Our framework Minotaure is deployed in the WordPress environment.

The WordPress CMS (Content Management System) is the leading CMS in the world today, and is recognised for its many advantages:

• Open source solution with the largest community
• Specifically adapted to content-oriented web platforms
• Designed natively to extend all functionality

Since its creation, Spade has been exploring and exploiting all that WordPress has to offer. Installing its Minotaure tool, which makes the CMS even more flexible for web administrators, was the next logical step. Working on WordPress, which is constantly being improved, updated and extended, requires the development of tools that are also open, adaptable, and scalable in the short and long term. This ensures that we (and you) are working with tools that are always up-to-date and designed to work in harmony.

Minotaure has been developed with the following technologies:

• The PHP framework Laravel
• Vanilla JS and the React javascript library
• Dynamic language to generate SASS style sheets

Minotaure is a global method that integrates all the stages of a project’s life. This tool allows you to create a web platform of any size (infinite number of pages and articles) with an impeccable level of finish and a fully customised design.

At the development stage and depending on the type of website you’ll need, different types of content (presented in the form of blocks, which we also call widgets) are created. The widgets are the bricks of your future site which, assembled in one way or another according to your needs and desires, will create the different pages. Each of these bricks has its own design and configuration.

These different content blocks are divided into 3 packs corresponding to their potential level of complexity in terms of functionality and development:

• Starter: always present, they cover the basic functionalities of the site (see the prototype of these basic functionalities here)
• Premium: added as needed, they provide more advanced features (see their prototypes here)
• Tailor-made: unique and custom-made to perfectly match your wishes

This approach guarantees a number of points:

• Speed of creation and deployment of a web platform
• Creation of sites of variable size and geometry (infinite number of pages and articles)
• One or more sites managed from a single location with style harmonisation
• Extensive customisation of elements and their association, ensuring uniqueness and differentiation from the competition

The idea of Minotaure is to take care of all the phases of a project, from the first ideas to the launch and then to its follow-up and maintenance in the long term. Within the case of a digital project (a website for example, but it can also be an application), we have split the process into 9 steps.

1. Strategy. This is a stage that we call “discovery”: reflection, putting things into perspective, questioning, we work in workshops. We think about the user experience, with the aim of laying solid foundations for the rest of the project. This is the first stage, it may seem long, it may seem superfluous, and yet it is essential: without this reflection on the direction to take, everything else risks being shaky (and therefore fragile, and certainly disappointing).

2. Information architecture. This is the key element in organising everything: site map, data model, user journey through your site, where you want to take them. To put it another way: you know you want a house with 18 rooms, 3 bathrooms and a garden. You need to draw up the plans so that the construction can be done properly!

3. UX Design. We make prototypes (or wireframes) of the main interfaces. This mock-up does not look like the final product (there is no graphic design yet), but it allows us to check that the pages work well, that we have all the modules and that the menu is coherent. It is a realistic interface and ready to pass the usability tests.

4. UI Design. This time, we talk about colours, shapes and moods. A moodboard is created to validate with you the atmosphere you prefer, then each block is dressed with colours, typography and effects. The identity of your organisation is projected onto the future pages of your site!

These first 4 steps require a lot of thought, questioning and consultation. To ensure that they run smoothly, you need to take the necessary time and not let them go to waste. Up to now your site has only been a concept, from the next stage onwards it will have a real existence.

5. Front-end and back-end development. The project passes into the hands of our back and front-end developers, who, using proven technologies, create all the components of your site, make the necessary links, connections and configurations, dress it all up and establish what will be your future administration panel.

6. Content. This step is an in-between step that varies from project to project. You can take care of it entirely, or we can accompany you, advise you, or even do everything according to your brief. It is a question of filling in the blocks, perfecting the atmosphere of the site, providing material to be appreciated and meaning for the Internet users who will pass through.

7. Testing. Is everything ready? Do we have everything? Are the texts consistent? The languages? The pages, the menu? The forms? What if I add a link? Remove an image? Click everywhere? Upload a document? In this phase, the site is tested in all its forms (from both sides: yours and ours!) – design, behaviour, database, ergonomics, performance. A report of the whole is drawn up.

8. Launching. Since the first time we talked about the project, we have been looking forward to this moment: the website is online. You can now give the link to everyone you know and invite them to visit it!

9. Maintenance. This is the life of the project in the long term. Its hosting, its updates, its adjustments, its security.

Direct implication of participants to the project

From the very beginning of the project, you’re involved in the creation process of the web platform. Minotaure is more than a visual support, it’s a social journey.

Clear steps

Each step can be clearly defined and is part of a “Kanban” view shared between all parties involved.

Efficiency is key

By “tool adjusted to the needs of the project”, we mean that your platform should perform well, no matter its size. Minotaure gives you access to each component so they can be optimized for technical performance (website reactivity, page rendering…) and for SEO reasons as well.

A well-defined environment

No “black box” with Minotaure. At any point in time, we make it transparent. The environment is documented so other teams can take on the project if that’s what suits you.

None at all!

This is how we designed Minotaure: no technical knowledge is needed to create pages (even complex ones).

We make the connections, you play with the blocks. It’s as simple as that. A Lego® like system allows you to build pages by stacking blocks (also called widgets). Each block has its own editor that allows you to manage options, information to be displayed, etc.

There is no risk of making a mistake (colours, fonts, location, …), because the choices are limited to what is defined in your graphic charter (what for the web is called Design System).