One design system.40+ Turkcell products, hands-on.

IBM iX is the experience design arm of IBM Consulting. It works like an agency inside a consultancy: strategists, designers and engineers in one studio, working side by side with the client's own teams, from first workshop to shipped product.

IBM opened its Istanbul studio for Turkcell, and Turkcell stayed our biggest account as banks like QNB, Akbank and Halkbank, and Türk Telekom, joined later. I joined in January 2018 as a Senior UI Designer, one of the seven core designers IBM brought into the studio for Turkcell. From January 2020 until I left in April 2021, I led the visual design side of the Turkcell account: 11 visual designers, working alongside about 6 UX designers.

Turkcell is Turkey’s leading telecom operator, with a portfolio that stretches from messaging and TV to payments, cloud storage and sports. IBM iX worked with Turkcell as a design and technology partner, and I spent three years inside that partnership.

I worked on more than 50 client design projects and side projects, over 40 of them Turkcell products: sports services, entertainment platforms, messaging and premium memberships. I led design initiatives across these apps and platforms, and led the motion and interaction design across most Turkcell projects:

turkcell.com.tr is Turkcell’s main website and e-commerce platform. I had worked on the existing product, and in October 2018 I started leading its redesign.

Once Turkcell approved the visual concept across three main screen flows, I led the creation of a design system to set the standards for the platform and for future Turkcell-branded products. We built it with an atomic design approach.

By 2020 the Turkcell Design System was in use across all Turkcell-branded B2B, B2C and internal products, aiming for consistent visual components and faster development.

For two years I supported hiring, organised onboarding and led team culture initiatives at the IBM iX Istanbul studio. From January 2020 until I left IBM, I led the visual design side of the Turkcell account. I was one of the studio's seven core designers when IBM opened it for Turkcell. Some later moved to other accounts, and I was one of three designers kept on Turkcell to lead its initiatives, hire and grow the team, and set design quality standards. I hired eight more visual designers and about six UX designers, contractors from different companies, and we grew to a team of 11 visual designers.

In that role I worked closely with the IBM iX and Turkcell management teams on the client relationship. I unblocked designers on both sides, helped the team build new skills and raised the quality of what we delivered. I also co-facilitated design thinking workshops with our interaction designers and the client.

Beyond Turkcell, I supported the IBM iX MEA office on the Abu Dhabi Design System and was a member of the global design systems guild.

• turkcell.com.tr redesign lead, from Oct 2018
• Turkcell Design System creation
• Visual design team lead, from Jan 2020
• Motion and interaction design across most Turkcell projects
• Hired the contractor designers, 8 visual and about 6 UX
• Design thinking workshops, co-facilitated
• Onboarding and culture initiatives

Turkcell ran its workflows on an internal system called Onedesk. In early 2020 the company decided to turn it into a service it could sell, first to local companies and then globally. IBM iX became the partner for that productisation. Together with Turkcell’s product and design teams, we shaped the strategy and designed three parts: a native mobile app, a responsive web platform and a promotional website.

As visual design lead, I supported 4 workshops with different personas (IT, HR, Facilities, Legal and more), designed the logo and brand identity, built the visual concept and its design system, and made the motion. The web platform had much tighter technical limits than the app, so in some flows we redesigned the UI elements instead of rebuilding the flow from scratch.

Dergilik is Turkcell’s subscription app for magazines and national newspapers. It had been on the market for over three years, and Turkcell wasn’t happy with adoption. They wanted to improve loyalty with more services and a better experience.

We were a team of two designers. We started with desk research and a benchmark, then proposed features to build engagement and belonging. Years of revisions had made the app hard to navigate, so we rethought the information architecture while keeping it connected to the existing back end.

The new design tags content and sorts it by genre for a livelier discovery experience. It works across mobile and tablet sizes, and the reading view is calmer, with listening mode, background colour and font size options.

Three years inside one client, from shipping apps as a Senior UI Designer to leading the visual design team on the account.