Omrico - AI Automation with Empathy

Summary

We set out to build a living memorial for Omri Cohen z"l, a fallen hero from Ashdod. We wanted to create a digital space that would quietly run itself, forever. The challenge: create a fully automated, frameworkless website that could sustain itself at near-zero cost.
The result: omrico.co.il, a beautiful static site with real-time booking automation, smart email confirmations, and performance scores of 99 (desktop) and 92 (mobile) - all running for less than the yearly price of a domain name.

1. Client & Context

Background
Omri Cohen, a young IDF hero, fell defending Israel on December 9th, 2024. His family and friends built a lookout point in Ashdod to honor his memory. We volunteered to create its digital counterpart - a memorial website where visitors could learn about Omri and reserve visits to the lookout.

Why reserve a visit to a lookout? Simple: The lookout quickly became a popular spot for marriage proposals, and the family wanted a way for couples to book their moment in advance, ensuring privacy and calm for each visit.

Why Automation Mattered
Since this was a voluntary project, our intention was to give our time and expertise, not leave the family with ongoing subscriptions or maintenance costs. That principle shaped the entire build: no WordPress, no plugins, no recurring bills. The result is a site that honors a hero while remaining fully self-sustaining.

Our Role
VeryShake led the creative, technical, and automation architecture - from UX and design to back-end logic, CI/CD, and infrastructure setup.

2. Objectives & Challenges

Key Objectives

• Build a Hebrew, RTL-friendly memorial site that reflects emotional depth and simplicity.
• Enable visitors to book visits in real-time through an intelligent calendar system.
• Respect privacy and security while avoiding any server or database storage.
• Keep recurring costs and ongoing hassle effectively at zero through automation and smart design. We didn’t want Omri’s family to manage a booking system or have to log into some plugin every time they need to approve a timeslot. Minimal friction for the family is what guided our automation objectives more than anything else.

Challenges

• Frameworkless build: all front-end coded manually in vanilla HTML/CSS/JS.
• Building automation for scheduling while excluding Jewish holidays.
• Designing a booking flow that feels natural and simple for both the users and the site admin, i.e. the family.
• Balancing emotional tone with digital precision.

3. Strategy & Execution

3.1 Automation-First Architecture

We designed the platform to function like a self-managing digital organism - intelligent, secure, and maintenance-free.

Stack Overview

• Static Framework: Hugo, custom layouts + shortcodes (calendar, form, location).
• Hosting & Delivery: AWS S3 + CloudFront for fast global performance and SSL.
• Logic Layer: AWS Lambda + API Gateway (handles validation, rate limiting, and booking logic).
• Email Automation: AWS SES - sends confirmation emails for $0.0001 per message.
• Event System: Google Calendar API as a lightweight, private database alternative.
• Deployment: GitHub Actions CI/CD for one-click builds and updates.

3.2 Design & Experience

The interface was designed to feel personal, quiet, and intentional - a digital reflection of the lookout itself.

• Looping video hero filmed by Omri’s friends, edited and formatted by our partners at Diplodocus Productions who all also volunteered their time and expertise.
• Fluid RTL design hand-coded for perfect balance on all devices.
• Booking form validates email format, time limitations (up to 5hrs max per request) and formats times instantly.
• GA4 events track engagement respectfully, without invasive data collection.
• Speed-optimized images, assets, and code for a tranquil, instant-loading experience.

3.3 Intelligent Automation & Privacy

The booking system uses automation logic rather than a traditional database and CMS or admin panel:

1. A visitor submits a booking request (passed front-end validation).
2. AWS Lambda verifies availability via Google Calendar.
3. If the slot is open, it’s created automatically in the calendar.
4. AWS SES sends a confirmation email instantly, at a cost of only $0.0001.
5. The system blocks Jewish holidays and overlapping bookings automatically.
6. All data lives privately within Google’s ecosystem - no database, no exposure, and a user experience that everyone already knows, syncing directly to their Google Calendar.

Every step happens in seconds, with no human oversight required, ensuring each couple’s visit stays personal and private.

4. Results & Metrics

Metric	Result
Performance (Desktop)	99
Performance (Mobile)	92
Average Monthly Cost	< $1
Email Cost	$0.0001 per message
Uptime	99.9%
Maintenance	Zero manual intervention
Hosting Stack	100 % static, automated

The system has handled every booking seamlessly, skipping holidays, sending confirmations instantly, and keeping the experience stress-free for visitors, including couples planning one of the most meaningful days of their lives.

5. Key Takeaways

• Automation with empathy. Smart systems can enhance human stories, as well as the ways people interact with them.
• Frameworkless can be fearless. Custom architecture often outperforms one-size-fits-all platforms.
• Zero recurring cost ≠ zero sophistication. The right logic makes simplicity powerful.

6. A Living Legacy

“We wanted to honor a hero not just with words, but with code.”

Omrico.co.il is more than a website, it’s a self-sustaining system designed to preserve memory, love, and place. A project where automation serves humanity, and technology becomes a quiet act of remembrance.

Visit the website: omrico.co.il. It can even help you navigate directly to Mitzpeh Omri in Ashdod with one click, if you want to visit the actual memorial site. We’ve been several times, it is beautiful and meaningful.

7. Help Us Honor Other Heroes

Know another family who wants to preserve a loved one’s memory? It can be a soldier, volunteer, or any other victim related to October 7th. At VeryShake, we’ve pledged to use our craft to help honor those who gave everything for us.

We can assist with memorial websites, donation pages, video tributes, web and digital tools - always thoughtfully, and always free of charge. We’ve been experiencing some of our worst times as a nation since that dreadful day, and we must stand united and help each other out in any way we can. We promise: Talk to us - if we can help, we will.