On Contextual AI’s website rebuild, we defined Sanity schemas before moving content out of WordPress. The schemas had to represent blog posts, research articles, and use cases while the new Next.js site was still taking shape. That sequence made the migration possible alongside development, but it also exposed a practical limit: content from the old site did not always fit the new layouts. Scripts could carry structure and metadata across; people still had to review and adapt the result.
That is a useful way to think about a Next.js and Vercel implementation. The framework and hosting platform matter, but the project’s value depends on how content, review, design, and integrations work together after launch. Our work on Contextual AI, Zenity, and Orb shows where those decisions become concrete.
Model the content before moving it
Contextual AI needed a new visual identity and a site that could accommodate changing content needs. We started development with an intensive pass on the Sanity schema, refining it for the different types of data that would come from WordPress. Once the schemas were ready, migration began while the Next.js architecture and new sections were still being built. Most of the import used automated scripts to preserve structure and metadata; manual review caught content issues and helped adapt material to layouts that did not match the old site one to one.
The distinction matters in a rebuild. A script can transfer fields, but a new design may change what each field is supposed to communicate. If a research article, use case, and blog post all have different editorial jobs, treating them as interchangeable pages can leave editors with awkward workarounds. Contextual AI’s documented approach began with those content types, then combined automation with review where the new experience called for judgment.
We also added real-time content previews to make publishing more intuitive. That connected the content model to the publishing experience. A technically correct import is only part of the job if the team cannot confidently maintain the site afterward. The Contextual AI project documents the migration and the continued work after its launch deadline.
Make review part of the deployment workflow
On Zenity’s site, Vercel Preview Deployments gave product, marketing, and leadership teams a place to review work directly on staging links. Built-in comments let them point to the interface they were discussing. In the Zenity project, we describe shorter feedback loops, fewer meetings, and faster progress toward launch from that workflow.
This is an operational use of deployment previews, beyond checking that a build runs. A design review is more useful when the reviewer can see the page in a browser and attach feedback to the actual state of the interface. It also gives engineers a concrete reference for a requested change. The decision to include nonengineering stakeholders in preview review affects how a team ships, even though it does not change the application’s runtime architecture.
Zenity’s content workflow used Sanity for a related reason. Its structured model let the team update and create pages without developer support, while collaborative editing allowed multiple people to work in the CMS. Preview links and editable content served different parts of the same publishing process: one supported review of the implementation; the other supported ongoing changes to the site.
Keep the interface connected to the systems behind it
Zenity also needed forms that matched its interface while sending submissions into HubSpot. We built custom forms using HubSpot’s forms API, connecting the site’s presentation layer to the client’s customer relationship management system. That work is easy to overlook in a discussion of Next.js performance, yet it determines whether a polished page can support the team’s follow-up workflow. The case study describes the integration and its intended lead capture flow; it does not publish conversion results.
For Orb, the maintenance question appeared in the content model. Sanity organizes pages, modules, and messaging as reusable blocks, giving the team a way to update campaigns and product messaging without asking a developer to edit every page. Relume helped explore layouts and content hierarchy early, before final design. We then used Next.js and Tailwind CSS for the site, with Vercel handling deployment and global delivery. The Orb project describes hybrid rendering as part of the approach to keeping content fast while retaining flexibility.
Orb’s visual requirements added another layer. We integrated Unicorn Studio for shader effects and interactive motion using WebGL. That choice shows why performance work cannot be reduced to selecting a framework: visual assets and interaction techniques are also part of what the browser must render. The project describes the motion and the site’s performance qualitatively, without publishing a measurement that would let us isolate the effect of the animation.
Treat the stack as responsibilities, not a checklist
Across these projects, Next.js provides the site architecture; Vercel provides deployment and preview workflows; Sanity gives editors structured content. Those names describe different responsibilities. Their value comes from the seams between them: schema design before migration, content previews during editing, deployment previews during review, and API integrations where the website has to support business operations.
That is also a practical way to scope a rebuild. Identify the content types and who will maintain them. Decide how old content will be mapped and reviewed. Put the people who approve the interface into a preview workflow. List the external systems a page must send data to or receive data from. Then make rendering and media choices in the context of the actual experience being built. Our Next.js and Vercel development page names the broader services; these project decisions show what that work looks like in practice.
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