DIFC: one app for work, life and everything in between

This was a big team effort, with strategy, experience design and technical consultants on our side, another designer focused on the website wireframes, and stakeholders from across DIFC on the client side. I was involved from the very first conversation and led the research that shaped both the website and the DIFC+ app.

I interviewed stakeholders and clients, benchmarked DIFC against competitors and similar platforms, and turned what I learned into audience segments, personas and customer journeys. From there I restructured the sitemaps for the website and the app, and owned the app's UX end to end, from user flows and wireframes through iterations, prototypes and developer handoff. A UI designer then built the final visual design on top of that work.

I started by speaking with stakeholders from different departments and interviewing clients in person, to understand everything about how they used DIFC. We then ran workshops to find out where things had gone wrong. Alongside that, I benchmarked similar apps and platforms and reviewed the existing experience against usability heuristics, to see what people already expect, both inside and outside the DIFC ecosystem. In total, I spoke to 19 people from 11 companies, including financial businesses, consulting and law firms, startups, restaurants, art galleries and other lifestyle outlets.

To get a clear picture of the market, I explored a mix of experience apps, employee portals and learning platforms. I paid close attention to how they handled navigation and access to services, especially in large, complicated spaces. I benchmarked the DIFC website and mobile app against direct and indirect competitors.

Next, I turned the research into audience segments and personas, which also fed into the strategy deck. DIFC serves two very different groups: the business community that works there, and the people who visit it as a destination. On the business side, that covered financial and non financial businesses, startups, retail and tenants. On the destination side, it covered visitors, event attendees, residents, employees and students.

Before redesigning anything, I mapped every audience against what they needed from the current website, from foreign prospects setting up a business to current retail tenants requesting fit-outs. Laying it all out showed where content was missing, duplicated or hard to find, and which journeys mattered most.

I created a set of personas based on the segments and what I heard in interviews, from foreign and local business owners and startups to event attendees, visitors and employees. One example is the visitor: someone exploring DIFC as a destination who wants to find what they need in the easiest, most convenient way.

The Visitor

WHAT THEY WANT

To see offers and discounts, find the right shops and restaurants, and plan their visit before they arrive.

WHAT GETS IN THE WAY

Not knowing which entrance to take or where the nearest parking is, especially on a first visit.

HOW WE HELP

Curated content, better wayfinding through maps, restaurant reservations before they arrive and clear parking information.

In ideation, I generated ideas and identified the different user types and their flows. For the website, I looked at the areas that didn't make sense, consolidated them and recreated the sitemap and information architecture. I then did the same for the mobile app.

With the structure in place, I gathered every new idea for the app into one feature list, from digital IDs and parking payments to co-working and AR wayfinding. I then plotted each one by business priority and MoSCoW, so the team could agree what belonged in the first release and what could follow later.

I mapped out the key flows and designed each one around the user type it served, starting with sign in and sign up, then refined them through rounds of iterations.

Another big idea for the app was to keep people in the loop, highlighting the latest news and what's happening around the district.

To show how the app and website would fit into people's days, I mapped six end to end journeys, one for each key audience. Each one runs from awareness through to retention and captures every touchpoint, the opportunity for DIFC at that moment and the feature that supports it. These journeys became the backbone for the features and flows we prioritised.

• Employee: dining in DIFC
• Client: making a service request
• Prospect: checking the public register
• Founder: finding co-working space
• Event attendee: visiting DIFC
• Retailer: setting up a business

The UI designer took the app the rest of the way, building the final screens on top of the sitemap, flows and wireframes I created. The final app reflects what the research pointed to: personalised content on the home screen, everyday services in one place and a digital ID that replaces the physical access card.

One of the flows I mapped was paying for parking and car services, a frustration that came up in interviews. In the final app it takes four steps, from picking a service to getting a confirmation.

Another was helping people discover what's happening across the district, from new restaurants to blogs and events, with filters so they only see what's relevant to them.

I used AI as a helper during the busier parts of the project. Every output was reviewed by me and checked against what real users told me.

Research

Grouped interview notes into early themes, which I then refined with the team.

Benchmarking

Pulled together a first list of competitor features to compare before I reviewed each app myself.

Documentation

Drafted flow descriptions and annotations for the developer handoff.

The research and structure that the website and app were built on.

People interviewed from 11 companies

19

Personas across business and destination audiences

9

Sitemaps recreated, for the website and the mobile app

2