Investment
Financial Education
Website
Role
Team
Time & Duration
10 Months, 2023
Client
Akyatırım
Company / Product Background
Ak Yatırım is one of Turkey’s leading brokerage firms, offering a broad range of capital markets services to both individual and institutional investors. Established in 1996, the company operates under Turkish Capital Markets Board regulations and provides access to domestic and international investment products, including IPOs, equities, corporate financing, and advisory services.
As a subsidiary of Akbank, one of the largest private banks in Turkey, Ak Yatırım leverages both its independent platform and the bank’s digital infrastructure. Through its TradeAll TR, TradeAll UP, and TradeAll FX brands, it enables clients to invest in local, global, and forex markets respectively. Ak Yatırım also offers integrated investment features via the Akbank mobile app, creating a seamless user experience between banking and brokerage.
This project focused on redesigning Ak Yatırım’s standalone website, which had become outdated both visually and functionally. The goal was to modernize the site with a clear emphasis on accessibility, responsive structure, and user education—making it easier for new and existing investors to navigate resources, access investment tools, and gain confidence through educational content.
Project Overview – Challenge / Context
The original Ak Yatırım website had long outlived its functional and visual relevance. Designed with an outdated aesthetic and dense, text-heavy card layouts, it lacked clarity, hierarchy, and readability—especially for new or casual users. The information architecture was loosely structured, making it difficult for users to locate content or understand how different resources were connected. Perhaps most critically, the platform was not responsive, leaving mobile users without a viable experience altogether.
The new site was intended to serve a wide spectrum of users—from beginners looking to build financial literacy, to experienced investors in need of data-driven insights and advanced tools. The site’s content strategy needed to support both entry-level education and expert-level functionality, often within the same page ecosystem.
One of the primary constraints was the application of Akbank’s strong and highly structured design language across a content-dense, multi-level site. Adapting this brand framework while maintaining usability required deliberate balancing. Additionally, the complexity of the site’s layered information architecture demanded significant work on global navigation, section structure, and breadcrumb logic to reduce friction and improve scannability across all devices.
Project Overview – Solution
Our primary solution strategy focused on rearchitecting the information structure of the website to make content easily accessible and navigable across a wide range of user profiles. While transactional tools and portfolio management features were handled through Ak Yatırım’s TradeAll platforms, the corporate site’s core responsibility was to inform, educate, and build investor confidence.
We focused heavily on structuring content in a logical, digestible sequence—determining what should be grouped, what should stand alone, and how educational flows could feel approachable, especially for new investors.
In my role as the UX designer on the project, I was responsible for redesigning the navigation system, site-wide search flow, educational entry points, and subcategory page structures. I also worked on organizing written content within subpages to create clear hierarchy, readability, and scannability—particularly across long-form educational material.
Our design philosophy emphasized structural clarity, typographic rhythm, and mobile-first usability. Given the content-heavy nature of the site, we prioritized layouts that felt light and easy to scan—especially on small screens—while aligning with Akbank’s brand system.
Impact & Results
Feedback from the Ak Yatırım team highlighted the clarity and effectiveness of the redesigned educational modules—particularly the video-based content, which was described as well-organized and easy to absorb. The revised information architecture, combined with an improved navigation structure, global search, and breadcrumb logic, gave users a more confident and comfortable way to explore the site across various entry points.
One of the most impactful upgrades was making the site fully responsive. For the first time, users could access resources and insights from any device—without relying on desktop environments—making the platform more accessible for a broader audience.
On a personal level, this project strengthened my ability to work asynchronously within a multi-disciplinary design team. Leading the UX phase and handing off work to other designers for the UI stage helped refine my file organization, communication approach, and collaborative efficiency—skills I’ve since carried forward into other large-scale digital projects.
