Intro

Bringing Smart City Vision to Life, Screen by Screen

Designed and developed 8 interactive touchscreen displays for the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) pavilion at QITCOM 2019 — Qatar’s largest ICT conference, held at the Qatar National Convention Centre under the “Safe, Smart Cities” theme.

Commissioned through Eventive Qatar, the project required translating dense policy and infrastructure content across eight distinct MoTC initiatives — from maritime transport to digital government to citizen data rights — into interactive experiences a passing exhibition visitor could understand and engage with in under a minute.

Role

I directed the interaction design and bilingual (English/Arabic) UX for all eight displays — from information architecture and content hierarchy to gesture-based navigation — working closely with Eventive Qatar’s technical team to ensure each screen performed reliably in a high-traffic, public exhibition setting.

The Challenge

Exhibition touchscreens operate under constraints that don’t apply to conventional apps: sessions are short (often under 60 seconds), users are standing in a busy, noisy environment, and there is no onboarding. The design needed to be instantly legible, gesture-forward, and resilient under constant public use — across 8 distinct subject areas — without each display feeling like a separate product.

The additional layer: everything needed to work in both English and Arabic, with fully RTL-native Arabic layouts that matched the gesture and navigation patterns of each language’s interaction habits, not just mirrored text.

Client

Eventive Qatar

Event

QITCOM 2019, Qatar National Convention Centre

Key Features

Interactive maps and dashboards

visualizing transport networks, smart mobility, and digital initiatives

Narrative-driven experiences

guiding visitors through MoTC’s smart city and digital transformation projects

Directed user interactions

to optimize gesture-based navigation and create a fluid, engaging user flow

Visually unified design system

applied consistently across all eight touchscreen applications

Touchscreen Displays

SILA

Insights into SILA initiative for smart transport and digital management.

Maritime Transport

Interactive insights into Qatar’s maritime transport infrastructure.

Qatar Digital Government

Overview of digital government initiatives and citizen services.

THEQA

Displays showcasing quality assurance programs in transport and digital infrastructure.

Safe Space

Interface highlighting safe and secure digital environments.

Qatar Digital Government Training Program

Module showcasing training programs for digital transformation.

E-Commerce

Explore MoTC’s digital commerce initiatives and services.
QITCOM 2019 - MOTC E-commerce

TOSDR

Presentation on Terms of Service and data rights for citizens.
IMPACT

QITCOM 2019 was held over four days at the Qatar National Convention Centre, expecting over 30,000 visitors across 25,000 square metres — one of Qatar’s largest annual technology showcases, held under the patronage of HH the Amir of Qatar.

As central touchpoints at the heart of the MoTC pavilion, the eight displays gave visitors a unified way to explore the Ministry’s work across Land Transport, Maritime Transport, IT, Digital Society Development, and Cybersecurity — turning a complex, multi-department story into a single, navigable experience.

By designing one coherent interaction system across eight distinct topics, visitors could move fluidly between displays without relearning navigation at each screen. The gesture-first, bilingual design held up under four days of constant public use in a high-traffic exhibition environment — where reliability and instant legibility are the only metrics that matter.