ISSA — Hospitality Systems
Client
ISSA Resort / WPRiders
Year
2026
Services
UX Audits
UI/UX
Branding & Visual Identity
Credits
In collaboration with WPRiders
Project Management — Dragos Farmazon
Development — Mustafa Solak
Overview
ISSA is a hospitality ecosystem composed of three distinct experiences: ISSA Resort, a luxury five-star destination centered around wellness, wine, and equestrian experiences; ISSA Village, a vineyard retreat designed for families and mid-range travelers; and ISSA Garden, a casual dining destination near the Turda Salt Mines.
The project began as a redesign initiative for ISSA Resort, where the existing experience lacked clarity, structure, and conversion-focused flows. Over time, the scope expanded into creating branding systems and digital experiences for ISSA Village and ISSA Garden, resulting in a unified yet flexible ecosystem tailored to different audiences and service tiers.
Scope
The project focused on transforming an existing hospitality website into a clearer, more conversion-oriented experience while preserving its premium identity. My work included UX audits, information architecture restructuring, user flows, UI redesign, and CRO-focused improvements for ISSA Resort, alongside branding systems and websites for ISSA Village and ISSA Garden.
A key challenge was balancing three distinct audiences while maintaining consistency across the broader ISSA brand ecosystem.
Role
I led the UX and visual design direction across the ISSA ecosystem, collaborating closely with the PM, developers, marketing stakeholders, and client team.
For ISSA Resort, I restructured the website architecture to improve clarity, discoverability, and booking flows. The original experience relied heavily on visuals and minimal information, making services difficult to navigate and understand. I redesigned the experience to improve hierarchy, usability, and conversion flow while maintaining a minimal luxury aesthetic.
As the project evolved, I also created the branding, color systems, and digital direction for ISSA Village and ISSA Garden, adapting reusable components across multiple websites while tailoring the experience to each audience.
To streamline implementation, I introduced structured auto-layout systems, reusable components, and detailed documentation to reduce ambiguity and improve developer efficiency.
Challenges
The project operated under tight timelines, evolving requirements, and frequent stakeholder feedback, particularly around branding and visual identity decisions.
A major challenge involved balancing luxury aesthetics with practical UX decisions—ensuring the experience remained elegant and atmospheric without sacrificing clarity, usability, or booking-focused flows. Much of the original design structure also had to be rebuilt into a more scalable and developer-friendly system.
Process & Thinking
The redesign process started with UX audits and competitor research across luxury hospitality and premium booking experiences. From there, I restructured the sitemap, clarified user journeys, and introduced clearer information hierarchy to reduce friction and improve decision-making.
Rather than treating the three ISSA brands as isolated projects, I approached them as part of a shared design ecosystem—creating reusable systems and consistent visual logic while allowing each branch to maintain its own positioning and tone.
Impact
The final result was a significantly clearer and more structured hospitality experience that improved navigation, service discoverability, and booking-focused flows across the ISSA ecosystem.
Reusable systems, auto-layout structures, and detailed developer documentation also improved implementation efficiency and reduced friction during handoff, helping development move more smoothly under tight deadlines.
Wrap-up
This project reflects a hybrid approach between product thinking, UX strategy, and visual design—solving structural and communication problems while building scalable systems across multiple interconnected brands. The focus extended beyond aesthetics into clarity, usability, and creating experiences aligned with both user and business goals.
