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Web design & development consultancy — Dublin

Questions before features.

We design and build websites for businesses — starting with what the site has to achieve, not a list of features. The result is a website built on decisions you can defend, not guesswork.

No templates. No quotes by the page. A small, senior team that asks first and builds second.

1 Who’s it for? 2 Then what? Is this the real problem?

The idea

A feature list is a pile of answers to questions nobody asked.

Booking systems, a redesign, twenty new pages, a slider on the homepage — most briefs arrive as a wish list. It feels like progress. But every feature is really a guess about what the business needs, made before anyone checked.

We work the other way round. First we understand the business, the customer, and the problem the website has to solve. Then the decisions. Design and features come last — and only the ones that pull their weight. That’s the whole idea behind the name.

Design & features last The right decisions what to build, and what not to Understanding the business the customer, the problem, the goal Features sit on top. They don’t hold the thing up.

What we do

One team for the whole website — starting with the thinking.

Strategy, design, build and improvement under one roof. You don’t need to arrive with a spec or a chosen technology. Working out what to build is the first thing we do together.

01

Website Strategy

Before anything is designed: what the site is for, who it serves, and what “working” actually means for the business.

02

Web Design

Design that earns attention and points it somewhere useful. Clear structure, considered type, built around how people decide.

03

WordPress Development

Fast, maintainable WordPress. Clean code, no plugin sprawl, and a site your team can actually run.

04

Website Redesigns

For sites that no longer match the business. We find what’s holding it back — and what’s quietly working — before we rebuild.

05

Content & Information Architecture

The right pages, in the right order, saying the right things. Often the highest-impact work we do.

06

Ongoing Improvement

Launch is the start. We measure, question and refine — because a website is never really finished.

How we work

Six steps. The first three happen before we design anything.

Most agencies start at step four. That’s why so many websites look fine and do nothing. Our process front-loads the thinking, so by the time we design, the hard questions are already answered.

  1. 01

    Ask

    We start with questions, not a quote. What’s the business trying to do? Where does the current site let you down?

  2. 02

    Understand

    We map the real problem — the audience, the journey, and the decisions the site has to support.

  3. 03

    Decide

    We agree what the website must do — and what it doesn’t. Scope follows the goal, not the wish list.

  4. 04

    Design

    Structure first, then interface. Every element has to earn its place on the page.

  5. 05

    Build

    Clean, fast WordPress. Built to last, and easy for your team to run without us.

  6. 06

    Improve

    We launch, measure and refine. A website is a living asset, not a one-off project.

Steps 01–03 happen before we design a single screen. That’s the part most people skip — and the part that decides whether the rest works.

What we’d question first

The same brief, a better first question.

We’d rather show you how we think than a wall of logos. Here are three briefs we hear often — and the question we’d ask before quoting a single thing.

The brief
“We need online booking.”

We’d ask first

Where do enquiries actually stall — and is booking the fix, or is it trust?

Often the booking form isn’t the problem. The missing prices, reviews or a phone number are.

The brief
“We need a full redesign.”

We’d ask first

Which pages already bring in enquiries — and what would we lose by starting over?

A redesign can quietly delete the two pages doing all the work. We find them before we touch anything.

The brief
“We need twenty new pages.”

We’d ask first

Which one page is a customer actually looking for — and is it even on the site yet?

More pages rarely means more enquiries. The right page, easy to find, usually does.

Why QBF

A consultancy that happens to design and build.

Plenty of agencies can make a website. Fewer will tell you when you don’t need one — or when the thing you asked for won’t help. That’s the difference, and it’s the whole point.

  • Senior people, start to finish

    You work with the people doing the work. No account managers relaying messages, no juniors learning on your budget.

  • Strategy isn’t an upsell

    Understanding the problem is step one, not a premium add-on. You’ll leave the first conversation clearer, even if you never hire us.

  • Built to be owned

    We build on WordPress so you’re not tied to us. Clean, documented and handed over properly, with your team able to run it.

  • We’ll say no

    If a feature won’t earn its place, we’ll tell you. The best money we save a client is usually the money they don’t spend.

Who you’ll work with

A small, senior team.

Three people, no layers. The person who asks the questions is the person who designs and builds the answer — so nothing gets lost in translation.

Cathal Byrne, Founder and Principal Consultant at QBF
Cathal Byrne Founder & Principal Consultant Asks the awkward questions early, so the build has nothing to hide.
Deirdre Kavanagh, Head of Design at QBF
Deirdre Kavanagh Head of Design Turns a clear brief into a clearer interface. Structure before decoration.
Rohan Desai, Head of Development at QBF
Rohan Desai Head of Development Builds fast, tidy WordPress that your team can actually run.

Start with the problem

Tell us what isn’t working.

No pitch, no jargon. Send a few lines about your website and the problem behind it — and we’ll tell you, honestly, what we’d look at first.