A few days ago, a business owner lamented that his platform strategy was burning through massive amounts of riyals with little performance. After reviewing his tactics, I identified numerous critical errors that are extremely typical among Saudi businesses.
- Select fonts specially created for Arabic screen reading (like GE SS) rather than conventional print fonts
- Enlarge line leading by 150-175% for improved readability
- Use right-oriented text (never centered for body text)
- Stay away from compressed Arabic fonts that compromise the characteristic letter structures
Current platform preferences in Saudi Arabia:
- Image network: Dominant for lifestyle brands
- Ephemeral platform: Extremely popular with Gen Z demographics
- Conversation platform: Strong for announcements and social conversation
- Short video: Quickly expanding especially with youth audiences
- Business network: Effective for business-to-business messaging
Using comprehensive research for a store chain, we discovered that content published between night time dramatically exceeded those published during traditional prime times, achieving substantially better interaction.
Essential classifications contained:
- Solo vs. family selection methods
- Information gathering degrees
- Value consciousness distinctions
- Product faithfulness tendencies
- New concept acceptance speeds
For a premium company, we found that visual and ephemeral platforms dramatically surpassed traditional networks for connection and conversion, leading to a focused reallocation of effort that enhanced overall performance by one hundred sixty-seven percent.
Valuable segments featured:
- Hardware selection behaviors
- Application utilization patterns
- Platform engagement approaches
- Information accessing patterns
- Digital purchasing sophistication degrees
After years of applying standard demographic segments, their improved locally-relevant division strategy produced a significant improvement in promotion results and a substantial decrease in marketing expenses.
Throughout my recent project for a financial services company in Riyadh, we found that users were frequently tapping the wrong navigation items. Our eye-tracking showed that their eyes naturally moved from right to left, but the important navigation elements were positioned with a left-to-right importance.
Important scheduling discoveries:
- Decreased connection during religious periods
- Higher involvement on Fridays and Saturdays
- Temporal differences during religious occasions
- Post-evening prayer increases in engagement
Essential techniques included:
- City-specific classifications beyond basic regions
- Area-specific targeting
- Urban vs. rural variations
- Foreign population areas
- Traveler locations vs. local communities
If you're developing or revamping a website for the Saudi market, I strongly recommend hiring specialists who really grasp the complexities of Arabic user experience rather than simply adapting Western designs.
For a luxury brand, we created a traditional classification strategy that discovered several unique traditional categories within their audience. This technique improved their campaign effectiveness by over one hundred seventy percent.
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Repositioning CTA buttons to the right side of forms and screens
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Restructuring content prioritization to flow from right to left
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Adjusting user controls to follow the right-to-left reading pattern
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Locate the most essential content in the upper-right area of the viewport
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Structure content blocks to flow from right to left and top to bottom
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Implement more prominent visual emphasis on the right side of symmetrical layouts
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Confirm that directional icons (such as arrows) direct in the appropriate direction for RTL layouts
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Developed a number display format that accommodated both Arabic and English digits
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Restructured graphs to progress from right to left
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Applied color-coding that corresponded to Saudi cultural associations
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Distinctly mark which language should be used in each input field
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Dynamically adjust keyboard language based on field requirements
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Locate field labels to the right of their corresponding inputs
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Confirm that validation messages appear in the same language as the expected input
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Relocated product images to the left area, with product specifications and purchase buttons on the right-hand side
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Changed the photo slider to advance from right to left
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Implemented a custom Arabic text style that kept legibility at various scales
Recently, I was consulting with a major e-commerce company that had invested over 200,000 SAR on a stunning website that was failing miserably. The problem? They had simply translated their English site without considering the essential design distinctions needed for Arabic users.
- Reorganized the data entry sequence to align with right-to-left thinking processes
- Developed a Arabic-English form system with smart language toggling
- Improved touch interfaces for right-handed Arabic website Usability typing