Do Corp

Do Corp was born at SP Formation to automate search optimisation with AI, including for conversational engines (LLMO). For a year, I was part of the three-person technical team that built the engine. Two and a half months before the launch, set for 1 January 2026, the verdict was clear: the technology worked, but the interface had neither identity nor usability. I was given art direction and UX/UI, with a junior graphic design apprentice to supervise. It became the subject of my Master's thesis.

Finding the open space

I mapped the market on two axes: classic SEO or LLMO, expert tool or accessible tool. Experts are held by Semrush and Ahrefs, accessibility by Yoast and RankMath, innovation by interface-less APIs. One square was left empty: accessible innovation. Do Corp settles there, with a simple promise: make SEO AI understandable for everyone, without holding pros back.

Two users with nothing in common

Marie, 34, runs an online shop: she wants jargon-free, guided, reassuring SEO. Thomas, 29, is an agency SEO lead: he wants shortcuts, exports and an interface that responds in under 100 ms. The rule: the default visible layer serves Marie; everything Thomas needs is still there, but unfolds on demand (progressive disclosure).

A measured benchmark, not a gut feeling

Ten interfaces analysed (shapes, colours, typography, style), with their accessibility measured in Lighthouse. Rejected: Semrush's density (78/100), Gov.uk's brutalism (100/100 but austere), Figma's multicolour. Kept: Stripe's fine rules and soft shadows (98/100), Claude's warmth, RankMath's blue-violet gradient (88/100).

Curves to reassure

Sharp angles suggest rigidity, curves reassure (Lidwell's “contour bias”). So the “do” monogram is made of perfect circles and a single continuous stroke. First lettering: “DO CORP” in all caps. Too authoritative for Marie. Final version: “Do Corp” in Cal Sans, more conversational.

Accessibility as the starting rule

WCAG 2.1 AA and RGAA 4.1 weren't a final check: they drove the choices. The very light blue-grey I liked for secondary text topped out at 3:1, so it went. Without subtle shades, hierarchy comes from white space, typographic scale contrasts and component shapes. That constraint is what produced the brand's minimalism.

Colours: action blue #2558E5 for everything clickable, innovation violet #7F2CCB for AI, and a 35° gradient with an indigo #5D4AED stop at 50% to avoid a dull grey in the middle. Off-white background, dark grey text rather than black.

Direct-to-Code

No high-fidelity mock-ups: the guidelines were written as design tokens (8 px grid, type scale, gradient colours), then built straight into React. The risk: less material to get the direction approved. The gain: accessibility checked in a real browser, at every step, with Lighthouse. On the team side, written briefs, moodboards and staged reviews to pass the direction on to a first-year apprentice.

On social media and in video

The guidelines extend to Instagram and LinkedIn, and to a motion design ad made in After Effects: “Do Corp speaks LLMO”, from topic to article, all the way to “seen by AI, found on Google”.

What I took away

Accessibility and visual innovation aren't opposites, as long as one structures the other from the start. And moving from code to design, I learned that technology, however powerful, is worth nothing if nobody understands its interface.

Tools

Illustrator · Figma · After Effects · React · Vite · TypeScript · Tailwind CSS · Framer Motion · Lighthouse · Notion

Links

• Main website

• Blog

• Documentation

Documents

• Brand guidelines (PDF)