Haroon Akhtar is a genre-blending musician known for fusing Hindustani classical with contemporary sounds. As a rising independent artist, he needed a digital platform that could reflect his artistic identity, showcase his work, and open doors to future collaborations and bookings. With no existing web presence, I led the entire design process from scratch — including branding, layout, typography, color system, and user experience flow.

The main challenge was to design a site that felt both deeply personal and professionally polished. Since Haroon didn’t have an existing site, I had to define the tone, structure, and voice of the platform entirely from the ground up. This meant building not just a website, but a digital identity- one that would engage casual listeners while giving curators, event managers, and collaborators the information they needed to take Haroon seriously.

There was also a need to keep the site emotionally resonant, yet functionally lean and intuitive- especially on mobile, where much of his traffic was expected to come from.

I conducted informal interviews and mini-surveys with Haroon's followers, collaborators, and a few booking agents to understand how people engaged with artist websites and what they looked for.

Most fans wanted quick access to music and story — without too many tabs or redirects

Curators and collaborators needed proof of credibility and a clear way to get in touch

The emotional tone of the site needed to reflect who Haroon is as a person and artist

These insights helped me prioritize sections like the artist story, music embeds, a clean bio, and an easy-to-spot contact form — all while staying visually expressive.

Since I was designing this from scratch, I proactively applied Nielsen’s Heuristics during design decisions:

Version 1: Focused heavily on visuals and creative elements like quotes and fullscreen images. It looked beautiful but lacked clear structure for CTAs or bookings.

Version 2: Added defined content blocks — Artist Bio, Music, Journey, Gallery, and Contact — with stronger layout guidance and responsive scaling.

Version 3: Tested on mobile and optimized the hierarchy. Also added a fixed footer with social links. CTAs took the user to the contact form which was changed to WhatApp messaging.

Final Refinement: Adjusted typography sizes, introduced scroll triggers for subtle animations, and polished the color scheme to balance emotion with usability.

Each version pushed the site closer to being not just beautiful, but also functional, fast, and emotionally intelligent.

Playfair Display for Headings- Clean, professional and balanced

Lato for body text – Clean, neutral, and easy to read on all devices

Created a modular type scale for heading levels and paragraphs

Warm cream and charcoal tones with tints of rose gold

Built to evoke warmth, soul, and timelessness- reflecting Haroon’s sound

High contrast maintained for accessibility and clarity

Custom-designed to resemble a wave form + initials

Built as a flexible vector for use across platforms, social media, and merch

There was 70% increase in Haroon's business after the webpage

 Successfully built Haroon’s entire online presence from scratch 

The design now supports both fan engagement and professional bookings for courses and performance

The WhatsApp Button increased inquiry rates

Mobile-first structure ensures smooth experience across platforms

Haroon now has a professional identity aligned with his evolving career

I learned how to turn an artist’s story into a cohesive, usable digital experience

Balancing emotional depth with practical clarity is what brings real impact

Designing from scratch taught me how to think holistically- from branding to usability, visuals to interaction

Built a responsive, emotionally engaging site for Haroon Akhtar to connect with fans and curators through storytelling, clean UX, and seamless navigation.

(LIVE) Designing Credibility and Emotion for an Independent Artist Online 

WittyAnt is a tech consulting firm offering AI, ERP, and enterprise solutions. Their old website lacked structure, brand consistency, and user flow. I redesigned the platform end-to-end to make it usable, scalable, and visually aligned with modern B2B tech standards.&nbsp;

&nbsp;The original site had major friction points:

As a result, it didn’t communicate trust or professionalism — two key factors for their B2B audience.&nbsp;&nbsp;

I interviewed 4 stakeholders and ran surveys with 10+ users.

This project helped me refine my heuristic-based audit process and scale my design systems across multiple enterprise pages. It reinforced how visual clarity can directly drive business conversion.

A clean, scalable redesign for enterprise clients and job seekers to explore WittyAnt’s services, trust its brand, and take action without confusion.

(LIVE) Designing Credibility and Emotion for an Independent Artist Online

Sainiranjan Sharma