Documented WordPress website development story

Back in 2020, when the world was upside down, I met Documented NY — a small but mighty nonprofit news outlet in New York, telling the stories of immigrant communities, at that time only in English.
(Spanish, Kreyol, and Chinese would come later — but that’s a story for down the road.)

They were young, scrappy, and full of mission-driven energy… but their WordPress website was, let’s just say, giving them more headaches than help.

They needed a migration. They needed a cleanup. They needed a site that wouldn’t break every time they tried to publish an article.
And more than anything, they needed someone to tell them:
“Yes, it’s doable. Yes, it’s possible.”

That simple belief became the heartbeat of our relationship from the start — and it still is today.

Early Days: Rolling Up Our Sleeves

First order of business? Migration to a new server, normalizing templates, and troubleshooting an avalanche of bugs.
One issue after another, and every time, our mindset was the same: fix it — but also understand it.

I wasn’t interested in being just another developer who patches problems.
I wanted to dive deeper — into why these problems existed, how they affected real people, and how we could build solutions that actually mattered.
Because when you’re helping a news outlet that serves immigrant communities navigating real-world challenges? You don’t half-ass it.

We took every bug, every roadblock, as a reason to learn, improve, and plant seeds for something bigger.

The First Big Leap: A New Look

After two years of working side-by-side through every curveball 2020 and 2021 threw at us, Documented decided it was time for a full transformation.
New branding, a new voice — a fresh start.

We were honored (and hyped) to bring it to life.
The rebrand and looks came from Peppeh Co., and it was gorgeous: clean, minimalistic, different.
Honestly, I can’t even remember what the old site looked like — this new design just made so much sense.

And yes, because no project is complete without a little chaos, we had less than two months to develop the entire new template.
It was December. I was racing against the clock, coding with a Santa hat on, fueled by Christmas cookies and pure adrenaline. Ho ho ho, indeed.

But we did it — and when we launched, it felt like bringing a newborn into the world.
Tired? Absolutely.
Proud? Beyond words.

Learning from the Numbers

A few months later, Documented started gaining serious traction.
They weren’t just looking sharp — they were publishing powerful stories and guides (like this one) that were actually changing lives.

April 2022 marked one of their first huge spikes in traffic.
We dove deep into the analytics, not just to see the numbers go up (although that was fun too), but to really understand user behavior.

By the end of 2022, a few truths were crystal clear:

• Mobile-first isn’t optional — it’s survival.
• Recirculation (keeping readers moving through stories) matters more than most people think.
• Measure everything — not just “enough.”

Scaling Up: 2023 and Beyond

If 2022 was about learning, 2023 was about leveling up.

As Documented’s articles started going viral and their newsroom expanded, new needs popped up fast:

• We developed a custom plugin to manage article positioning on the homepage and fix others (I’m talking to you Co-authors).
• Built new templates for Guides and Resources to boost recirculation or at least try hard.
• Created a custom pixel tracker (inspired by ProPublica) to track collaborations and republications.
• Integrated Google Ad Manager for a smarter, more strategic ad setup.
• Worked with Bluelena to develop a full custom HTML newsletter — because Documented’s newsletter game became seriously next-level.

At one point, we were three developers and a designer just to keep up with their pace — and honestly? It was exhilarating.

Multilingual, Mission-Driven: A 2023 Milestone That Changed Everything

Just when we thought 2023 couldn’t get more intense — Documented made a move that would redefine their reach: they went multilingual.

Not just translations slapped onto the site — but original reporting in Spanish, Kreyol, and Chinese, with dedicated journalists crafting stories that spoke directly to their communities. It was bold. It was necessary. And it was anything but easy.

This step wasn’t an add-on — it was a core evolution of their mission. Suddenly, our technical roadmap had to support an entire multilingual newsroom: new workflows, smarter CMS architecture, and frontend UX that worked seamlessly across four languages.

We didn’t reach for off-the-shelf solutions. We built systems that would last — because giving immigrant communities access to journalism in their own language isn’t a trend. It’s a responsibility.

That moment felt like hitting a new creative high — the kind where every line of code, every web development decision, every late-night deployment felt like contributing to something way bigger than us.

2025: What’s Cooking Now

Today, in 2025, Documented NY is stronger than ever.
They just had their best quarter yet — even as New York City and the U.S. face some of the deepest immigration crises in recent memory.

I can’t spill all the secrets about what we’re cooking up next (yet!) — but I can tell you this:
We’re not just developers.
We’re partners.
And we’re 110% committed to helping Documented keep making an impact, one story, one community, and one breakthrough at a time.

Stay tuned.