The Sharjah government body promoting one of the UAE's richest cultural and heritage destinations.
The Sharjah Commerce & Tourism Development Authority — SCTDA — is the government body responsible for promoting Sharjah as a tourism destination and championing the emirate's cultural, heritage, and commercial appeal to a global audience. Sharjah is the UAE's cultural capital: home to over 15 museums, a UNESCO World Book Capital designation, historic heritage districts, the annual Sharjah International Book Fair, and a coastline spanning both the Arabian Gulf and the Indian Ocean.
Unlike its neighbouring emirates, Sharjah's appeal is rooted in culture and heritage rather than luxury commerce. SCTDA needed a digital presence that captured that distinction — inspiring prospective visitors, serving the travel trade, and giving Sharjah a web experience as rich as the destination itself.
Led creative direction and end-to-end product design on a destination website for one of the UAE's most culturally distinctive authorities.
Creative Direction
Defined the visual language and editorial tone for the site — establishing how Sharjah's culture and heritage should be presented to differentiate it from more commercially-driven UAE destinations.
Information Architecture
Structured a large, varied content estate — destinations, events, hotels, seasonal guides, and cultural programmes — into a clear taxonomy with intuitive navigation and strong visual hierarchies.
UX & UI Design
Designed discovery-led user journeys from inspiration through to trip planning — with imagery-forward pages, thematic browsing, and supporting detail pages that gave visitors the information needed to book.
Responsive Design
Delivered a fully responsive experience across desktop, tablet, and mobile — ensuring the visual quality and discovery experience held for both international trip planners and on-the-ground visitors.
The challenge
Sharjah Commerce & Tourism Development Authority promotes Sharjah as a leading destination and champions tourism's role in the emirate's socio-economic growth.
Its website needed to capture the breadth of Sharjah's culture, heritage, events, and attractions — and make it effortless for visitors to explore the destination and plan a trip, on any device.
My approach
I led the creative direction and designed a fully responsive experience — structuring rich destination content, events, and attractions into clear, visual, discovery-led journeys.
Imagery-led layouts and a considered UX put exploration first, delivering a consistent, inspiring experience across desktop, tablet, and mobile.
From understanding a rich and varied destination to a responsive, discovery-led website.
Understanding the destination
Mapped Sharjah's full tourism offer — museums, heritage districts, beaches, events, hotels, and cultural programmes — and identified the audiences the site needed to serve: leisure visitors, the travel trade, and cultural tourists.
Content architecture & journeys
Defined how the content estate should be organised and navigated — building a taxonomy that made a diverse destination feel coherent, and mapping the key user journeys from inspiration through to planning and booking.
Visual language & UI
Established a creative direction centred on cultural richness rather than commercial luxury — using editorial photography, warm tones, and considered type to differentiate Sharjah from neighbouring UAE destinations.
Responsive across all devices
Adapted all page designs for desktop, tablet, and mobile — ensuring both the visual impact and the practical utility of the site held at every screen size for an international audience.
A destination platform — from the homepage down to individual attractions, events, and travel planning tools.
Homepage & destination hub
Designed the homepage to inspire at a glance — leading with Sharjah's most distinctive cultural experiences, surfacing seasonal events, and giving visitors clear pathways into the destinations, attractions, and practical planning sections.
Attractions & destinations
Designed listing and detail pages for Sharjah's museums, heritage areas, beaches, and family attractions — structuring rich content into pages that were both browsable by category and detailed enough to support trip planning.
Events & cultural calendar
Created the events section to showcase Sharjah's year-round cultural programme — the Sharjah International Book Fair, art festivals, Ramadan events, and heritage celebrations — in a format that encouraged visitors to plan trips around them.
Hotels, travel & practical planning
Designed the practical layers of the destination site — hotel and accommodation listings, visitor guides, getting around content, and travel trade resources — ensuring the site was useful at every stage of the visitor journey, not just inspiration.
A responsive, content-rich website that brings Sharjah's attractions, events, and culture to life — guiding visitors from discovery to planning.
Sharjah is the UAE's cultural capital — home to over 15 museums, a UNESCO World Book Capital designation, heritage districts, international arts festivals, and a coastline spanning both the Arabian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. The design challenge was translating that depth and breadth into a digital experience that felt inspiring rather than overwhelming.
I structured a large, varied content estate — destinations, events, hotel listings, seasonal visitor guides, and cultural programmes — into a clear taxonomy with strong visual hierarchies. Imagery-led pages drew visitors in to explore by theme or interest, while supporting detail pages gave the granular information needed to plan and book. The result was a destination site equally useful for first-time browsers and returning visitors — and visually distinct from the more commercially-driven tourism experiences of its neighbouring emirates.
Projects shown include live work, pitch deliverables, and design produced as part of embedded or collaborative engagements. Some work was completed as part of a wider team. Deliverables reflect the scope and direction at the time of engagement — the live experience may have since changed, launched in a different form, or not proceeded to production. All brand assets and trademarks shown remain the property of their respective owners and are displayed here for portfolio reference only.