Friends of the Web

Friends of the Web uses intuitive design, modern web technologies, and custom-tailored data visualization to help scientists and researchers share their work with the world.

If you work in science or research and would like to discuss how the web can enhance and communicate your work, send us an email.

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Food Systems Dashboard

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Amid growing complexity and stress on our increasingly globalized food systems, we were brought in to collaborate with researchers on the The Food Systems Dashboard. The team of researchers organized a diverse set of indicators into a framework to better understand the structure and nuance of interconnected processes. Our role was both to visualize and present the data as well as to help digest and normalize it into a unified database.

Explore SEL

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The team at Harvard’s EASEL Lab works to facilitate understanding and communication within the complex world of social and emotional learning. They seek to create a shared language in a fractured space. Our role working with them has been to visualize their research and present it for a varied group of educators and policy makers to inform their work in developing non-academic education plans.

SEL Kernels

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In order to help teachers build curriculums that develop social and emotional learning skills, our partners at Harvard’s EASEL Lab have developed a series of bite-size lesson plans that are categorized by the SEL skill they help develop. Tasked with delivering a set of these kernels to teachers across Ukraine, we built a website, for browsing, viewing, and downloading these kernels, available in English and Ukrainian.

Our small team consists of three close friends who have been working together for over 20 years. We don't have any managers or junior team members and we don't outsource any of our work. Our direct approach allows us to minimize administrative overhead and just get right to work.

Baltimore, MD

Andy Mangold

Anthony Mattox

Dan Martens

Over the years we've had the pleasure of working alongside many talented and thoughtful people. We wouldn't be who we are today without their contributions.

Josh Hepworth

Dai Foldes

Mary Mohler

Tim Camber

Jess Smith

Jonathan Rochkind

Vaidehi Joshi

Trevor Carr

Daniel Inoa Llenas

Kevin Zweerink

Jen Evans

Josh Coleman

Amanda Yeh

Tim Collins

Danny Well

Jackson Lynch

Samuel Kang

Victoria Escobar

Alyssa Ziobro

Crystal Dimeler

Michael Shillingburg

Devin Halladay

Jonathan Kelley

Since our founding in 2011, our practice and clientele has continually evolved with the shifting landscape of the web and our changing values. Prior to our focus on science and research, we worked with artists and cultural institutions as much as possible — building e-commerce solutions for type designers, mobile applications for museums and universities, helping to launch some early startups, and even releasing a few software products of our own.

April 2011

Friends of the Web is founded.

Andy Mangold, Anthony Mattox, Dan Martens, and Josh Hepworth start Friends of the Web in Baltimore, Maryland. Our first clients include early-stage startups from around the country and local companies in the budding Baltimore tech scene.

Summer 2012

We release an app of our own concept and design, Wikiweb, a unique Wikipedia reader for iOS that employs a force-directed graph to visualize the links between pages.

Wikiweb is featured in the Apple App Store and selected by Starbucks as its App of the Week, leading to hundreds of thousands of downloads.

Data Visualization

Mobile Apps

Spring 2013

Huckberry co-founders Richard Greiner and Andy Forch reach out to us about making some improvements to their burgeoning e-commerce website. Soon after, we rebuild the entire platform from the ground up, beginning a decade-long working relationship.

We acted as the “de-facto CTO” and provided extensive development services and technical consulting as Huckberry grew from a two-man operation to the massive e-commerce platform it is today.

E-commerce

Fall 2013

In a dream-come-true collaboration with renowned information designer Nick Felton, we develop Reporter, an iOS app that allows people to track and visualize any aspect of their lives.

We worked closely with Nick and co-creator Drew Breunig to maintain and update the app throughout its ~10 year lifespan.

Data Visualization

Mobile Apps

Fall 2013

House Industries, an eclectic type foundry and design studio, hires us to design and build their new website, bringing the sale of their fonts and other, physical products under the same roof for the first time.

E-commerce

Arts + Culture

Summer 2014

We design and develop a smart to-do list app for students at University of San Diego called USD Insight.

This marks the beginning of a fruitful collaboration with Avi Badwal across multiple colleges and universities.

Data Visualization

Mobile Apps

Spring 2015

We launch a bespoke e-commerce site for Frere-Jones Type, an independent type foundry from the influential type designer Tobias Frere-Jones, with an innovative interface for selecting styles from large, complex font families.

Our groundbreaking license selection UI has since been adopted by other type foundries, establishing a new standard within the industry. Our relationship with Frere-Jones Type is ongoing as we continue to improve and maintain the site as the foundry evolves.

E-commerce

Arts + Culture

Spring 2017

When our friend Chris Ashworth realizes his lifelong dream of owning a theater, he comes to us to design and build a website for The Voxel.

This unique space serves as a testing ground for new technologies from Figure 53, Chris’s associated software company, and a resource for performing artists.

Arts + Culture

Fall 2017

William Montrose and Selma Losch start their own type foundry, Kilotype, and hire us to build their website, further expanding our partnerships with type designers the world over.

Our relationship with William and Selma continues to this day as Kilotype continues to grow and thrive.

E-commerce

Arts + Culture

Spring 2018

We design and develop a new, comprehensive online presence for Figure 53, a software company focused on theater and the performing arts, and its flagship product, QLab.

Arts + Culture

Summer 2018

Harvard University’s EASEL Lab gives us the opportunity to put our skills to use on a new challenge: designing and building a new website, Explore SEL, including complex data visualization, to share their work studying social and emotional learning frameworks.

This project marks the beginning of an ongoing partnership with the EASEL Lab and sparks our interest in further research-oriented projects.

Data Visualization

Science + Research

Winter 2019

We work with beloved indie internet festival XOXO to build a clear informational site detailing the upcoming event and archiving media from prior years. In tandem, we design and built a complex, custom application to manage their competitive ticket lottery.

We worked with Andy Baio and Andy McMillan through the festival’s conclusion in 2024.

E-commerce

Arts + Culture

Spring 2019

We take over the development and maintenance of the mobile apps for the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

In close collaboration with the LA Phil’s tech team we rebuild their existing mobile apps, release a new app for the Hollywood Bowl, and build custom-designed ticketing apps for internal use by staff. Our relationship with the LA Phil continues to this day.

Mobile Apps

Arts + Culture

Summer 2019

In an effort to modernize their online presence University of California, Merced contracts us to redesign a variety of internal systems and websites.

Our influence can be seen from their single-sign-on page to the user experience of newly accepted students completing their statement of intent to register.

Winter 2021

Facing unprecedented, widespread stresses, food systems researchers from all over the globe collaborate on collecting, organizing, and processing data to help inform policy decisions. We are brought in to design and build the Food Systems Dashboard — the central platform supporting this mission.

Our ongoing collaboration sees us working on complex data management, mapping, and data visualization as well as directly supporting government agencies from all over the world.

Data Visualization

Science + Research

Winter 2022

We being working on a brand-new website for Sharp Type with a complex, bespoke content management system, which launched in early 2024.

The sophisticated backend, tailored precisely to their needs, allows the Sharp Type team to create intricately designed, media-rich layouts built to their exacting specifications, as well as process all the sales from their extensive type library. We continue to work with the Sharp Type team supporting their unique business.

E-commerce

Arts + Culture

Spring 2022

Anna Herforth, a researcher specializing in agriculture, food systems, and nutrition, reaches out to us about building the World Food Map — the result of the first systematic and localized identification of the most commonly consumed foods in each country.

We are currently working with Anna and her team on a substantially improved and expanded next version of the World Food Map.

Data Visualization

Science + Research

Fall 2023

We begin work on the ARTIS Seafood Database, the first dashboard providing global estimates of seafood species and nutrient trade flows, with researcher Jessica Gephart and her team.

The ARTIS Database is set to launch soon.

Data Visualization

Science + Research

Winter 2024

As an extension of our work with the Harvard's EASEL Lab, we design and build a website to distribute SEL Kernels, bite-size activites and lesson plans that build social and emotional skills, to teachers in Ukraine.

This is the first of multiple forthcoming web projects to distribute SEL Kernels to a variety of diverse audiences.

Science + Research