Who’s Who
Designed both sides of a business directory — the public site and the owners’ dashboard
What I was handed
Who’s Who is a business directory for Iraq: companies, leaders, jobs, events and a magazine. The client came with a logo, a dark and gold colour theme, a rough sketch of the header and one word for the feel: luxury. Their WordPress site no longer did what they needed.
What I was brought in for
To replace it with a custom platform: the public site first, then a dashboard where businesses manage their listings. The brief described how it should feel, not what the home page was for. So before designing anything, I sent the client a list of questions.
A directory has two audiences. The public reads it; the businesses in it keep it alive. I designed for both: 92 screens, one product.
Discover Iraq’s Leading Businesses
text · interA premium directory connecting industries, leaders, and opportunities.
The dashboard had no detailed brief, only a few one-line notes in Figma on what it should include: enquiries and messages, subscriptions, adding a business, services. The client counted on me to work independently and deliver a finished result, so I worked from assumptions. Where an assumption met a decision only the client could make, I asked: is an enquiry a lead or a conversation, and what can a business pay for? The answers shaped the inbox and the promotions.
After the hand-over, the client called it amazing work. It was the fifth of seven projects they brought me in four months.
A business writes its listing; visitors read it on the site.
A business adds its listing in five steps, and the last one shows the profile exactly as visitors will see it. After a review, usually up to two business days, it goes live as the company’s page.
Every enquiry opens on the listing it came from.
Enquiries from company pages and applications from the jobs board land in one inbox, inside the platform. Each conversation opens with the listing it is about, so the business always knows the context.
Promotions are sold as places on the site.
A business first picks what to promote, so the form asks only what that promotion needs: a vacancy runs until it’s filled, an event until its date. The goal it then chooses is a place on the site: top of search, top of its industry, or a rotating slot on the home page. The platform’s team approves every request before it goes live.
Twenty-five pages, two sides.
Sixteen pages for readers: companies, news, events, the magazine, rankings and jobs. Nine for the businesses behind them, from adding a listing to answering in the inbox.
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