Coy Jeffrey Cornett is the author behind the How to be a Lighthouse series—a transformative self-help collection that guides readers through examining their past, present, and future. More than just books, the brand is a movement helping individuals construct their own “internal beacon” to navigate life’s storms.

The Problem – Vision without a vessel

For 13 years, Jeff searched for a technical partner capable of translating his complex creative vision into a functional digital reality. He didn’t just want a book landing page; he needed an interactive platform where users could digitally “build” their own lighthouse and generate custom, printable art. The challenge was to create a system robust enough to handle e-commerce and membership data, yet flexible enough to scale for future book editions like the LGBTQ+-focused Rainbow Edition and the Silver Edition for the 50+ community.

The Approach – Our Process: Discover, Define, Delight, Design, & Deploy

We engineered a scalable digital ecosystem using a comprehensive five-stage methodology that prioritized user feedback and architectural longevity.

• Discover (Strategy): For the initial project supporting the series’ first book (Premier Edition), we grounded the vision in data. We conducted 2 rounds of User Interviews to deeply understand the emotional landscape of the target audience.
• Define (Validation): We mitigated development risk by conducting 2 rounds of usability testing on the wireframes as a clickable prototype. This validated the complex user flows early, ensuring the architecture could support the user’s journey before visual polish.
• Delight (Empathy): We analyzed micro-interactions and refined microcopy to ensure the digital reflection process felt like a “safe space,” guiding users with warmth rather than rigid system prompts.
• Design (UX/UI): We moved from high-fidelity prototypes to a massive 147-screen responsive design system, ensuring a seamless experience across desktop and mobile devices.
• Deploy (Scalability): We launched on a custom WordPress framework integrated with Advanced Custom Fields and e-commerce solutions. Because we architected for scalability, when Jeff returned for the Rainbow and Silver enhancements, we easily implemented “theme toggling” and dynamic content blocks without tearing down the foundation.

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The Outcome – An Illuminating Success

The result was an illuminating success. The platform garnered a Gold Davey Award and two Silver w3 Awards for Best Home Page and Visual Appeal. More importantly, the scalable architecture turned a one-off project into a long-term partnership, powering the launch of subsequent editions and solidifying a relationship built on trust and technical excellence.

HowToBeALighthouse.com received two silver 2022 w3 Awards from The Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts (AIVA) in the following “Website Features” categories: Best Home Page, Best Visual Appeal – Experience

HowToBeALighthouse.com received a gold 2022 Davey Awards from The Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts (AIVA) in the “Website – General-Publishing” category.