The Contrast Failures Automated Tools Miss
We built a WCAG contrast audit for our own site and two thirds of its first findings were wrong. What broke, why generic checkers get this wrong, and how to test a gradient.
Shakewell ·
Blog
Articles and insights from the Shakewell team.
Headless CMS: When It's Worth It for Australian Businesses
A decision framework for headless and Jamstack architecture — the four situations where it pays for itself, and the ones where a traditional CMS is the better answer.
Shakewell ·
Inheriting a Legacy PHP Application: The First Two Weeks
What to check before committing to a legacy PHP or Laravel codebase — the questions that decide whether it can be safely changed, and what a rewrite really costs.
Shakewell ·
Adobe Has Patched StyleSmuggler. Patching Is Not the Whole Job.
Adobe has released APSB26-146 for CVE-2026-75650. Apply it now — but a patch does not clean a store that was already compromised. What to preserve before you patch, what to check after, and the disclosure clock most coverage skips.
Shakewell ·
What Does a Shopify Plus Build Cost in Australia?
What Shopify Plus actually costs Australian retailers — the platform fee, the transaction economics nobody models, and what drives a build quote up or down.
Shakewell ·
What a UX Research Phase Actually Produces
Discovery output people can use: journey maps, user stories and research findings that change what gets built — not a slide deck that gets filed.
Shakewell ·
Two Thirds of Australian Retail's Page Weight Isn't Theirs
We measured 21 of Australia's largest online retailers. None scored above 44. The median site ships 7MB, and 62% of it is third-party code the retailer didn't write.
Shakewell ·
ERP Integration for E-commerce: What It Actually Costs
Why ERP integration is the line item that blows e-commerce budgets, the four questions that decide the price, and how to tell real-time requirements from imagined ones.
Shakewell ·
Adobe Commerce vs Shopify Plus for Australian Retailers
Where Adobe Commerce genuinely beats Shopify Plus, where it does not, and the three questions that actually decide it — from a team that builds on both.
Shakewell ·
Selling Into Australia and New Zealand From One Store
Whether to run one store or two across the Tasman, what actually differs between AU and NZ commerce — GST, freight, currency — and the duplication that costs more than it solves.
Shakewell ·
Entitlement and Access Control in Document Portals
Controlling who sees which documents when access follows what a customer bought — entitlement models, role-based views, and enforcement at the data layer.
Shakewell ·
Member Portals That Members Actually Use
Why association member portals go unused, what to fix first, and how to take one over from another agency without starting again.
Shakewell ·
What a Venue Booking System Actually Needs
Why off-the-shelf booking software fails for stadiums and multi-space venues — provisional holds, space hierarchies, approvals and downstream systems.
Shakewell ·
WooCommerce vs Shopify for Australian Retailers
Shopify vs WooCommerce for Australian retailers — total cost of ownership, GST and shipping, who maintains it, and when each is genuinely right. Compared both ways round.
Shakewell ·
Adobe Commerce Upgrades: What They Cost and When You Must Move
Adobe Commerce version support dates, what an upgrade actually costs, and how to budget for support — including the deadlines landing in August 2026.
Shakewell ·
AI Meets Structured Content Publishing: What Changes, What Doesn't
What AI genuinely changes in structured publishing — tagging, conversion, retrieval — and what still depends on standards, review and provenance.
Shakewell ·
How Much Does App Development Cost in Australia? The 2026 Guide
Typical market ranges for mobile app projects in Australia in 2026, what actually drives the number, and the costs most quotes leave out.
Shakewell ·
Is WordPress Enterprise-Ready? An Honest Assessment
Where WordPress genuinely holds up at enterprise scale, where it does not, and the build decisions that decide which of those you end up with.
Shakewell ·
Next.js in Production: When Headless Is Worth It (and When It Isn't)
What headless architectures actually buy you in production, what they cost in complexity, and a decision framework for going headless versus keeping a CMS.
Shakewell ·
React Native vs Native App Development: How to Choose
When one codebase is the right call and when you genuinely need native — judged on hardware access, performance, team skills and long-term maintenance cost.
Shakewell ·
Replacing a Microsoft Access Database With a Web Application
How to move a business off an Access database it has outgrown — what breaks, what migration involves, and how to keep the workflows people rely on.
Shakewell ·
How Much Does a Magento to Shopify Migration Cost in Australia?
Typical costs for moving from Magento or Adobe Commerce to Shopify in Australia, what drives the number, and the mistakes that make it more expensive.
Shakewell ·
Staff Augmentation vs Outsourcing vs Hiring: Which Model Fits?
How to choose between augmenting your team, outsourcing a project and hiring permanently — judged on speed, knowledge retention and flexibility.
Laura Tadros ·
How Much Does a Website Cost in Australia? The 2026 Guide
Typical market ranges for website projects in Australia in 2026, what drives cost up or down, and how to choose between fixed-scope delivery and augmentation.
Shakewell ·
Laravel vs WordPress for Business Platforms
A decision framework for choosing between Laravel and WordPress — when a CMS is the right tool, when a framework is, and how to avoid rebuilding in two years.
Shakewell ·
