SADEQ ALKHOORI (ABU DHABI)
With Abu Dhabi investing in culture, innovation, talent and institutional capability at the same time, design is taking on a larger role in its economic and creative direction. This shifts the focus from logos, colours and screens to how people move through services - and whether new systems feel clear, usable, and reliable, experts said.
Industry figures and researchers gathered at a recent Human-Centred Design UAE meetup in Abu Dhabi, saying design is becoming less about the visuals and more about how entire experiences work.
Jue Lu, Director of Visitor Experience at the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, cited the hotel self-check-in as an example to show how a system can appear efficient from a business perspective but falls short for the person using it.
"From a business perspective, it is easy. It is efficient, it reduces costs, and there are lots of benefits," she said. "But what is really happening?"
A traveller, she noted, may be tired, carrying luggage, managing children, holding documents, and trying to understand an unfamiliar environment. "They are not people sitting with a laptop. They are real travellers," she said.
Her point was that the design problem is not only the screen. It is the full experience around the person, including the physical setting, the clarity of the journey, and the human support available when something goes wrong.
"It is more than just a kiosk," she said. "It is almost like designing a stage."
The Role of AI
Professor Elizabeth Churchill, Department Chair and Professor of Human-Computer Interaction at Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, argued that as AI systems become more embedded in daily life, designers are no longer only shaping screens or journeys. This, she added, changes what designers are responsible for.
"AI will not just be used. It will be consulted," Churchill said. "We are moving from designing objects to designing relationships."
She also introduced the idea of "repair", arguing that when systems misunderstand, cross boundaries or behave in ways that feel wrong for the context, the issue is not only correction. It is how trust is restored.
Why Story Matters
Chris Clark, Co-organiser of the Human Centred Design UAE Meetup, Co-Founder of HCD Pro, and Innovation Lead at the Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority, brought the discussion into public systems.
His example focused on early intervention for children and the experience of families moving through fragmented support structures. Rather than opening a workshop with a strategy document or process map, he described beginning with a story built from research, interviews and lived experience.
"We decided not to start with a strategy document. We started with a story," he said. That changed the room, he said, because the story made visible what fragmentation feels like to families. "Data informs the mind. Story engages the heart," he said.
His example showed design not as presentation or branding, but as a way to help different institutions understand one shared human problem.
Erik Spiekermann, the German typographer and founder of MetaDesign and FontShop, emphasised that as design stretches into services, institutions and intelligent systems, its foundations do not disappear. "We actually design relationships," he said.
For Jonathan Steingiesser, Founder of the Human Centred Design UAE Meetup, Co-Founder of HCD Pro, and Innovation Lead at the Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority, this design shift sits on top of a longer local story.
He recalled arriving in the UAE in 2012, when the local UX and design meetup scene was still small, and helping build a platform that grew from a handful of people into a wider professional community.
Today, he said, the network is approaching its 13-year anniversary, has hosted around 101 events and reached more than 10,000 participants. "It has been great to see how design has grown and affected every part of society," he said.
That history matters because it shows Abu Dhabi's design scene did not appear suddenly through one initiative or institution. It has been built over time through practitioners, educators, recruiters, product teams and community organisers.