Responses by Won J. You; professor, designer, mentor and founder; Won J. You Studios.

Background: The primary purpose of the new website was to shift Won J. You Studios’s positioning from product design consulting to its new focus on design coaching and mentorship. The site uses a story-driven narrative to communicate the evolution of the studio’s mission: to empower and educate the next generation of design leaders.

The target audience is anyone who wants to advance or level up their design career through mentorship and coaching, along with institutions and organizations looking for design education expertise and product advisory services.

Design core: At the heart of the website is a story-driven interactive experience that delivers the journey of Won J. You from being a design leader to becoming a design coach. Key design elements include fluid motion, smooth transitions, subtle microinteractions and bold typographic hierarchy all framed within a minimalist layout. The style combines modern digital polish with a personable warmth, creating an immersive experience that feels both aspirational and approachable.

Favorite details: The site features a variety of subtle microinteractions throughout the site that give personality and life to it. We loved paying attention to the details, even when it’s something as subtle as a hover animation.

Challenges: There was a bit of trial and error when it came to the scroll-based animations. We made some changes throughout the build after seeing how the experience unfolded during the development process. Of course, we also edited copy and imagery, but we also pared down some initial interaction concepts for sections like the testimonials and other areas to create a much more user-friendly experience, even if it meant abandoning some cool interaction concepts. We had originally planned for a circular rotation interface for the testimonials but we descoped that to work within the tight timeframe. We shaped and edited our initial ambitions as we worked through development.

New lessons: We learned how useful AI could be to the early concept phase. We leveraged AI to pre-visualize video and interaction concepts. This enabled us to eliminate a lot of guesswork from production. When we finally shot footage for the homepage, it helped us have a better idea of how to capture the footage.

Technology: The website was created as a single-page app using Next.js, with modular JSX templates to ensure flexible design and maintainable code. GSAP drives the site’s animations and scroll-telling features, bringing the narrative to life through smooth, high-performance motion. The core development stack is React and JavaScript.