated pages one at a time. We choose it because the cost of an unconnected site shows up later — as broken internal links, inconsistent metadata, and pages that neither search engines nor AI systems can place in context — and by then it's a rebuild, not a fix.
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