Sudanese Community in Aswan: Designing Digital Belonging for a Cross-Border Diaspora

Client: Sudanese Community Association – Aswan

Sector: Community Development / Diaspora Engagement / Digital Infrastructure

Services by ADSI: Interface Design, Engagement Strategy, Identity Framing, Participatory Research

1. The Challenge

The Sudanese community in Aswan is one of the most rooted and organized diaspora populations in Egypt. Despite its history, strong leadership, and active programming, the community lacked a unified digital platform to reflect its presence, coordinate its initiatives, and pass on its cultural identity.

The community needed more than a website. It needed a digital space that could document identity, support communication, and foster intergenerational connection. ADSI was asked to lead this design process and support its strategic foundation.

2. Context

The community spans generations, with many families having lived in Aswan for decades. They maintain a strong Sudanese identity while operating within Egyptian social and legal frameworks. Their needs included:

  • Consistent community updates

  • Accessible documentation for residents and newcomers

  • A clear representation of their collective presence and programs

  • A space to organize, preserve memory, and support new arrivals

Communication had relied on word-of-mouth and informal channels, which limited visibility and continuity.

3. ADSI’s Approach

Participatory Discovery

  • Led conversations with elders, youth, and community leaders to map their digital and social priorities

  • Identified central needs: access to services, cultural preservation, legal information, and announcements

  • Analyzed digital literacy levels and mobile usage patterns to inform the interface design

Interface Design

  • Built a clean, Arabic-first interface.

  • Designed a structure based on three pillars: identity, access, and communication

  • Focused on mobile compatibility and emotional resonance

  • Generated custom illustrations with Sudanese pyramids and Aswan references in soft brown tones for contrast and warmth

Engagement Strategy

  • Structured content lanes for each audience segment: elders, youth, recent arrivals, and students

  • Proposed a memory archive and rotating story section based on oral histories

  • Planned a modular backend to allow easy expansion into service listings and community records

4. Design Solutions

  • Mobile-first website structure with static and dynamic content areas

  • Hero illustration and visual assets tailored to Sudanese aesthetics

  • Editable backend interface for non-technical admins

  • Visual identity rooted in cultural relevance and ease of readability

  • Strategy blueprint for long-term community engagement, maintenance, and content creation

5. Outcomes

  • The community now has a digital space that reflects its presence and is easy to share with both members and external allies

  • Leaders and users responded positively to the platform’s tone, accessibility, and cultural alignment

  • Content is editable by staff with no design background, which supports sustainability

  • The project created a framework that can be adapted by other Sudanese diaspora communities

6. Reflections

Digital tools for displaced or hybrid communities must do more than inform. They must reflect presence, invite participation, and preserve identity. ADSI worked to deliver a system that balances practicality with emotional and cultural depth.

“We wanted the platform to feel like an extension of our community, not a separate or imposed system.”

– ADSI, Community Systems Team

Client:
Sudanese Community Association – Aswan
Category: