Website Philosophy
No tracking, no cookies, no data collection, no algorithms
The Saving Birds Thru Habitat website uses a publishing system designed to combine two different approaches to the web: the flexibility of a modern editing system and the reliability of a traditional static website. In simple terms, the site is edited using a dynamic content management system, but the public website itself is published as static pages. This allows for straightforward content management while maintaining a fast, stable, and secure public-facing site.
How the System Works
All editing takes place in a private staging environment using the ProcessWire content management system. Within that environment, staff and editors can add pages, update information, and manage content through a standard web interface.
When changes are ready to be published, the system generates a complete static version of the site. This build includes all pages, images, and supporting files required for the website to function. The static build is then deployed to the public server.
Because the public site is static, it loads quickly, remains stable, and does not depend on a database or server-side software.
Why This Approach Was Chosen
Many modern websites run complex software directly on the public server. While this allows for dynamic behavior, it also introduces trade-offs, including slower page loading, the need for constant software updates, increased security exposure, and greater technical complexity.
This system avoids those issues by separating editing from publishing. The editing tools remain dynamic, but the public site itself is simple and durable. This architecture provides a level of reliability that is difficult to achieve with traditional CMS-driven websites. Users should not have to learn software.
How Updates Are Made
The normal update cycle follows a simple sequence: feedback leads to edits, edits are incorporated into the staging system, a new build is generated, the updated version is deployed, and the result is verified. This cycle can be repeated as often as needed, allowing for incremental improvement over time.
A Forward-Looking Approach
The web has increasingly shifted toward centralized platforms and complex software systems, and many organizations now depend on social media platforms or heavily managed website services. This project follows a different path.
What This Means for the Organization
The result is a website that is fast, reliable, secure, and straightforward to maintain. It is independent of external platforms and capable of growing gradually as new material is added. Most importantly, it provides a stable home for the organization’s knowledge and work, both now and in the years ahead.
The internet has changed significantly over the past twenty years, with much of the web now dominated by large centralized platforms and complex systems. The goal here is to build a durable and independent presence—one that remains under direct control and can remain stable over time. By combining a modern editing system with static publishing, this approach reflects a growing recognition that simple, fast, and durable sites are often the most reliable.
In that sense, Saving Birds Thru Habitat is exploring an approach that uses modern tools to create sites that remain simple, predictable, and independent of external platforms. This allows the focus to remain on the content itself: documenting the work, sharing knowledge about habitat and native plants, and building a long-term record of the ideas and experiments that emerge from the Discovery Center.
The technology supports that purpose, rather than shaping it.
Respect for Visitors
The website is also designed with a simple principle in mind: respect for the people who visit it. Many modern websites rely on tracking systems that collect data about visitors, follow them across the internet, and attempt to influence behavior through targeted content and advertising. Saving Birds Thru Habitat does not participate in that model.
The site does not track visitors, does not collect personal data, and does not attempt to guide or manipulate user behavior. Visitors will not encounter advertising, pop-ups, intrusive prompts, or hidden tracking systems. The site presents information about the work and allows people to explore it at their own pace.
In that sense, it reflects an earlier model of the web: a place to share knowledge openly and directly.
Read about our privacy policy (or rather, why we don't really have or need one.)
← back to the Workflow Charts and Description
Content → Function → Structure
Our Core Insight
The site was originally approached in reverse. The development process began with structure, moved to function, and only at the end attempted to accommodate content.
The Prevailing Method: Structure → Function → Content
In that model, a general structure is built first, consisting of templates, layout, and styling. Functionality is then added to support that structure, often through fields, modules, and additional logic. Content is introduced last and is made to fit within the existing framework, whether or not the structure was designed with that content in mind.
This is a common approach in agency work, and it often produces “cookie cutter” sites that feel uniform, constrained, and disconnected from the material they are meant to present. Organizations are forced to adapt themselves to the tool, rather than the tool being adapted to the needs of the organization. In addition, wasteful systems are often used that are not energy efficient.
Our Approach: Content → Function → Structure
The approach used here proceeds in the opposite direction. It begins with the actual material being produced: articles, guest posts, news items, commentary, firehose streams, directories, field notes, and resources. Each type of content is considered on its own terms.
From there, the functional requirements are defined. This includes determining what each content type needs in order to work properly: which fields are required, how items should be listed or related, what appears in sidebars, how the homepage behaves, and how supporting elements such as the right column are structured.
Only after both content and function are understood is the structure created. Templates, fields, includes, sidebars, listings, and feed integrations are then built to support what already exists, rather than imposing a predefined system.
Why This is Important
This approach ensures that the structure serves the content, and that the system reflects how information actually flows. It avoids forcing unrelated material into shared templates, prevents fields from existing without purpose, and allows each part of the site to remain clear and distinct. As a result, the system remains flexible, and future growth can be accommodated without introducing unnecessary complexity.
This method is consistent with how editorial systems are developed in environments where the material itself is the primary concern. It is the difference between assembling a generic site and building a system that is capable of supporting a specific body of work over time.