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Lead Designer

Sam Leonard-Rendell

Back in 2019, we created something that resonated with designers everywhere: a series of posters bringing Jakob Nielsen's usability heuristics to life. These principles, <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/">originally outlined in his 1994 article for The Nielsen Norman Group</a>, struck a chord with so many people that we've given them a fresh look and a new lease of life.Here's the thing about usability heuristics, they're not rigid rules you have to follow to the letter. Think of them more as guiding principles that form the bedrock of solid usability practices. We've leaned on these time and again <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/design/digital-design">when designing interfaces</a> or digging into usability test results. They give us a clear framework to work within and align our thinking.

Totally free, no strings attached, we promise.

Download our 10 Usability Heuristics Posters

Here at the Si digital studio, we wanted our walls to reflect the work we do, so Jakob Nielsen's original article got us thinking, why not turn these "10 Usability Heuristics" into something visual and inspiring?Fast forward to today, and these posters are printed, framed, and hanging in our studio. They've become such a <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/design/digital-design">valuable part of our daily work</a> that we wanted to share them in their new form with the wider design community.This Lab Note showcases a couple of our 10 posters, and we're making them available as free downloads in PDF, PNG, and JPG formats. We hope they inspire your work as much as they've inspired ours. Feel free to share them with your team.

Bringing heuristics to life in our studio

Have a read of some of our other articles

The 10 Usability Heuristics – updated for 2026

When it comes to branding, colour accuracy matters. When we’re <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/design/branding">building brands</a> for our clients, we can’t afford to rely on guesswork and varying colour profiles on different displays. Pantone guides give us a definitive, real-world reference point that ensures our colours are consistent across the board.It’s the kind of investment that reflects our focus on quality. We’ve been doing this for over two decades, and we know that the detail makes a difference. When a client’s brand guidelines specify Pantone 185 C, we want to show them exactly how that looks across print, not as an approximation on screen.

Why we made the investment

Pantone actually covers everything from print through to textiles, so it can be tricky knowing which guides to buy. <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/design/graphic-design">For graphic design</a>, there are Formula guides, Colour Bridge guides, Pastels & Neons, Metallics, and CMYK guides.We were torn between Formula Guides and Colour Bridge guides. Formula Guides simply show the Pantone colour in its pure form, printed on coated or uncoated paper. Colour Bridge guides show the Pantone colour, as well as its process CMYK match. It also gives us breakdowns of the Pantone colour in RGB and as a HEX code <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/design/digital-design">for digital, too</a>.We went with Colour Bridge guides rather than Formula guides as we can see the Pantone colour directly next to its process equivalent. This is really useful when we’re working on projects that cover both print and digital, or when a client’s budget means digital printing rather than spot colour.The majority of our print work ends up being produced using CMYK, so having that direct comparison helps us manage expectations and make informed decisions about colour reproduction. We can have honest conversations with clients about how their brand colours translate across different printing methods.

The guide dilemma

Here's something many people don't realise: Pantone guides have a shelf life. The colours fade and shift over time, especially when exposed to light. Here’s how you can help keep your Pantone guides in peak condition:<ul class="list-bullet"><li value=1>Replace them every 12 to 18 months to ensure colour accuracy.</li><li value=2>Keep them in their original sleeves when you’re not using them.</li><li value=3>Avoid leaving them in direct sunlight.</li></ul>It might seem over the top, but if we’re going to rely on these guides for accurate colour matching, they need to stay accurate.

Keeping them fresh

Given the investment (and yes, Pantone guides aren’t cheap), we’ve designated a specific home for our new guides in the studio. They live in a drawer, in their protective sleeve, away from coffee cups, curious hands, and the general chaos of a busy creative studio.We’ve also made sure the whole team knows they’re there, and how to use them properly. No bending pages, no leaving them open on desks, and definitely not lending them out. These are tools, not coffee table books.

Safe & secure 

It’s a pretty small purchase in the grand scheme of things, but it’s one of those investments that quietly improves the quality and accuracy of our work. Better colour accuracy means fewer surprises during print, happier clients, and a happy design team.If you’re curious about how we approach colour in your project, or you’d like to see your brand colours in the Pantone flesh, just ask. We’re always happy to geek out about this stuff.

The bottom line

Our new Pantone guides have arrived

Technical Account Manager

Andy Mardell

Your company might already have security policies in place, but a quick refresher ensures nothing slips through the cracks. For Data Privacy Day this year, we’re giving you a checklist of security policies you need to keep on top of.

Grab your free checklist. No forms, no faff.

Download our free 8-point security checklist

These are our recommendations for all our clients. Depending on the value and sensitivity of your data, you might want to adjust the frequency to suit your needs.

How to ensure your apps and websites are secure

An annual penetration test from an independent third party identifies weaknesses in your code and server configuration. We always recommend one after completing a website or app build, plus annual reviews or tests following significant code changes. If you need help finding a pentest company, <a href="https://sidigital.co/contact">get in touch</a>.

1. Get a pentest – Yearly

Check who has admin access to your CMS or back office systems. Do they still need it? Could their permissions be downgraded from Admin to User level?And, every six months, have a spring clean. Review everyone with CMS or back office access. Ask if they still need it. Are their details current? When did they last change their password? If you have a Leaver Policy, add system removal to your off-boarding checklist.

2. Review CMS access – Quarterly

<a href="https://haveibeenpwned.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Have I Been Pwned</a> lets you search data breaches to see if your email or phone number has been compromised. This matters less if you use unique passwords for each account, but if you've reused passwords, a quick check here is worth five minutes.

3. Check if you’ve been Pwned – Bi-Yearly

2 Factor Authentication (2FA) requires a randomly generated code from your phone alongside your password. Once you've entered your credentials, you'll need your 2FA app to get the unique access code. Some of our top 2FA apps include <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/security/mobile-authenticator-app" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Microsoft Authenticator</a>, <a href="https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/1066447?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Google Authenticator</a>, and <a href="https://getaegis.app/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Aegis Authenticator</a>.While you're at it, check your 2FA app and remove any old devices.

4. Use 2 Factor Authentication

We've all reused passwords or used obvious variations like 'Sunsh1ne', 'Sunsh2ne'. Password managers eliminate this risk by securely storing your passwords and auto-filling them. They're built into operating systems like macOS and browsers like Microsoft Edge. At Si digital, we use <a href="https://1password.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">1Password</a>.

5. Use a password manager

Complex passwords take longer to crack. Mix upper and lowercase letters, special characters, numbers, and punctuation. With a password manager handling the heavy lifting, you won't need to remember them anyway.

6. Have a minimum password standard

Public Wi-Fi at coffee shops, hotels, or airports is convenient but risky. Hackers can intercept your data on unsecured networks. A VPN (Virtual Private Network) encrypts your connection, keeping your browsing and login credentials safe. This is particularly important when accessing your CMS or business systems remotely. Many businesses provide VPN access to their teams. If yours doesn't, ask your IT department about setting one up.

7. Use a VPN

This one's on us, and we often do it without you noticing. Keeping software, packages, and plugins current with the latest security patches is essential. Sometimes these updates happen in the background; other times they need thorough implementation and testing.

8. Carry out general updates

Data breaches happen almost daily. Even to the world's biggest and supposedly most secure companies. Just look at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/sep/20/jaguar-land-rover-hack-factories-cybersecurity-jlr" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jaguar Land Rover</a> or <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c93x16zkl9do" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Marks & Spencer</a>. There's never been a better time to review your security setup. These steps could prevent a serious headache.Got questions or need help? <a href="https://sidigital.co/contact">Get in touch</a>.

What are you waiting for?

8 ways to tighten website and app security

Lead Backend Developer

Richard Keen

Over the week, we’ve sat down with members of the dev team to pick their brains about what they love about being a dev, their favourite apps, and their best advice. Read on to find out more.

<h3>Visual Studio Code</h3>Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is an open-source code editor from Microsoft. It’s highly customisable and supports over 25,000 extensions. This means each dev here at Si digital can completely customise their individual working environment to suit their own ways of working.As well as being highly customisable, VS Code works cross-platform, meaning developers can work on macOS, Linux, or Windows to build their digital products. It’s also got a built-in Git repository feature, so devs can stage, commit, and push code directly inside the editor.<h3>Docker</h3>Docker is a platform for building, running, and managing applications in containers. It underpins most of our projects here at Si digital because it gives us consistency. Instead of spending hours setting up each environment, we can spin up a project and all its dependencies in around 20 seconds. Every developer works with the exact same setup, so there’s no “but it works on my machine,” and sharing containers makes collaboration quick and seamless. Essentially, Docker lets developers ship software faster, more reliably, and with fewer environment headaches.<h3>GitHub</h3>GitHub is central to our workflow at Si digital. It enables us to develop and deploy projects quickly and efficiently, removing unnecessary hurdles and streamlining our processes. It’s a key tool that keeps our work moving fast and smoothly.

Our top 3 dev apps and tools

Meet Rich, our Lead Backend Developer. We sat down with him to talk about what it’s really like getting into development and what he loves about being a developer. Here’s what he had to say.<h3>When did you first start getting interested in development and why?</h3>I first got into development in Year 9, and it quickly became something I was passionate about. I went on to take a GCSE in Computing, and I absolutely loved it. Problem-solving always felt natural to me, and I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of tackling a tricky problem. There’s something really satisfying about working through an issue and finally finding the solution, and that sense of reward has kept me motivated ever since.<h3>How much has your role changed since you started?</h3>There’s been quite a lot of change over the last decade or so in terms of both frontend and backend development.PHP has evolved, adding features that make writing better and code cleaner. On the front end, frameworks like React have completely changed how projects are built and structured. It’s been interesting to see the digital world develop and change.<h3>What’s the toughest bug you’ve had to fix?</h3>One of our clients’ apps had an issue with some mapping where the map would track the user’s location, then jump back. It took four devs a few days to work out what the issue was. Definitely a tricky bug to squash, but we worked it out!<h3>Favourite language to code in and why?</h3>I love building in PHP. It’s the language I’ve used the most and feels most comfortable to work with, probably due to years of building and maintaining projects in it. I know its quirks, strengths, and best practices inside out, so it’s definitely my go-to language to build in.<h3>What’s been your favourite project to build and why?</h3>It’s got to be Harwin. Not only is their website a huge technical challenge, but from a backend development point of view, I was excited to try out Elasticsearch for the product filtering. It was a good challenge and fun too.<h3>What do you think the future looks like for developers?</h3>Obviously, AI is a big thing right now, but I think the impact from that will be felt the most by junior developers since it excels at automating tasks and repetitive coding tasks. Experienced developers add architectural understanding and problem-solving that AI can’t replicate.

Meet the Makers

When it comes to learning new skills, it can be a bit of a minefield of information. So, finding good-quality dev learning resources can be a tricky task. We’ve pulled together a short list of our go-to learning resources. We’ve covered everything from resources for news and updates to keep your finger on the pulse, through to tutorials to get you started.<h3>Dev Community</h3>Dev Community is a forum for developers to keep up-to-date with the latest news and updates in the world of code. With 3m+ developers part of their community, it’s the perfect place to gain insight into new tech and updates, as well as a great place to get questions answered.<a href="https://dev.to/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Visit Dev Community</a><h3>MDN</h3>MDN is a vast, open-source project owned and run by Mozilla, in partnership with a global community of volunteers and partners. The platform boasts 45k+ pages of resources, with over 46m views a month. Resources range from comprehensive documentation for languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, to learning resources and interactive courses to kickstart your web career. There’s also a blog and a playground to try out your code.<a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Visit MDN</a><h3>Wes Bos</h3>Wes Bos is a developer and teacher from Ontario, Canada. He set up a website to help fresh developers learn new skills in languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and TypeScript. Each week, he creates free and premium courses and hosts a podcast called Syntax, which covers everything from the latest industry news to tackling the big issues.<a href="https://wesbos.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Visit Wes Bos</a>

Go-to learning resources

<h3>Focus on one thing at a time </h3>Try to focus on one thing at a time; don’t split your attention across multiple tasks at once. So, if you‘re starting out and trying to learn PHP, stick with it and focus on it until you’re comfortable. Don’t try to learn too many technologies in one go.Rich – Lead Backend Developer<h3>Don’t aim for perfect code right away</h3>Mistakes and messy first drafts are part of the learning process. Focus on getting things working first, then come back and improve it, one function at a time. If you chase perfection from the start, you’ll slow yourself down and miss out on valuable lessons. Mastery takes time, refine as you go, and keep learning.Alfie – Full Stack Developer<h3>Learn the core principles first, then the framework</h3>Don’t start by learning a framework right away (like React or Laminas). First, focus on the core language the framework is built on. JavaScript before React, PHP before Laminas. Once you understand the fundamentals, learning the framework will be much easier and make more sense.Mike – Backend Developer<h3>Build stuff you care about to practice your skills</h3>Instead of endlessly starting new things you’ll never finish, focus on actually building projects you genuinely care about. When you work on something that excites you, you’ll stay motivated long enough to push through the challenges, rather than leaving behind a trail of half-finished experiments that don’t teach you much.Cameron – Frontend Developer

Best advice for starting out

If you’re just starting out as a developer, or want to expand your knowledge, we regularly post about the latest technologies and resources we’re using, so give us a follow on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/si-digital/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">LinkedIn</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/sidgtl/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Instagram</a> to keep up.

Thinking about becoming a dev?

National Coding Week 2025

Since its announcement at WWDC in June, Apple’s new Liquid Glass UI design for its 2026 (and beyond) operating systems has proved polarising. With its transparent, content-manipulating effects and reactive components, it’s a bold step away from the flat, static look we’ve grown accustomed to since Apple launched iOS 7 back in 2013, and an even bolder progression from the skeuomorphic designs we were used to before that.But what if we’ve been looking at Apple’s Liquid Glass in the wrong way? This isn’t about surface-level design trends or flashy animations. It’s about the future of technology and how we interact with it.

Apple’s Liquid Glass design language was launched yesterday with iOS 26, and as the world installs this new design system onto their phones, watches, headsets, tablets, laptops, and TVs, it’ll take time for users to adjust to this new look and way of interacting with their devices.What many people haven’t yet realised is that the way we interact with our devices is changing. With virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) becoming more prevalent, the line between the real world and the digital world is beginning to blur more and more. The <a href="https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/infographics/virtual-reality-market-101378" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">VR industry is expected to be worth $123bn</a> by 2032. To put that into context, it was only worth $16.32bn in 2024. So, the transition in UI design as we focus more on VR & AR is inevitable, and likely for the good of the usability of those devices in the future.When Apple launched the iPhone in 2007, we were at a similar juncture for UI and UX, but we didn't realise it at the time. We’d been using clunky phones with physical keyboards and untouchable content for decades, and suddenly we had a device where we could touch the content we were interacting with. Note-taking, calendars, compasses, and more. Getting users to understand this resulted in skeuomorphic design – a style that brought relatable, understandable, real-world context to digital applications and interactions. It was about educating users in a manageable way that didn’t feel a million miles away from using a real notepad or a real calendar.

A new era for UI design begins today

After six years of training us, Apple made the move away from skeuomorphic design across to flat design with iOS 7. That style has developed, changed, and grown into what we’ve now become familiar with in iOS 18, macOS Sequoia, and visionOS 2. Liquid Glass might look like pure visual polish, but it’s doing something much more important: teaching us a new way to interact. Just as skeuomorphism helped us move away from physical buttons to touchscreens, Liquid Glass is quietly preparing us for a future that isn’t restricted to screens at all. We’re moving into a new era where digital worlds are layered over the real world, and how we interact with it depends on more than just our fingertips. This shift needs a different kind of interface. One that listens, watches, and responds. It feels alive. This is where multimodal UI design comes in.

Multimodal UI design language relies on more than just a single input, like touch. It’s built around voice, gaze, movement, and touch. It’s this that bridges the gap between what we know as an OS, and what an OS will become. Take visionOS, or Meta Horizon OS. Both are examples of multimodal interfaces. Not only is the content overlaid onto the real world, it’s controlled by the direction you’re looking, or by your voice as you ask it to perform an action or task. And, especially in vision OS, these overlaid interface elements are designed to interact and work with the world around them, rather than just sitting on top.

Liquid Glass isn’t just multimodal, it’s reactive. Built around a system of free-floating elements and components, the interface dynamically adjusts to how you use it. These elements aren’t locked to a fixed screen either; they appear when you need them and fade away when you don’t.It’s this fluidity that makes Liquid Glass the ideal UI for overlaying on the real world. Elements can subtly sink into the surroundings when idle and reappear when they’re relevant. If your environment changes, the UI responds and reveals what’s behind it by taking a step back. It’s a design system that’s as understanding and perceptive as you are.Apple’s approach is also about unifying an experience across their device ecosystem. As all these devices begin to merge into a spatial realm, consistency will be key. Liquid Glass isn’t limited to iPhones; it’s become the universal design language used across all of Apple’s devices. This is an important shift. Historically, Apple has tended to update the iPhone and iPad visual designs ahead of the Mac. For example, when Apple launched its flat design system with iOS 7, macOS Mavericks still maintained its skeuomorphic design. The fact Apple is rolling Liquid Glass out across its entire suite of operating systems sends a clear message: this is the future, and it’s starting now.

In contrast, Google has taken a <a href="https://blog.google/products/android/material-3-expressive-android-wearos-launch/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">very different approach</a> with its latest design system, Material 3. Its punchy colours, expressive typographic treatments, and bold graphic devices feel optimised for rectangular screens. Perfect for phones and tablets. But as we move into a world where interfaces begin to extend beyond the screen, this look and feel will quickly fall behind and become limiting.Material 3 is firmly rooted as a visual language for traditional devices. It’s difficult to imagine these vibrant, highly-saturated colours and decorative sticker-like layers translating to spatial environments or multimodal interfaces where the UI has to adapt to different lighting, varying depths, and real-world context.Compared to Apple’s Liquid Glass design system, Material 3 feels like it was designed solely for mobile-era aesthetics. We imagine it’ll only be a matter of time before Android follows suit.

Material 3: Beautifully screen-bound

Despite its future-focussed foundations, Liquid Glass is a polarising design language, and this is primarily for two reasons: accessibility and its association with past design trends. Stylistically, it’s been compared to Windows Vista, which launched in 2007 with a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Aero" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">new design style called Aero</a>. Aero marked a dramatic move away from the blocky era of Windows XP, and just like Liquid Glass today, it divided opinion. But the intent behind Liquid Glass is very different to Windows Vista. Windows Vista was about reskinning a system users were already very familiar with to make it feel more modern. Liquid Glass is about the shift from screens to spatial, immersive experiences.Accessibility is a much bigger concern. With its glassy, translucent design, Liquid Glass definitely poses some issues with legibility and contrast, especially against high-contrast backgrounds. This is surprising coming from Apple. They’ve long been seen as leaders when it comes to inclusive design; <a href="https://www.apple.com/uk/accessibility/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">it’s one of their core values</a>.However, it’s important to remember that Apple gives users a deep level of accessibility customisation so they can hone their devices to work for them. And Apple has always made iterative improvements as time goes on. Remember when iOS 7’s animations were <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/apple-ios-literally-making-users-sick/story?id=20385379" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">making users motion sick</a>? Or when users said the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/fonts-dont-lie-thin-ios-7-os-x-flna6c10245346" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">system typefaces were too thin</a>? Apple responded by adjusting the design language.Liquid Glass is following a similar path. We’re entering uncharted territory with spatial, multimodal user interfaces. There will be missteps. But just as with past transitions, refinement will come with time, and with real-world feedback from users pushing the boundaries of how we interact beyond screens.

Growing pains

While <a href="https://www.techtimes.com/articles/309937/20250409/apple-vision-pros-sales-flop-theyre-rushing-out-new-one-m5-chip-before-2025-ends.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Apple Vision Pro has been a slow burner</a>, it’s still early days for spatial and multimodal UI design, but one thing is clear – the UI of tomorrow won’t live on screen. We’re moving into a new era where interfaces live around us, watching, listening, and responding as we interact with them and the world around us. And design systems won’t just be about aesthetics or branding; they’ll need to feel native and reactive to real-world environments, natural movement, and human behaviour.Liquid Glass is the start of a much bigger shift in design and how we interact with our devices. By introducing translucency, depth, and movement into today’s rectangular screen boundaries, it’s preparing us all for a world where interfaces are responsive and immersive, and not restricted to a glass rectangle.Brands that embrace multimodal, spatial design languages now will be the ones who lead in the years ahead as our digital and physical worlds blend together. And users will expect that to feel natural. As for designers and developers, those of us who understand this early and adopt this design ethos will define what’s coming next.

The UI of tomorrow won’t live on screen

Why you’re looking at Apple’s Liquid Glass UI the wrong way

It’s time to rethink what SaaS integration really means. In our experience, <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/integrate">bespoke integrations</a> offer significantly more value, not just technically, but strategically. Done right, they foster growth, reduce risk, and unlock innovation. For businesses using SaaS tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Monday.com, connecting these systems to your digital products isn’t optional; it’s business-critical. Without it, you’re left with work duplication, spiralling operational costs, and growing data silos. <a href="https://www.xplm.com/news/press/industry-study-2023-companies-cannot-control-their-data-silos/?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">XPLM found that</a> 76% of businesses say data silos negatively impact collaboration, with a further 74% viewing them as a competitive disadvantage.

There are essentially three ways to approach integrating your SaaS systems with your website, portal, or app: out-of-the-box, which uses a system’s pre-built features; standard API integration, which takes the SaaS system’s own API and allows you to connect it to your digital products; or the advanced bespoke integration route, which is completely custom and unique to your business and its needs.

What is an advanced bespoke integration?

We’re advocates of going down the advanced bespoke integration route for a few reasons. Let’s break down how going bespoke could benefit your business and its workflows.

If updating data in multiple places is something you’re familiar with, then an advanced integration could cut down on your admin tasks. Using our own middleware, we can get your SaaS systems to speak to one another for super smooth data flows. This means you’ll only need to update your data in one place, rather than four or five places. This not only cuts back on tedious admin time, but it also means you’ll be able to rely on your data more because there’s less chance of human error when inputting the data.By cutting back on this sort of admin, you could free up members of your team to focus on more important tasks, like following up on valuable leads.

Reduce manual work and reclaim time

Advanced integrations can help your business to cut back on costs, too. The key contributor to this comes from the reduction of manual work, which in turn results in lower labour costs. Thanks to automations, tasks like data entry, reporting, and invoicing can be heavily reduced. But the cost savings don’t stop there. You could end up needing fewer software licences if you can consolidate some of your SaaS systems when integrating. Or you can potentially cut back on costly errors caused by manual data entry, which cost both time and money. And you can boost customer retention thanks to an improved customer experience via streamlined support and invoicing, reducing your customer churn rate.So integrating can cut costs in various ways across the board for your company, giving you more money to use elsewhere to promote business growth and development.

Cut hidden costs across teams and tools

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Plug-and-play integrations seem convenient and quick to implement at first glance because they’re designed and built for the masses, not your business needs. They usually come with pre-defined functionality and (more often than not) poor design and UX, so you’ll find it difficult to tailor them to your workflows, customer journeys, or user experience. This will result in a disconnect between your digital products. Your CRM, website, and internal systems may speak to one another, but they won’t truly ‘talk’ to one another because they’re not aligned or efficient.Let’s look at an example. You may want to trigger a personalised onboarding sequence when a user signs up to your website, which pulls in data from various SaaS platforms. But, your out-of-the-box integration doesn’t have the functionality for custom data fields, so you get stuck with a watered-down version of what you really need.Even if you decide to use a SaaS platform’s native API, you’ll have your wings clipped by the API’s scope. Some data endpoints might be read-only, batch processes can be delayed, or some features just aren’t available via the API. So you’ll technically have a connected system, but the flexibility and customisation of what you can achieve is limited.Bespoke integrations are designed and built entirely around your business and its workflows. From the way your business operates, to what your customers and users expect, to the efficiencies you want to gain by integrating. You get complete control over how the integration functions, the design, and the logic behind it to bring together your systems to work in harmony.Want to sync your customer data in real-time between your website, CRM, and ERP with custom field mapping? Or pull data from a third-party system to dynamically display pricing in your customer portal? It’s all possible with an advanced integration.Beyond the functionality benefits, a bespoke integration is built to be robust and scalable, so it grows with your business. You won’t need to rely on temporary workarounds or third-party plugins that might break; you’re investing in a long term digital solution.

Aligned with your business goals

Automation is probably one of the key features of an SaaS integration. It underpins the whole idea of integrating your systems. Being able to automate some of your business’s processes can save your team valuable time. Automations allow your data to move instantly between your SaaS systems and your digital products. So you’ll not need to wait for overnight exports or manual updates. You’re always working with live information. Forget having to sync that data; your integration does that now. <a href="https://www.kerrconsulting.com/unlocking-the-benefits-average-roi-on-moving-to-cloud-based-software-solutions" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Kerr Consulting found</a> that many businesses say they save around 40% of their time by automating routine tasks through SaaS integrations with their digital products.

Turn disconnected data into automated workflows

Because bespoke integrations are built around you and your customers, we can create a seamless and personalised user experience on your website. Whether that’s real-time account information, customised dashboards that dynamically pull in live data, or live product availability, the possibilities are endless, and all a great way to give your users the best possible experience.This also helps cement a strong relationship with customers because you set yourselves apart from competitors who lag behind in these user experience areas.

Provide a seamless, personalised customer experience

We build our advanced bespoke integrations using our Si Middleware—our flexible connection hub that sits between your SaaS systems and your website, portal, or app. Thanks to its flexibility, we can scale up your integrations as your business grows. So, if your business decides to start using a <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/integrate/asset-management-software">Digital Asset Management</a> system like Bynder, or you introduce a new CRM system like Monday.com, we can link those up to your digital products with ease, so your data keeps flowing without interruption, and you can streamline your workflows.Or, if you need to scale down because you’ve moved data across to one of your other SaaS systems, our Si Middleware allows for that too. So your SaaS systems are always flexing with your business.

Scale with confidence, not complexity

Our advanced SaaS integrations are proven to save businesses time and money. Just take a look at our case studies, like <a href="https://sidigital.co/work/harwin">Harwin</a>. They’ve seen incredible results for both them and their customers.If you’re ready to move beyond disjointed SaaS tools and start scaling your business, <a href="https://sidigital.co/contact">get in touch for a free integration consultation</a>.

See what an advanced integration looks like in action

Why out-of-the-box SaaS integrations are holding your business back

Founder & Managing Director

Steve Piper

For the last few years, we’ve been using a relatively new headless <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/develop/payload">Content Management System (CMS) called Payload</a>. <a href="https://sidigital.co/lab-notes/why-weve-swapped-wordpress-for-payload">We made the shift from traditional CMS</a> options, like WordPress, so we can provide our clients with a modern, more secure way to manage their website content. Our move across to Payload is about more than just keeping up-to-date; it’s about ensuring our client projects are built using the most robust CMS available.But, for a lot of our clients, it can be a difficult decision to move away from a familiar CMS like WordPress, so to help make the decision easier, we’ve built our own Payload demo. We call it our Payload Playground. <a href="https://sidigital.co/payload-playground">Book your 1-2-1 tour here</a>.

Payload is a modern CMS option, first launched in 2022, and is a modern-day answer to the historic problems of older CMS platforms like WordPress and Drupal. Payload is streamlined, secure, and scalable, giving you the peace of mind that it’ll last for years to come.It’s also very user-friendly. The admin area is clear, concise and well structured, allowing for quick and easy page building, image uploads, and content changes. It’s a big step forward from traditional CMS user interfaces, with near-instant load times, live previewing, and so much more. There’s a familiar look to Payload, too. The admin area follows a similar structure to the likes of WordPress, so it’s quick and easy to pick up and learn.

What is Payload?

We’ve covered a <a href="https://sidigital.co/lab-notes/the-benefits-of-choosing-payload-cms-for-your-next-website">whole host of benefits in a separate Lab Note</a>, but here’s a quick look at our top three reasons to move to Payload.

Why Payload?

With cyber attacks and hacks becoming an <a href="https://aag-it.com/the-latest-cyber-crime-statistics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">increasingly serious problem in recent years</a>, the importance of keeping your website and its data secure couldn’t be more essential. Unlike a lot of alternative CMS options, Payload is designed to be a self-hosted CMS, so you have complete oversight and control of the data the website contains and accesses.Self-hosting a website means you have control over where the site is installed, so you can choose your own servers, databases, and infrastructures. This means you control the data, not a third-party company. This is especially important for companies and businesses that handle sensitive user data like payment details or personal information.Self-hosting can be a huge benefit when it comes to data security, but we also offer hosting and data security here at Si digital too, using Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Cloudflare. <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/support/hosting-and-data-security">Find out more here</a>.

1. Data Security

Older CMS options like WordPress can often hold back the growth of your website. As the site expands and you add in new pages and introduce more content, it can become slow and clunky. Eventually, this will reach a point where it becomes too much of a chore to maintain the website.Thankfully, Payload uses the latest TypeScript and Node technology, which helps keep everything ticking over smoothly in the background. It’s also regularly updated with bug fixes and new features that ensure your site will stay running for years to come.Payload also features flexible content modelling, which makes it easy for our developers to add new features, so your website is always scaling and flexing as your business grows.

2. Scalability

If, <a href="https://www.saasacademy.com/blog/saas-statistics" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">like most businesses</a>, you use SaaS systems like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Monday.com, we can work with you to integrate these systems with your website, portal, or app for seamless data exchange between your various systems and your digital endpoint. We do this using our Si Middleware, which lets us connect multiple systems together for a completely bespoke solution for you and your business.

3. Integration

<a href="https://sidigital.co/work/harwin">We’ve done exactly this for Harwin</a>, a world-leading electrical connector manufacturer. Not only did we move them over from WordPress to Payload, we integrated their Salesforce system, Bynder asset management system, and various other systems with their website. Not only does this mean their data is up-to-date across the board, it’s also streamlined many of their internal processes, saving them countless hours of valuable time.Find out more about our <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/integrate">integration services here</a>.

If your current website CMS is slow, insecure, and always needing plugin updates, now is the right time to move to Payload. But before you make the jump, book a 1-2-1 tour with us to see what Payload could mean for your website.When you book your tour, we’ll take you on a guided tour of the CMS to show you the key benefits, answer any of your questions, and much more. You’ll also get the opportunity to try Payload out for yourself. We’ll give you exclusive access to our demo so you can see the benefits for yourself.<a href="https://sidigital.co/payload-playground">Book your 1-2-1 tour here.</a>

Lab Notes