Case study · digital product
altaydagistan.com
Designing a complete digital platform, from interface to system
A custom editorial environment, designed as a product
010203hero-cms-general-ui01 A public experience and its publishing tool, designed together.
Rebuilding my site was not about producing a faster portfolio or replacing WordPress with a newer technology. It was about bringing demanding art direction, a fluid experience, fast content management, a robust architecture, conversion tools, clean multilingual publishing, controlled SEO and practical AI integration into one system.
I designed and developed the platform end to end: its visual identity, public interfaces, CMS, content models, APIs, frontend architecture, publishing tools, analytics and AI workflows.
The result is a fully custom digital product, built around the way I work and able to evolve with it.
01 / Experience
Design the experience before choosing the tools
Technology was not the starting point. First, I defined the quality of experience the system should offer to both visitors and its administration-side user.
Public-facing, it had to support strong art direction, ambitious editorial compositions, motion, large imagery and rich content without compromising speed. Behind the scenes, routine tasks had to remain immediate without relying on an accumulation of plugins.
The architecture also needed to make room for new content, languages, analysis tools and AI agents without requiring a rebuild a few months later.
- Support strong art direction
- Make administration immediate
- Structure portfolio, services and content
- Integrate conversion features
- Control multilingual publishing, SEO and deployment
- Connect analytics and AI agents
02 / Architecture
Two applications, one product
The custom PHP and MySQL CMS is the operational centre of the system. It manages content, media, translations, forms, enquiries, SEO, downloads and protected access. Astro uses that data to generate the static public site.
- ManageCMSPHP / MySQL
- ExposeJSONContent API
- ComposeAstroFrontend + SCSS
- GenerateStaticOptimised pages
- DeliverProductionIndependent site
Once built, the frontend does not need the CMS to display its editorial pages. Visitors receive a pre-generated version of the site, while the CMS remains a rich, specialised application.
03 / Editorial model
Model content instead of filling pages
A page, article or project has its own model, publication states and relationships. A portfolio project can bring together client information, an ordered gallery, videos, metadata, categories, translations and fields specific to certain project types.
The CMS organises those elements without reducing them to one large text field.
010203cms-portfolio-listcms-project-editor04 / Multilingual
Build multilingual publishing into the data model
A page or project remains one content entity, with its localised content attached. The CMS makes it possible to work on each version, identify missing translations and see overall language coverage.
cms-translation-tabsVoir+ Traduirecms-translation-coverage05 / Fields
Keep flexibility without building a universal page builder
Two complementary systems make it possible to preserve flexibility without complicating the overall model.
Templates
Field sets defined once and assigned to several projects.
Page-specific fields
An answer to a one-off need without weighing down all other content.
altay_platform_case_studyTexteTexteTexteNombrecms-template-fields06 / Conversion
Make the website a conversion tool
The site was not meant to stay a portfolio to browse. Contact, quote, download and protected-access features are part of the product and can evolve with commercial needs.
Forms and quote requests
A form builder, data validation, notifications, anti-spam protection and submission management are integrated into the CMS.
Texte½E-mail½Sélection1/1Zone de texte1/1cms-form-buildercms-form-submissions-demoProtected pricing
Sensitive data remains dynamic and is never included in the static build. It loads only after authorised access is validated.
Cette grille tarifaire est disponible sur invitation.
Voir les tarifs← Revenirfrontend-pricing-unlockcms-pricing-configSecure downloads
Private resources remain outside the public server root. Access is generated through signed links, directly or after a lead is qualified.
cms-download-manager07 / Product design
Build the CMS as a true product interface
The administration is a fully-fledged working interface. Its models, navigation, states and action hierarchy reduce the number of steps needed to publish or update information.
special_pagePubliéservicePubliéspecial_page Protégécms-admin-wide08 / Art direction
Make art direction part of the product infrastructure
The site needed to accommodate very different visual worlds without losing its own signature. I designed art direction as a grammar: shared principles for hierarchy, rhythm, contrast and motion, with enough latitude for every page to tell its subject.
That continuity starts in Figma, becomes Astro components and remains clear from large screens to mobile.
- 01Editorial expression
Composition adapts to the story, imagery and information density of each page.
- 02Systemic consistency
Shared rules for hierarchy, contrast and rhythm create continuity without imposing one template.
- 03Native adaptation
Responsive design recomposes priorities instead of merely shrinking a desktop layout.
09 / Interactions
Compose freely without sacrificing fluidity
The visual system does not standardise every page in the same way. It supplies the foundations for large imagery, motion and specific interactions, with shared behaviours and a visible alternative without JavaScript.
Un composant portfolio et son retour visuel au survol.
Découvrir ce projetfrontend-project-interactionfrontend-mobile-menu10 / Performance
Performance as a quality of experience
Performance was part of the design brief. Astro produces static pages, the image pipeline generates formats suited to different screens, fonts are self-hosted and browser-side dependencies stay limited.
11 / Visibility
SEO built into the publishing system
Content has its own metadata, canonical URL, indexation controls and social information. Astro generates structured data, the sitemap, robots.txt and related technical outputs. Non-production environments are automatically protected from indexation.
cms-seo-editortitle + canonical + social metadata12 / Native AI
Make AI a native layer of the system
I did not want AI agents to be occasional interventions that require files to be supplied and the project to be re-explained. The CMS therefore automatically generates a structured context describing pages, projects, routes, statuses, languages, translations and core SEO information.
Which pages are still missing an English translation?
Which landing pages do not have a meta description?
What is the portfolio’s current structure?
13 / Analytics
Measure the actions that matter
Self-hosted Matomo measures traffic and useful events: opening a project, clicking a CTA, emailing, downloading or successfully submitting a form. A read-only integration turns this data into bounded, sanitised local reports for AI agents.
Demo data · aggregated and anonymised
Sanitised report examples demonstrate only the data format supplied to AI agents.
14 / Evolution
Plan for evolution as much as launch
Git checkpoints, MySQL backups and migrations create restore points before sensitive operations. Code stays versioned independently of content and deployments are triggered manually: publishing a new version remains an explicit decision.
- Checkpoint Gitvalidé
- Sauvegarde MySQLvalidée
- Build Astrovalidé
- Synchronisationvalidée
deploy-progress15 / Security
Treat security as a product property
Although it is primarily for my own use, the CMS is built as a genuine application. Prepared statements, CSRF protection, secure sessions, bcrypt passwords, two-factor authentication, rate limiting, Turnstile, honeypots and controlled CORS are quiet product foundations.
Saisissez le code temporaire généré par votre application.
cms-login-2fa16 / The system
A coherent system from creation to analysis
Art direction
Defines the visual language and editorial quality of the frontend.
Design system
Turns that direction into reusable rules and components.
CMS
Organises content around the site’s real needs.
Astro
Turns content into a fast, static public experience.
Matomo
Measures useful behaviours and actions.
Local AI layer
Makes the product’s structure and performance queryable.
Conclusion
Design a platform that can evolve
The main result is neither the CMS alone nor the frontend alone. It is the environment that connects them: structured enough to remain robust, open enough to evolve and flexible enough to support editorial and artistic needs that do not always fit standard web models.
This platform lets me design content more freely, publish more quickly, follow its effectiveness, work with AI agents from my local environment and evolve site features without losing control of its architecture.
The site is no longer just the place where I present my work. It has itself become a product I designed.
Une expérience claire, crédible et rapide.
Directeur artistique & Web DesignerAltay DagistanPortfolio frontend-final-responsive