2015 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

The corporate site would have to appeal to unusually diverse business audiences, encompassing local Qatari companies, regional players and major global enterprises. It would need to present a modern, vibrant, progressive Qatar that proudly celebrates its rich Arabic history and Islamic culture, in both English and Arabic. So our business objectives required a subtle design approach that blended professional credibility with inclusiveness and cultural sensitivity. Creative, nuanced imagery would showcase Qatar’s heritage and its future, while elegant navigation devices – including a persona-based wayfinder tool – would enable users to dip, delve or deep-dive, according to their informational needs.

The Brief

The Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) – a fast-growing financial and professional-services business hub in the Middle East – commissioned us to create a new digital presence for its external stakeholders, existing licensed firms and employees. The portal would ultimately integrate with a new intranet and extranet, and all three sites would promote the QFC Authority’s fresh, customer-friendly brand, representing Qatar and the QFC as major contenders in the global financial services market. We would also need to increase QFC traffic by presenting dense content in an attractive, accessible way, enticing companies to share in the QFC’s success.

How the final design was conceived

While exploring Doha, we stumbled upon a series of elegant double-exposure images that captured the essence of Qatar’s unique identity. We decided to commission the local photographer to create bespoke images that would express our vision for the QFC site. The final design is clean, task-focused and intuitive - perfect for our time-poor audience. It works effortlessly in both English (read left to right) and Arabic (right to left) using one simple design, which welcomes users with vibrant imagery, white space and rich typography. We also used responsive design, optimising the user experience for a range of viewports and devices.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

The new QFC site – based on a customised SharePoint platform for powerful functionality and scalability – is an example of cutting-edge design making life easier for target audiences. Since launch on 11 November 2014, visitor numbers have risen consistently every week. In the month from 11 December 2014 to 11 January 2015, the site received over 50% more visits than the same period last year. Finally, 70% of total visits have been first-time visitors, compared to 46% for the previous site over the same period – suggesting that our key objective of attracting new business has been achieved.

The QFC is a world-leading environment for businesses that want to capitalize on the region's opportunities. The QFC is an onshore centre that provides a platform for domestic, regional and international growth. It consists of: The QFC Authority The QFC Regulatory Authority The Civil and Commercial Court (first instance and appellate divisions) The Regulatory Tribunal The QFC Authority is the commercial and strategic arm of the QFC. It develops and ensures compliance with QFC regulations, administers key QFC office functions and deals with applications from non-regulated organisations. QFC's core value is to 'Facilitate Success'