# Scaling and rebranding a global publisher experiencing explosive growth - Released on: 12-Feb-2018 - Organisation: Guiding Tech - Services: Strategy, Information Architecture, Design, Development - Industry: Publishing and Media - URL: https://miranj.in/work/guiding-tech [Guiding Tech][gt] started as a WordPress blog offering technology tips. However, the technology boom in the last decade[^1] led to Guiding Tech expanding into _explainers_, _buying guides_, _analysis_ (and more) as they gradually outgrew their early blog foundations. They reached out to Miranj to reimagine their platform from the ground-up. #### Approach The project kicked off with a hands-on workshop to understand the client’s challenges and aspirations. Based on our learnings we drafted a new information architecture, re-modelled existing content and laid the foundations for future formats. We also moved Guiding Tech to a [modern, content-first CMS called Craft][craftcms], including programmatic migration of thousands of posts published since the very beginning of the site in 2010. #### Design We approached the design by stripping it down to the bare essential---the article text---and proceeded content-out. We abstracted common patterns and created re-usable blocks for byte-sized content, rich cross-links, internal promotions, etc. This evolved into a robust design system on top of a flexible underlying scaffolding that supported a variety of content formats, experimental ad-slots, and more. We designed for high-intent users---people who are after very specific information---while allowing for cross promotion of relevant content with minimal disruption to the reader. #### Scale Guiding Tech is amongst the [top 11k websites][alexa] on the entire internet, and its traffic far outpaced any other project we had worked on so far. Performance takes a whole new meaning when a site is accessed by 50 to 100 people every second. This engagement gave us the opportunity to double down on and really push the limits of server-side optimisation. We managed to architect a system[^2] that could handle the kind of massive concurrent loads that a 4-million-unique-visitors-per-month clocking site like GT attracts while running on low-cost hardware. #### Delivery The project was executed over multiple phases tackling opportunities in design, author experience, technology and business intelligence. With a globally distributed team that publishes dozens of articles each day, this project drove home the realisation that a website’s content authoring experience (AX) is as critical as the end-user experience (UX). We saw first hand the out-sized impact of micro optimisations such as reducing a click, or simplifying and merging two input fields into one, automating image watermarks, tagging relevant taxonomies, etc when deployed at scale. [^1]: Circa 2010-19. [^2]: We shared our performance optimisation strategies from this project with the community at various conferences: [ReactFoo Delhi 2018][rfd], [Dot All 2019][dam], and the [6th Bangalore Site Speed meetup][bssm]. *[GT]: Guiding Tech *[CMS]: Content Management System [craftcms]: https://craftcms.com [gt]: https://www.guidingtech.com/ [alexa]: https://web.archive.org/web/20190701015623/https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/guidingtech.com "Alexa (archive.org)" [rfd]: https://miranj.in/blog/2018/page-loading-performance-strategies "Page Loading Performance Strategies – ReactFoo Delhi 2018" [dam]:https://miranj.in/blog/2020/fortifying-craft-for-high-traffic "Fortifying Craft CMS for High Traffic – Dot All 2019" [bssm]:https://miranj.in/blog/2025/micro-caching-in-nginx-for-high-performance "Micro-caching in Nginx for High Performance - August 2021"