A website that revels in authenticity, joy, and an entirely new perspective.

Moji­iCo is a com­pa­ny built on sol­id foun­da­tions and, most impor­tant­ly, part­ner­ships. Its two co-founders, Cathy O’Sullivan and Jules O’Donnell, asked us to design and devel­op a web­site for Moji­iCo, a com­pa­ny help­ing lead­ers in fast-grow­ing, scale-up tech busi­ness­es nav­i­gat­ing the chaos and com­plex­i­ty of their world.

As a com­plete­ly new indus­try for the team at Umlaut, we jumped at the chance to get involved. The world of exec­u­tive coach­ing and lead­er­ship, of moti­va­tion and sup­port for lead­ers in the tech sec­tor, is not some­thing we have ever dived into. So, as design­ers, it was a new and excit­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty to dis­cov­er a whole new world.

More than that, though, it was the infec­tious verve and joy that both Cath­leen and Jules brought with them that cap­tured our atten­tion and our imaginations.

You see, this indus­try can be, well, a lit­tle odd. If you delve under the sur­face just a lit­tle, you soon find that many peo­ple who oper­ate in this world can get a bit woo-woo sometimes.

What we love about Cath­leen and Jules is that they had no inten­tion of becom­ing a stereotype.

Instead, they were adamant from the get-go that they want­ed to be and do some­thing dif­fer­ent. To dis­pense with the tropes of the indus­try, to upend the ideas around what is per­ceived to be the way things should be done, and to look at their pro­fes­sion in a whole new light.

A web­site that does it differently

If you’ve been fol­low­ing Umlaut for any length of time, you know that indi­vid­u­als and organ­i­sa­tions that want to do some­thing fresh and excit­ing are right up our street. And so, we had to say yes.

With brand­ing already in place, our role was to take that set of guide­lines and inter­pret them into form and func­tion that would work for the web­site. We were keen from the very begin­ning to cre­ate a nar­ra­tive approach to the project to ensure that we could take the vis­i­tor on a clear and con­cise walk­through so that by the end of the home­page, they were thor­ough­ly versed in what Moji­iCo can do and whether they were the right fit for them.

No waf­fle. No moti­va­tion­al phras­es — just an hon­est, authen­tic approach.

We set out to pro­vide an expe­ri­ence nev­er tried in this indus­try. Not because it’s shiny and new and dif­fer­ent for the sake of it, but because it was a clear dis­tinc­tion between those that have set up shop already and Moji­iCo, a new and excit­ing prospect that under­stands the hur­dles their clients face each day, and is ready to cre­ate a mean­ing­ful and delib­er­ate part­ner­ship to bring out the very best in every one of their clients.

We turned to ani­ma­tion and tran­si­tions to pro­vide a dynam­ic and inter­ac­tive expe­ri­ence for vis­i­tors. We want­ed to quite lit­er­al­ly illus­trate the infec­tious ener­gy and enthu­si­asm that Cath­leen and Jules bring to their work, but also make it crys­tal clear that this wasn’t just laugh­ter and joy — though those are crit­i­cal tenets of the way the co-founders work — but also to explain in suc­cinct and straight­for­ward lan­guage that this would be a process.

Design­ing a whole new world

And so, the home­page does just that. It starts with the chaos that many of Moji­iCo’s clients find them­selves in, and step-by-step, walks those clients through the stages along the way that will bring clar­i­ty and focus to their roles: first the chaos, then the method, the process, the solu­tion, and final­ly, clarity.

Beyond the home­page, we incor­po­rat­ed oth­er dynam­ic ele­ments to encour­age fur­ther inter­ac­tion. On the Ser­vices page, rather than deliv­er­ing a vast list of things Moji­iCo pro­vides, we opt­ed instead to focus on allow­ing vis­i­tors to pro­vide their thoughts on what they need so that Moji­iCo can offer a bespoke ser­vice match­ing their needs. This is just one exam­ple of many where the impor­tance of part­ner­ship, where under­stand­ing the needs and desires of the client, is on show.

This bold and inno­v­a­tive approach flies in the face of how the indus­try gen­er­al­ly oper­ates, again, not because it’s fun to do some­thing dif­fer­ent but to accen­tu­ate and ele­vate the meth­ods and prac­tices that Cath­leen and Jules imple­ment in every­thing that they do. They are unique, so this web­site would have failed had it not put this dis­tinc­tion front and centre.

The About page, a place where web­sites often go to die, was yet anoth­er oppor­tu­ni­ty to bring this incred­i­ble part­ner­ship to life. With sec­tions devot­ed to insights about who each of the co-founders is and sec­tions around their expe­ri­ence, their inter­ests, and their abil­i­ties, we want­ed to make it clear that Cath­leen and Jules prac­tice what they preach, that they are will­ing to put their whole selves on show as that is what it will take for their clients also to succeed.

This is an entire­ly new approach to this indus­try, and we are hon­oured and hum­bled to have been trust­ed to take such bold steps to intro­duce a new per­spec­tive. We hope com­peti­tors are tak­ing note!

Out­comes

We write this review on the launch day of the web­site, and right across social media, the respons­es have been com­ing in thick and fast. Wide­spread sup­port has been acknowl­edged by many of MojiiCo’s peers, and it is tru­ly heart­warm­ing to see that our approach appears to have land­ed so positively.

At Umlaut, we have always cham­pi­oned the notion that zig­ging when every­body else is zag­ging is fun­da­men­tal to the suc­cess of any busi­ness. To line up with oth­ers, doing and say­ing the same things, sim­ply because that is how it has always been done, does not present a choice to clients. With­out a choice, how do clients decide what is right for them?

We have been blown away by Cath­leen and Jules’ will­ing­ness to try an alter­na­tive approach, and we can­not wait to see what new and excit­ing turns they take as we con­tin­ue to sup­port them with their lat­est venture.