A Digital Marketplace That Restores the Value of Makers

About the Client

Dar Al-Sunna'a is a Saudi organization founded in 2019 to document and market handicrafts at risk of disappearing — from weaving and pottery to palm weaving and Hejazi silverwork. For years it operated through seasonal exhibitions and a few physical stores, but it realized that the artisan's future depends on reaching buyers beyond geographic limits. Dar Al-Sunna'a came to Akira with a rich archive of stories and field photos, but no digital infrastructure — the challenge wasn't designing a store, but designing a platform that respects the slow pace of craft amid the speed of e-commerce.

Client: Dar Al-Sunna'a Holding
Sector: E-commerce & Handicrafts
Duration: 20 weeks
Services: Research · UX/UI · Design System · Development

The Challenge

Every artisan was managed manually through WhatsApp and Excel sheets — with no way to measure who was selling, what, or why buyers dropped off midway.

Fragmented offering: no unified catalog, and inconsistent prices and descriptions across artisans.

Lack of digital trust: buyers don't know how a product is made or who is behind it.

Complex order management: every artisan produces at a different pace, making unified shipping nearly impossible.

Project Goals

A unified, trusted marketplace: a central catalog with one standard of presentation, pricing, and quality for all artisans.
Telling the story of every piece: a product page that shows the maker's hand, not just the specs.
An artisan dashboard: a simple tool to manage inventory and orders without technical complexity.
Measurable growth: analytics that link every design step to its impact on sales.

Our Strategy

In-depth interviews with potential buyers in Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam, alongside 12 artisans from different craft categories. Field visits to real workshops to understand the actual production cycle before designing any inventory screen. Usability tests on low-fidelity paper prototypes before moving to any digital interface. A pivotal insight changed the project's direction: buyers aren't looking for a "product," but for a "reason worth the price."