ABOUT
Empowering Istanbul's future
In this project, we designed the official website of Ekrem İmamoğlu, the Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. This website highlights the municipality's progressive initiatives and demonstrates their positive impact on the city and its citizens. By providing a comprehensive overview, it aims to foster a sense of trust and hope in shaping the future of Istanbul.
BACKGROUND
From brief to success
We collaborated with the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Digital Communications Team for the project. Following the brief provided by the team, we embarked on a journey that resulted in designing a transparent, user-friendly, and visually impressive website. Additionally, we developed strategies to ensure the project reaches its target audience.
Scope of work and timeline
What I did
As the only UX designer involved in the project, I was responsible for the entire research and experience design process.
I conducted research in line with the project requirements and analyzed the findings. Then these findings helped us define the project's strategy.
From there, I identified specific design needs and created high-fidelity wireframes for desktop and mobile screens.
Tools I used
START
Project goals
Highlighting the projects executed for Istanbul
Prioritizing benefits over political figures
Storytelling and visualizing the narratives
Making cultural values more visible
Challenges
Because the project represented a political figure, adhering to the brief and proceeding without making radical changes were critical to achieving the desired outcome.
As the sole UX designer working on this project, my challenge lies in effectively balancing the desired representation of a political figure while creating a distinctive design framework that aligns seamlessly with the focus and requirements outlined in the brief.
Brand archetype
Archetypes provide brands a framework to define their values, tone of voice, visual identity, and overall brand experience. By embodying a specific archetype consistently, a brand can create strong emotional bonds with its target audience.
During the brainstorming sessions, we gathered all the information about the brand to define its personality, archetype, and desired community perception.
Heroic creator archetype
Justice
Trust
Optimism
Mark, M. & Pearson, C. (2001).
Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypes, New York: McGraw Hill
RESEARCH
Key takeaways
We collaborated with our client to determine the scope of the research. Then, I conducted benchmark studies on successful campaigns that resonated with broad audiences, identifying their most effective aspects.
Fostering an emotional connection built on unity, trust, and solidarity
Positioning the politician as the problem solver for the challenges
Empowering people through the collective actions they take together
Bringing people together around common challenges
Putting real stories and real people at the heart of the narrative
Crafting a communication strategy centered around key messages
DESIGN
High-fidelity wireframes
I designed high-fidelity wireframes for desktop and mobile screens, ensuring a seamless user experience across different devices. By carefully crafting visual elements, interactive features, and information architecture, I provided an intuitive layout that effectively communicated the product's functionalities and allowed users to navigate effortlessly.
DESIGN
Some of the key features
The following section highlights the UX solutions I designed to address the product's strategic goals and unique needs.
Informative cards delivering impactful insights
The informative cards present concise and impactful details about municipal actions, similar to the summaries on news portals. These cards serve as a convenient tool, offering a quick overview of the municipality's initiatives and providing valuable insight into the benefits that resulted from these actions.
Discovering municipal actions
The pages dedicated to municipal actions offer in-depth explanations of the process and accomplished projects. The narrative style is crafted in an engaging manner, effectively emphasizing the significance of core values while presenting thought-provoking comparisons.
Encouraging appreciation and objective evaluation
To encourage positive emotional reactions toward accomplishments, an applause feature allows people to express their appreciation and satisfaction. Besides, access to various feedback channels (such as "Istanbul Senin") from the detail pages encourages the expression of diverse opinions and enables objective evaluation of performance.
Building Istanbul's collective vision
Emphasizing the core values of Istanbul provides people guidance and establishes a shared foundation that offers a glimpse into the future. Such an approach nurtures a sense of unity and hope, encouraging collaboration towards a better future.
CONCLUSION
Final thoughts
Being involved in this project was an incredible experience for me. It was my first time designing for a political figure, which presented unique requirements and challenged me to think more strategically. As a result, I created innovative solutions that improved citizen engagement and strengthened the sense of community. I'm grateful for being part of this project and excited to apply the valuable lessons I learned to future endeavors.
Thank you
Agency: Efabrika
Agency Director: Emre Efe
Project Management: Ceyda Bakkal, Yağız Faizoğlu
Digital Strategy: Güner Durmaz
UX Design & Research: Elif Tunçay
UI Design: Cihangir Oziş
Illustrations: Cihangir Oziş, Ezgi Tam
Development: Burak Aydık, Cansu Arı