DUBAI HARBOUR WEBSITE
/// A complete UX and UI redesign of Dubai Harbour's website, commissioned by Shamal Holding as part of a broader rebrand of the destination. Dubai Harbour, the UAE's largest marina district spanning residential, retail, hospitality, and the region's cruise terminal, was repositioning itself as a premier maritime community. The website needed to reflect the new vision and support a redefined brand presence.
/// The existing site no longer matched where Dubai Harbour was heading. Shamal had identified five gaps: an outdated UI/UX, inconsistent SEO, a CMS that no longer met security benchmarks, a suboptimal booking and inquiry journey, and an inefficient analytics setup. With the destination evolving rapidly and serving distinct audiences (yacht owners, luxury residents, tourists, business travellers, adventure seekers), the new site needed to function as both a brand showcase and a navigation tool for highly different visitor intents.
/// The brand identity was being developed in parallel with the website, which meant visual decisions kept shifting mid-project. The Marketing Director's vision diverged from the destination's broader brand direction by design, two intentionally different aesthetics that the website had to hold together.
The project also operated under two real constraints worth naming: no budget for primary user research, meaning personas had to be built from internal knowledge, and no UX involvement in the development phase, meaning the design needed to be specified thoroughly enough at handover to survive implementation without me.
/// Started with a UX evaluation of the existing site and mapped its current information architecture. Reviewed Google Analytics to understand existing user behaviour and traffic patterns. Built proto-personas from stakeholder knowledge and Shamal's audience definitions, analytics signals. Designed a new IA, tested it with tree testing, and iterated based on findings. Developed content models as high-level wireframes to lock in structure before visual design. Worked alongside a visual designer generating three visual direction concepts for stakeholder review and through multiple iteration cycles, providing UX oversight and interaction design support, before delivering final designs to the development team at handover.
/// A new website with a redesigned information architecture validated through tree testing before launch, a refreshed visual direction aligned with the rebrand, and a design handover supporting downstream development.
* Post-launch analytics monitoring sat outside the contract scope, so I can't claim engagement improvements, the verifiable outcomes are the deliverables and the IA validation evidence.
