We take the complex and make it simple.
We have the wisdom to guide you in creating technology with the most impact.
Consulting
Members of our small-but-mighty Sassafras team have an average of over a decade of experience each across industry, academia, and freelancing.
We bring expertise in website & app design, engineering, and funding strategies for making sustainable, useful technology. Design begins in our first conversation, where we start to understand your needs. From there we provide consulting, research, design and technical plans, quality assurance, and budgets. This includes advising when you shouldn't build a technology solution, and providing alternatives that are usable and sustainable.
Design
Sassafras transforms research knowledge and anti-oppressive theory into impactful real-world design. Using design justice principles, we act as facilitators to uplift and honor community knowledge to inform the design and development of digital systems.
We have years of experience with various design tools and techniques, including heuristics evaluations, comparative analyses, and user experience reviews.
Custom Software
Doing something no one else has done before? We'll join your team to help you build the app of your dreams. We can build something from scratch and/or connect various software services via API. We use technologies that make the most sense for the job such as Ruby on Rails, Node, React, Vue, or Jekyll.
We'll work with your budget and constraints to figure out what kind of software is best, both for more immediate needs and also for longer term sustainability and maintenance.
Social Computing Research
We are scholars in social computing research communities and have research skills to generate new knowledge on the mutual shaping properties of people and technology. Our members have depth and breadth of experience in quantitative methods and statistics, literature reviews, and qualitative research (interviews and co-design).
Content Management Systems
From blogs to plug-ins to online classes, we'll find the right tools for you and your organization to share your brilliance with the world.
IT, devops, & maintenance
We have a track record of keeping legacy software and database systems running smoothly for more than a decade. We can give your app the love it needs to stay functional and secure for the long term.
Hosting and Support
We have the expertise to set up stable hosting and support to make sure you have what you need when you need it. Our responsive support means you won't have to worry about downtime or upgrades.