Less decision fatigue. More clarity.
Specialising in WordPress & Laravel
I combine…
…for companies with a story to tell, to deliver a platform experience that can pivot quickly and meet demand from both operators and visitors.
Teams become overwhelmed when they’re constantly context switching, searching for legacy documentation or chasing colleagues - 62% of surveyed workers say they struggle with too much time spent searching for information (Microsoft, 2023). Around 4 hours a week is lost to app-switching and reorientation (HBR, 2022).
Trust in the system is vital. Without it, friction builds and errors creep into production websites.
The longer inefficient systems are embedded in company workflows, the less likely people are to use them. Only 25% of staff actively use the BI tools bought for them (BARC, 2025).
Left unchecked, errors compound - risking reports and decisions based on bad data.
Tightening up processes, streamlining admin forms, building interfaces for the people that use them - real actions you can take to minimise costly data errors.
Data stagnation is expensive. Fixing it doesn’t need to be.It starts with a simple strategy call. Click here to book
Real data, real stories
Pulling Salesforce data into WordPress listings
Events data sat in Salesforce, the public listings in WordPress, with a gap between them. I worked with NYC agency Studio Simpatico on their performing-arts foundation client, connecting the Salesforce API to their WordPress listings so events data stays fresh and accurate.
WordPress Read moreWordPress editorial flows
Their editorial flow was slowing the team, and the block setup needed modernising. I worked with this journalism non-profit on both, so writers could build compelling article designs more easily. Admin friction was down, reader engagement went up.
WordPress Read more2-year Laravel support partnership
I helped support and develop features for E-MusicMaestro, an aural-test and sight-reading practice site, maintained by a dedicated independent developer. I gained deep understanding of the relational data powering the site.
Laravel Read moreAs the data behind a website grows more complex, the tools for managing it have to keep up. I design admin interfaces that keep data-intensive sites accurate, well-structured and quick to search.
Data entry shouldn’t just work well, it should feel satisfying. The format is masked as you type and the counter tracks length, so the field guides you instead of correcting you. Anything still off the mark is caught before you submit, not bounced back afterwards, so less comes back for a redo.
In a small but widely-cited 2009 test, validating inline rather than after you submit cut errors 22% and completion time 42%.
Real records are tangled: a product links to a supplier, the supplier to its terms. Drill straight down the relationship and change a value three levels deep, with a breadcrumb keeping you oriented the whole way.
A breadcrumb lets you recognise where you are instead of having to hold it in memory.
Write naturally, drop in a field or a product image, and pick how it’s laid out. Everything binds to the live record by path and renders into the designed output. Switch the record and every bound value updates at once.
Change the record and every bound field updates at once, so you always see the current state, never a stale copy.
Search is the feature everyone needs and few teams get right. One box that reaches across every model at once (products, suppliers, invoices, contacts, orders, categories), grouped by type, ranked by relevance, so the thing you want is two keystrokes away, not buried five screens deep.
Grouping results by type gives a stronger “information scent”, so the right one stands out instead of hiding in a flat list.
I model how your data actually connects - products to suppliers, staff to locations, articles to authors - so the system mirrors how your business works, not a flattened version of it.
I make the editing tools your team uses every day obvious to use, so updating the site is a five-minute job for them, not a ticket to me.
Clean, server-rendered structure, so search engines and AI assistants can read and surface your content, not just see a pretty shell.
…for companies with a story to tell, to deliver a platform experience that can pivot quickly and meet demand from both operators and visitors.
Hi, I’m Robin Metcalfe. I work with clients and agencies in the UK and internationally to deliver CMS platforms and websites built on data relationships.
From a local business to a large multinational, most find themselves needing to keep their data consistent and accessible to the right people at the right time.
I work primarily with Laravel and WordPress to integrate beautiful designs with relational databases via efficient and intuitive forms and front-end templates.
By understanding a client’s data requirements on a fundamental level, I can build the tools they truly need, intuitive and reliable.
Have you got data relationships to manage?
Get in touch.
Side projects with real purpose
A real-data Mars water-level visualiser. Drag the slider, the planet actually floods the way the elevation data says it would.
Six Verticals, One Engine
A single CMS that produces six wildly different finished sites (allotment, charity, council, museum, scout group, theatre) by tuning an LLM per vertical.
Every Glyph, No Faff
A no-faff browser for ~7,000 emoji, HTML entities and named Unicode symbols. Search in 15 languages, click to copy. Pure client-side.
I sit with your team, on calls, on-site if needed.
15 years of experience brought in to help solve problems.
I work with PMs and designers to clarify brief and interface.
We work in tandem to ensure the end product gets a clean hand-off and stays fully transparent to your team.
The clearest first step is a paid strategy call. Builds usually start there too, so the work is scoped on what your team actually needs, not guesswork.
£200 / 60 min
A working session to map what is slowing your team down, what to fix first, and what it would take. You leave with a clear plan whether or not we go further.
Credited in full against a project if you decide to go ahead.
Book a strategy callfrom £450 / month
A senior pair of hands kept on your bench: updates, fixes, small changes, and the awkward jobs nobody else wants to pick up. Three tiers, scaled to how much you need.
from £8,000 / scoped
Larger work: new admin systems, data migrations, integrations, the platform that finally fits how your team works. Most start with a strategy call so the scope is right.
Usually delivered in 4 to 8 week blocks.
Discuss a buildJust want to talk it through? A free 30-minute intro call is no charge and no obligation, the place to start if you’re not sure. The strategy call above is the paid, in-depth session for when you want a plan to act on.
Inherited stack, complex integration, project that wants a senior hand? Tell me what you're working on.
Replies from [email protected]. See pricing for the three ways to start.
Want a steady hand on the codebase? Ready for senior support on the stack?
£200 for 60 minutes. We’ll map what’s slowing your team down. You’ll leave with a plan. Credited in full against a project if you go ahead.
Most of what I get hired for is CMS work. But I've always enjoyed exploring the more creative side of the web. Interactive animations, generative artworks, curious little apps.
The web doesn't have to be purely functional.
I love cubes. I don't know why. Something about the simplicity of unit-sided cubes sliding in and out of view - there's a precision to that which I find genuinely satisfying.
The experiments page has more in this vein if you want a longer look at the things I get up to when nobody's paying me.