Rolls-Royce is a global engineering company that designs, develops, and manufactures power systems for aviation, defence, marine and energy industries. They are known for producing high-quality engines and propulsion systems that are reliable, efficient and sustainable. Rolls Royce also produces luxury cars that are renowned for their craftsmanship, quality, and exclusivity.

As a user experience designer, I had the opportunity to work on a new Middle East website project for Rolls Royce. The challenge was to create a website that would resonate with the Arabic audience, while maintaining consistency with the Rolls Royce well stabilised brand guidelines.

To achieve this, I conducted extensive research on the best practices when designing for an Arabic audience then analysed the cultural nuances, visual preferences, and user behaviour of the target audience to ensure that the website design would be culturally appropriate and effective.

Bellow you can see some of Rolls Royce country websites.

The main challenge when designing a website for an oriental Arabic audience is to understand their cultural nuances and preferences, which can differ significantly from Western audiences.

So I needed to analyse colour symbolism, imagery and the use of text and typography in order to guarantee that the website would be engaging, accessible, easy to use but also at the same time being cohesive to the Rolls Royce brand guidelines.

One of the key suggestions that I recommended to Rolls Royce was the necessity to switch the current font used on the occidental website in order to build an effective website for the Arabic audience.

While the original font was consistent with the brand guidelines, it did not adapt well to the Arabic script. So I suggested a font that was more suitable for the Arabic language, while also having similar visual elements to the original Rolls Royce typography used on occidental websites.

Surprisingly, the amount of web fonts available that support the Arabic scrip are quite limited, so after some extra research "Noto Sans Arabic" was my suggestion for this project because of its versatility and similarity with the occidental typography.

This new typography helped to create a more visual cohesive and appealing website for that specific target audience.

Adapting Rolls Royce website module library was another necessary step that required some strategic thinking to ensure that the design is culturally appropriate and effective.

The first step was evaluate the existing module library in order to identify any cultural or technical elements that may need to be modified or adapted to better suit the Arabic audience.This includes analysing the component layout, colour scheme, typography, images and text.

Then I needed to adapt the module library layout to accommodate the Arabic language, which is read from right to left. This required reordering the layout, adjusting the alignment of elements, and ensuring that the design remains visually balanced.

The typography was also adjusted to accommodate the Arabic script in following the best accessibility standard. The website text styles needed to be adjusted as well with line heights and font weights in order to provide legible components and a visually appealing final product.

Bellow are a few examples of components that was adapted for the Arabic audience.

The next step after defining typography and adapting the module library to the audience, was actually match the website content structure with the sitemap and build the website pages in a way that make sense for the business but also have a good sense of hierarchy and information architecture ensuring that the users will find the website easy to use.

Bellow are some Rolls Royce Middle East website pages.

Have the opportunity to work designing a website for Rolls Royce for the Middle East audience was amazing and challenging, definitely the best time to lean and grow!

It was captivating diving deep and to acquire a deep understanding of a new target audience, their cultural preferences, different reading format and technical requirements that I needed to adapt on my designs in order to be successful. I found it really helpful to have a Middle East communication agency (THC) that could assist me on the process. Their expertise and local knowledge proved invaluable in validating my design decisions though the process, in which I found straightforward, with no required amends and it helped me deliver the final design on time and on budget.

Overall, this project allowed me to showcase my ability to adapt to cultural nuances in design and my creativity. I am proud to have played a main role in creating a website that effectively communicates the Rolls Royce brand to the Middle East audience.​​​​​​​

Visit the live website: Rolls Royce Arabic website