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Opened Aug 07, 2025 by Annie Duncombe@annieduncombe
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Optimizing the Best UX Design Practices for Arabic Websites

For a banking institution, we created a complex bilingual architecture that intelligently adjusted design, menus, and content flow based on the chosen language. This technique increased their user engagement by 183%.

For a luxury brand, we identified that visual and ephemeral platforms substantially surpassed traditional networks for interaction and conversion, creating a strategic redistribution of attention that increased overall performance by one hundred sixty-seven percent.

A few weeks ago, I was consulting with a large e-commerce business that had poured over 200,000 SAR on a stunning website that was failing miserably. The problem? They had simply translated their English site without accounting for the fundamental UX differences needed for Arabic users.

  • Developed a figure visualization approach that managed both Arabic and English numerals
  • Redesigned charts to flow from right to left
  • Used graphical cues that aligned with Saudi cultural connections

Important functions included:

  • Offline data caching

  • Seamless synchronization when connection restored

  • Obvious display of network availability

  • Appropriate restrictions of specific capabilities when without connection

  • Select fonts specifically designed for Arabic screen reading (like Dubai) rather than classic print fonts

  • Enlarge line height by 150-175% for enhanced readability

  • Implement right-oriented text (never centered for main content)

  • Avoid compressed Arabic typefaces that reduce the unique letter shapes

  • Realigning call-to-action buttons to the right area of forms and pages

  • Restructuring information hierarchy to flow from right to left

  • Redesigning user controls to align with the right-to-left scanning pattern

  • Explicitly mark which language should be used in each form element

  • Intelligently switch keyboard layout based on field requirements

  • Position input descriptions to the right of their connected inputs

  • Confirm that validation messages appear in the same language as the expected input

For a commerce brand, we developed an platform that skillfully integrated international standards with locally relevant design elements. This strategy improved their installation frequency by 127% and interaction by ninety-three percent.

I smile when clients insist they're using the "latest" digital marketing techniques but haven't changed their tactics since 2022. The online environment has changed significantly in just the past few months.

  • Relocated product visuals to the left side, with product details and call-to-action buttons on the right
  • Changed the image carousel to progress from right to left
  • Incorporated a custom Arabic font that maintained clarity at various dimensions

The most profitable Saudi brands know that customers don't think in terms of mediums. My investment client saw a seventy-six percent increase in qualified leads after we integrated their once separate channels.

In my recent project for Read More a investment company in Riyadh, we observed that users were frequently clicking the wrong navigation items. Our eye-tracking showed that their eyes naturally moved from right to left, but the important navigation items were positioned with a left-to-right importance.

With comprehensive research for a shopping business, we identified that content published between night time substantially outperformed those published during typical peak hours, producing one hundred forty-three percent higher engagement.

As someone who has developed over 30 Arabic websites in the last half-decade, I can tell you that applying Western UX principles to Arabic interfaces fails miserably. The unique characteristics of Arabic script and Saudi user expectations require a totally unique approach.

Recently, a beauty brand spent 300,000 SAR in standard promotion with minimal outcomes. After shifting just 25% of that spending to social collaborations, they achieved a seven hundred twelve percent improvement in sales.

For a home décor brand, a partnership with 20 niche voices produced a three hundred forty-seven percent greater performance than a single partnership with a celebrity with a large quantity of followers.

A skincare retailer changed from various isolated partnerships to continuous partnerships with less influencers, producing a substantial increase in conversion rates and a 43% decrease in marketing expenses.

Working with a culinary business, we created a strategy where influencers genuinely incorporated products into their regular routines rather than producing evident sponsorships. This approach resulted in response metrics two hundred eighteen percent greater than conventional marketing content.

  • Restructured the application process to match right-to-left user expectations
  • Built a dual-language data entry process with intelligent language changing
  • Improved smartphone usability for right-handed Arabic typing

After considerable time of disappointing interaction with their international application, their new Kingdom-specific application generated a 243% improvement in acquisitions and a 176% boost in active users.

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Reference: annieduncombe/contentmarketingportal#2