Concept project

Duin & Mol

No one reads this site at leisure. That changes every design decision.

Copy

Typography

Decision guide

Type

Website

Industry

Mediation for business disputes

Year

2026

Cover for the concept project Duin & Mol: the light homepage with the heading A conflict costs time above all and a photograph of two chairs by the sea, alongside phones showing the homepage and the decision-guide result; below are the colours and Source Serif 4 typeface.

De ontwerpvraag

Reading while the conflict is ongoing

Duin & Mol is a fictional mediation practice for business disputes: business partners growing apart, a contract reaching an impasse, a board unable to agree. The starting point was that no one reads this site calmly. There is a letter on the table, a business partner is not returning calls, a hearing is approaching.

The design question: can the reader’s three questions (what is it, how does it proceed, what does it require of my time) be answered on the first screen, in plain language, before the site asks anything itself? Copy is the main building material. There are photographs, but they are quiet and impersonal, and contact needs only one required detail. Whether a real reader experiences it that way has not been tested.

Duin & Mol article page: the heading What happens at the table in a serif, an introduction in one reading column, and below it a photograph of an empty room with two wooden chairs and a table.

An article: the heading in serif, the introduction in one reading column, followed by a quiet photograph of an empty room.

De keuzes

Omission is the intervention

01 · One reading column with a marginal note

All body copy sits in one 620-pixel column, around 65 characters per line. The section number is on the left, with a marginal note on the right behind a fine green rule. On mobile, everything stacks and only the margin becomes smaller.

02 · One serif, one grotesk, five sizes

Headings use Source Serif 4 and body copy uses Schibsted Grotesk. Five sizes for headings and text, and one small size for labels. The difference in scale does work that would otherwise need a border or colour block.

03 · Quiet photographs, no people

The first draft had no stock imagery. This version does use photography, but only places and objects: two chairs by the sea, an empty room, paths through dunes. No portraits, no team, and no hands that could be read as a client or staff member.

04 · Contact without a case file

The contact-page form has one required field: a way to reply to you, email or phone, your choice. Subject, message and name can be left blank, and the form makes this clear. Submitting shows a demonstration message; nothing is sent or stored.

Three phone screens from Duin & Mol: the homepage with three questions one below the other, the decision-guide result Mediation is probably suitable, and the contact page where the subject and message may be left empty.

Two phone screens from Duin & Mol: the homepage with the heading A conflict costs time above all and three short questions below it, and the decision-guide result with the text Mediation is probably suitable.

On mobile: the three questions at the top, the result from the decision guide, and a question form where subject and message are optional.

On mobile: the three questions on the first screen, and the result from the decision guide.

Wat de interactie laat zien

A decision guide that can say no

Is mediation suitable? asks four questions: who the dispute is with, what contact is like now, whether proceedings are already under way and what you want most. As you choose, the answer builds alongside it, with one sentence explaining each answer and what it requires of your time.

There are four outcomes, from Mediation is probably suitable to Mediation is probably not your first step. The answers sit in the address bar, so you can share them with an adviser. Only the subject and result carry over to the contact page, never personal data.

The decision guide with four answered questions: business partner, no contact any longer, a hearing scheduled, and an orderly separation. On the right, the outcome It may be suitable, with a note, what it requires of your time, an explanation for each answer and a button to ask the question with this result.

The decision guide after four answers: it may be suitable, with a note about the contact and the planned hearing.

Measured result: none

There is no mediation practice behind this design. The concept has been developed as clickable pages in HTML, CSS and JavaScript and is not online. The rules in the decision guide were created by us and have not been tested by a mediator or lawyer; it therefore states that it is not advice. Nothing has been counted, so there is no measured result here.

Image sources: quiet stock photography from Unsplash, showing only places, rooms and objects, without portraits.

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