Product Information Web Apps [Emirates]
Understanding the brief
Emirates required the design and build of touchscreen product displays for their exhibition stand portfolio.
Ranging from their aircraft seats, onboard lounge and shower spa, the apps needed to be image-driven, simple-to-use and offer an interactive experience of the Emirates product for the user.
My role was to lead on the UX & UI design of the applications, and collaborate with creative, engineering and the client to ensure successful delivery.
Carrying out the research
My research suggested that touchscreen users were easily distracted, had short attention spans and were not likely to read long passages of text. It was also possible that the user had a more lucrative reason for being on the exhibition stand in the first place. This was due to travel exhibitions being highly corporate affairs with big business being done during the meetings held.
Essentially, our users could likely be interrupted either by other delegates or professional obligations during the use of the product.
Developing hypotheses
I suggested that the information architecture of these apps would need to be basic, the page templates image-led, and the copywriting sections offering structured, top-level information only. The iconography and navigation would need to be clear and conventional.
Initial sketching
Developing the prototype
By creating semi-transparent, collapsible description panels over full screen imagery and video content, I was able to create an image-focussed design template that offered detailed info on the product - but only if desired.
The iconography was conventional and easy-to-locate, but not obtrusive. Additionally the homepage and screensavers were designed with clarity and simplicity in mind to maximise user attraction and uptake. I achieved this by using a simple card system with clear labelling and a moving image background. To further attract users from afar, I designed moving image screensavers with animated text as a call-to-action.
Text + image/video full screen template wireframe
Main menu template wireframe
Applying the interface design
The UI design for the apps centred around imagery and the minimisation of anything non-essential that might obstruct the view of the image in its entirety.
Using a semi-transparent left information pane, i was able to further increase the image size and use only white text and iconography to provide more info and guide the user to subsequent pages of the app section.
The brand requirement to always use the badge logo allowed for it to double as a instant clickable route back to the homepage of each app.
Text + image/video full screen template UI design
Main menu template UI design
Measuring the impact
On the first event installation at Arabian Travel Market 2023 in Dubai, the apps had 16,000 unique page views over 4 days, with an average of 5.1 page views per unique user.
User interviews communicated that they were impressed by the simplicity and easy navigation of the apps.
Emirates were eager to continue their use of the apps with their product displays, and decided to update and reuse them at the following events:
→ Indaba Africa 2023
→ Dubai Airshow 2023
→ UAE Careers Fair 2023