Have you been to my city?

Getting to Know Kaduna, a Redesign.

Mockups are cool yeah? Well, here you go.

My first time in Nothern Nigeria was in 2016 December. January 2017, I was posted to carry out my National youth service in Sokoto(a northern state in Nigeria). A month to the conclusion of said service, I started wondering where to go next, I had decided not to go home or back to Lagos. I stumbled upon an account on Twitter, turns out it was a hub/co-working space in Kaduna Nigeria. That is the short story of how Colab became my favourite place in the world to be in. Alas, that is not what this article is about.

I want to write about my city, Kaduna is a place that has grown on me well. I actually love this city. I love the north in general, but if I was to pick from amongst the 19 northern states, Kaduna(Croc city) would be my 1st choice.

Imagine my excitement when I discovered there was a blog called Know Kaduna operated by someone at the hub. I ended up reading up every article that was on the blog that very day. I had also been itching to create a redesign of the blog itself for a while, so I decided to find the time and knock myself out with some pixel pushing.

Know Kaduna

Know Kaduna is a blog telling stories of the amazing city that is Kaduna and covering happenings within the city. It started as a little project to inform folks about a side of Kaduna that people do not usually see and here we are.
- Joy Ajuluchukwu

Oh, by the way, you can read all about Kaduna here.

My approach was simple, I wanted a minimalistic design that would tell a story, also encouraging anyone who visits the site to explore. People seem to have preconceived notions of the north, a ton of them are not always positive. After thinking of a subtle way to get people to explore the platform and learn more about the state, I settled on 3 main categories to take the spotlight.

• Food
• People
• History

Get to see all kinds of amazing delicacies Kaduna has to offer and see restaurants/eateries that would take your mouth through an amazing experience. Know the lovely and hospitable people of Kaduna, there is a special section dedicated to the people of Kaduna.
What is a place without its history? If we don’t tell our story, who will? A section totally dedicated to the rich history of Kaduna told as amazing page turning(well scrolling in this case) stories.

Up next, the users should be able to see blog posts, they are a mashup of stories and information on past and happening events in the state. They fall under other categories that are not in the spotlight such as ‘Lifestyle’ and ‘Events’.

So, did you notice the crocodile used to highlight the page you are on?

We don’t want a lengthy page yeah or a lengthy medium story? Cool. So it comes to a refreshing halt(just like this article), so you can go explore other pages. Here is a full design that shows the landing page in all its glory.

What is a blog without a section demanding for your email?

Thanks for reading, don’t forget to check out the project on Behance, it has cool looking mockups. Also, visit the actual website.
Have fun. :)

P.S I’d love to thank Hafeez Babatunde for helping me out during the project and convincing me to put it up on Behance.