Perfecting the Best UX Design Practices for Arabic Websites
- Clearly indicate which language should be used in each form element
- Dynamically adjust keyboard language based on field requirements
- Position form text to the right side of their corresponding inputs
- Ensure that error notifications appear in the same language as the required input
For a luxury brand, we identified that visual and ephemeral platforms significantly exceeded traditional networks for interaction and purchases, creating a focused shift of resources that increased total results by over one hundred fifty percent.
A few months ago, a shop network invested over 200,000 SAR in conventional advertising with disappointing outcomes. After moving just 30% of that budget to smartphone advertising, they saw a 328% increase in store visits.
A few weeks ago, I was helping a major e-commerce company that had poured over 200,000 SAR on a beautiful website that was failing miserably. The reason? They had merely transformed their English site without accounting for the fundamental UX differences needed for Arabic users.
With extensive testing for a shopping business, we found that posts released between evening hours substantially outperformed those shared during typical prime times, generating substantially greater engagement.
Using detailed analysis for a meal service company, we found that advertisements presented between night time dramatically outperformed those presented during typical prime times, producing 163% better purchases.
After considerable time of underwhelming interaction with their target audience, their optimized social media strategy generated a 328% improvement in interaction and a substantial rise in website traffic.
Successful material characteristics:
- Image quality with regional settings
- Short-form video content with native sound
- Behind-the-scenes views that add personality to the brand
- Seasonal events celebration
Today's network usage in Saudi Arabia:
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Instagram: Dominant for aspirational brands
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Snapchat: Remarkably successful with Gen Z demographics
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Discussion network: Strong for news and social conversation
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Brief content: Fast increasing notably with younger audiences
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Professional platform: Valuable for corporate engagement
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Repositioning action buttons to the right-hand portion of forms and pages
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Reconsidering visual importance to flow from right to left
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Adapting interactive elements to follow the right-to-left scanning pattern
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Developed a figure visualization approach that accommodated both Arabic and English numbers
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Redesigned charts to read from right to left
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Applied color-coding that aligned with Saudi cultural associations
If you're developing or redesigning a website for the Saudi market, I strongly recommend consulting designers who truly understand the subtleties of Arabic user experience rather than simply translating Western designs.
- Moved product photos to the left area, with product information and call-to-action buttons on the right-hand side
- Modified the product gallery to progress from right to left
- Incorporated a custom Arabic text style that kept legibility at various scales
Last month, a travel Digital marketing company Riyadh discovered that their website was completely missing from spoken searches. After implementing the techniques I'm about to reveal, they're now being found in forty-seven percent of relevant voice searches.
In my recent project for a financial services company in Riyadh, we observed that users were repeatedly clicking the wrong navigation options. Our behavior analysis demonstrated that their eyes naturally flowed from right to left, but the important navigation components were placed with a left-to-right hierarchy.
For a store owner, we found that their voice search visibility was restricted because they had optimized primarily for English voice searches. After incorporating customized local spoken question improvement, their discovery rate improved by 217%.
- Position the most important content in the top-right corner of the screen
- Arrange content blocks to flow from right to left and top to bottom
- Implement heavier visual emphasis on the right side of equal compositions
- Ensure that pointing icons (such as arrows) orient in the appropriate direction for RTL layouts
Assisting a hospital, we revised their content to include full inquiries that people would naturally speak, such as "Where can I find a dermatologist in Riyadh?" This strategy enhanced their audio query appearance by 73%.
- Choose fonts specifically designed for Arabic on-screen viewing (like Dubai) rather than traditional print fonts
- Increase line leading by 150-175% for enhanced readability
- Set right-oriented text (never middle-aligned for main content)
- Prevent condensed Arabic text styles that diminish the unique letter shapes
As someone who has created over 30 Arabic websites in the last half-decade, I can tell you that applying Western UX standards to Arabic interfaces falls short. The distinctive elements of Arabic text and Saudi user expectations require a specialized approach.