COP28 - The United Nations
Creating an integrated digital experience for the planet’s most important event.
Over ten days, 500,000 people descended on Dubai’s Expo City – from world leaders to schoolchildren. I led the creative direction for the digital experience, working with the UN design and product teams to shape how people navigated, engaged with and got value from the event.
Creative/Experience Director – IDENTITY
Creative Direction | Digital Experience | Design System | Platform
Background
COP28 UAE was an event on a truly global scale, more than double the size of any of its predecessors. We started just six months before the opening day with a mammoth task ahead – not only did we need to get to grips with the intricacies of an event this complex, but we also needed to define, design, build and launch multiple digital products for an immovable deadline, with many moving parts.
My role
My role covered the overall creative direction for the digital experience, but also the structure behind how it was delivered.
I built and led the UI and UX team, setting the direction across product, design and experience, while working across UN, Emirati stakeholders and on-the-ground event teams to align a wide range of needs.
Alongside this, I defined and oversaw the design system, ensuring everything – from the app to on-site tools – worked as a single, coherent experience as it scaled.
A single experience, not a collection of tools
We developed a connected set of digital products – from mobile apps to on-site tools – designed to work as one experience rather than separate parts.
The aim was to simplify how people moved through the event, whether planning their day, navigating the site, or accessing sessions in real time.
Helping people find their way
Wayfinding became a key part of the experience.
We designed tools to help people navigate the site, locate sessions and move between spaces, reducing friction across a large and unfamiliar environment.
Designed for the reality on the ground
The experience needed to work in a live, high-pressure environment – with changing schedules, crowded spaces and a wide range of user needs.
That meant prioritising clarity and ease of use over anything overly complex.
Making a dense programme usable
With hundreds of sessions and speakers, the schedule needed to be easy to browse and adapt to.
We focused on making it simple to explore, filter and build personalised agendas, so people could get more out of the time they had.