Key Car Rental
A connected booking platform evolving since April 2016.
29,940 website page views across five measured months.
Historic Jeddah
2021-2026
Beginning with field documentation in October 2021, AY—then operating as eDesign—worked with the Historic Jeddah District Programme under the Ministry of Culture to deliver a mobile-first digital experience for Al-Balad, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. AY led the platform strategy, content production, delivery coordination, and digital operations in collaboration with a specialist development partner. The resulting website and native application connected visitors with the district’s landmarks, stories, events, and tours through May 2026.
The Challenge
Historic Jeddah brings together a rich collection of architectural, cultural, and archaeological assets. The opportunity was to translate this depth into a coherent digital journey that could enrich the visitor experience on the ground. This required structuring heritage assets around individual buildings and locations, presenting historically clear content in Arabic and English, and creating a mobile-first experience that could evolve alongside the district’s restoration programme.
Vision & Objectives
The vision was to create a connected digital layer that brings the heritage of Al-Balad closer to visitors and makes exploring the district more intuitive. The work combined bilingual storytelling, map-led discovery, and consistent content delivery across the website and native application, supported by a structured heritage-content foundation designed for continued operation and development.
- Create a mobile-first experience connecting heritage content with the physical district.
- Enable map-led discovery of landmarks, stories, events, and tours.
- Build a structured heritage-content foundation for the website and native application.
Strategic Plan & Phases
A documented journey from field research and heritage content to an integrated visitor platform and operational handover.
2021–2023 — Document the district through field research, photography, and heritage-asset collection
2023 — Translate project requirements into mobile-first visitor journeys and a structured content architecture
2023–2024 — Coordinate delivery of the website, interactive map, and bilingual content experience
2025 — Expand the visitor journey through the native application and QR-linked archaeological content
2025–2026 — Operate the platform, support ongoing updates, and prepare documentation for handover
Challenges & Constraints
- Structuring an extensive heritage archive around individual buildings and locations.
- Maintaining historical clarity and consistency across Arabic and English content.
- Designing a mobile-first experience for visitors exploring Al-Balad on the move.
Platform Performance
5,158
website users recorded between August and December 2024.
87.64%
of page views came from mobile devices during the same period.
4 min 58 sec
average website session duration during the measured period.
User Needs
The experience was designed to give visitors clear, mobile-friendly access to landmarks, heritage stories, events, and tours while exploring Al-Balad. It also needed to connect physical locations with reliable Arabic and English content and maintain a consistent journey across the website, native application, interactive map, and on-site QR touchpoints.
Features & Capabilities
A mobile-first heritage experience connecting the visitor website and native application with interactive mapping, bilingual content, on-site QR journeys, cultural events, tours, and rich visual storytelling.
Bilingual Arabic and English content across the website and native application.
Interactive mapping of historic houses, mosques, museums, and souqs.
QR-linked archaeological content connecting selected sites with their digital stories.
Cultural-event updates and integrated tour-booking journeys.
Heritage storytelling through photography, video, aerial imagery, panoramic content, and 360-degree experiences.
Key Unique Features
One connected visitor journey across the website, native application, and interactive map.
A native visitor application with 3,377 documented downloads.
On-site QR journeys connecting archaeological locations with their digital stories.
Platform Experience
Selected Screens
