New Web and App / 2023–2024
Saudi Arabia football federation
Two platforms, two audiences: positioning the Saudi league for fans worldwide.
01
The business problem
The business problem
“Designing for those two audiences calls for cultural intelligence, not only screen craft.”
It was a pivotal moment for Saudi football. The federation was moving from a little-known institution with almost no international impact to one of the most consequential: driven by the calibre of players signed into the league and, above all, because in the same period the country was chosen to host the 2034 World Cup. Its digital presence did not reflect that ambition or that scale. We had to reposition that presence for two different audiences at once: the local fan, deeply embedded in the culture and context of Saudi football, and the international fan, arriving with no prior relationship to the league or its clubs. Designing for one without alienating the other called for cultural intelligence, not only screen craft.
02
My role and decisions
I led end-to-end UX across web and app for a federation repositioning itself for global audiences. The work was structured in three clear phases.
Research
Before touching a single wireframe, we opened discovery. With support from a designer, I ran remote interviews with the international fan: how someone with no prior link discovers, engages with, and eventually follows a league. That material was crossed with research and analysis of expectations, content priorities, and sports-media habits.
In parallel, the local track needed a different approach. I traveled to Riyadh for field research and had to improvise: the country made access hard. I found the contacts myself. Access to female fans was even harder. I reached a women’s football team and interviewed several players, alongside sessions with local fans in their cultural context and a federation stakeholder. Findings from a room are not the same as survey findings: that is where you learn what is negotiable and what is identity.
Web design
With a designer and a visual designer we chased a modern website for global and local audiences at once: one flexible architecture, without either side feeling compromised. Shared engagement moments (live data, news, competition structure) and cultural flex where it mattered most.
App design
When scope grew to include the app, the focus shifted toward the local audience and what the federation needed on mobile: real-time results, gamification, and an experience built to engage fans day to day, beyond informing.
03
Project achievements
A discovery-first project with no shortcuts. Two research tracks, two audiences, one platform architecture that had to serve both without feeling compromised for either.
Web to web + app
Web + App
Started on the website only. The client then hired us for the app as well. Live results, gamification, and multilingual access.
Dual-audience project
2 audiences
One product for two audiences: local fans embedded in Saudi football culture and international fans discovering the league.
Field research — Riyadh
+15 interviews
In-person field research in Riyadh with local fans, inside their cultural context, plus players and a federation stakeholder.
04
Outcome
Two platforms built from what we heard from real users. A web and app architecture flexible enough to serve local fans embedded in Saudi football culture and international fans arriving with no prior relationship to the league. The research conducted in Riyadh directly shaped every structural decision that followed.
We delivered a modern website, tuned to local and global tastes, and easy to operate with a modern CRM. It solved hard problems for the federation: live match results, player information, gamification, and surfaces built to attract and engage fans worldwide, without pushing local audiences into a generic experience or international fans into one they could not understand.
What does your product need now?
A hard decision, a team, or a product that has to move. Let’s start there.
Contact: chema.a.job@gmail.com