About

Salam, I'm Yusuf — a product designer and builder. I love untangling complexity to create clarity, and increasingly I don't just design the solution, I build it.

For over a decade I've designed digital products — at eBay and Shopify in Berlin, at Tajawal in Dubai, and for companies across e-commerce, fintech and travel. I shipped native apps, Progressive Web Apps, and the occasional App Store rating turnaround.

Until July 2026 I was Associate Director of Design & UX Strategy at Contango, a consulting firm in Abu Dhabi, leading design and strategy for complex digital and AI-driven platforms — making sure they solve real problems, align the people who own them, and actually get used. A lot of that work was about decisions, not pixels: framing the right problem, choosing what to build, and designing AI features around how people really work.

Now I run Werk Studios, my product and AI practice, licensed in the UAE. It's how organisations bring me in for advisory and product work, from the first research through the design and, more and more, the build.

On the side, I build my own products. The one I care most about is Rawi — an iOS app that identifies a Quranic ayah from live recitation, like Shazam for the Quran. I designed it, wrote the Swift, and trained the machine-learning models. I grew up reciting the Quran without always knowing which ayah I was hearing; Rawi closes that gap.

I'm a Muslim with Turkish roots, and a lot of what I make is shaped by that — building things with care, and with purpose behind them. I recently moved my family to Abu Dhabi. Away from the screen, you'll find me doing martial arts or playing basketball.