Building the website and mobile app for the world’s premier luxury destination

About the Client

Sela is a leading events management company operating worldwide, based in Saudi Arabia. Via Riyadh is one of Sela’s shopping center properties that opened its door in May 2023. With a total project area of 144,000+ square meters, Via Riyadh is set to be one of the top luxury destinations in Riyadh and Saudi Arabia.

Sela’s team, in collaboration with Q, worked on developing a completely new website and mobile application for Via Riyadh. The project is characterised by several high-end entertainment experiences, including fine dining restaurants, international fashion brands, and the renowned hotel chain St. Regis.

The Q team was responsible for the UX/UI design, partial copywriting, frontend, backend and mobile development for the website and mobile application. Both are available in English and Arabic.

Discovery

The idea came from the client, and it was further analysed and defined in detail during a 2-week discovery. The main challenge was a short deadline, content creation and management, 3rd party dependencies, iOS and Android approvals, and creating a solution that can be easily upgraded/enhanced in the future.

The approach was to conduct requirement elicitation workshops and Q&A sessions with the client, agree on the communication plan and responsibilities with the 3rd party providers, along with confirming the scope of requirements and implementation details (functional and design-wise).

Design

It was important to deliver intuitive, informative and user friendly design at the core. Via Riyadh was brand new, it’s just been launched into the market. It was fundamental that users were informed about the location, what it offered, what you could do and the experiences it offers. We based the UI/UX on educating the user in a sleek and elegant way to tie in with the luxurious brand persona.

The interface design is minimal and clean with detailed accents using the brand colours. This was to allow for the new destination to gain recognition and set the stage for its launch and future prospects. Working on brand recognition is always beneficial to the client. User Experience was tailored to an audience which is very tech savvy.

A user friendly website and mobile app focusing on accessibility and intuitive logic with a straightforward information architecture. The design is aesthetically pleasing and stays true to the brands personality and showcases the luxury intended for the user.

Development

Our tech stack for the Via Riyadh project was: 3 Flutter developers for the mobile app, 4 React developers for the website and Strapi as a CMS (Content Management System).

Q developed the website and mobile app for Android and iOS which enables users to get information about the Via Riyadh venue which includes a Homepage with animation, Via Riyadh’s story, Hotel, Restaurants, Shops, Cinema, and Events pages. Both the website and the mobile app are responsive and have bilingual support for English and Arabic languages (with the direction switch for Arabic – right to left).

Also, Q did integration with the MappedIn company and displayed their indoor mapping solution on the web and in the mobile app which the users can use to navigate the venue (find different shops, restaurants, etc.).

End result

The overall goal of the project was to deliver a simple and elegant website and mobile app that will motivate users to explore Via Riyadh, and provide all necessary information.