The clarity in vision is always worth the user experience

Besides customer experience, the user experience has traditionally been defined as a person’s emotions and attitudes about using a particular product, system or service. It is about how a user interacts with and experiences a product.

While there are various views on generating an excellent UX, the provocation technique is a lateral thinking approach widely used in groundbreaking design ideations.

It involves thinking of radical and unrealistic ideas and exploring potential design solutions. The provocation technique encourages participants to consider new realities to extreme degrees and can be found in Saudi giga-projects such as NEOM, The Red Sea Project and Qiddiya.

These giga-projects have something in common; they have taken UX in the projects to unthinkable proportions. The core motto in designing them appears to be creating an experience that transforms new realities to extreme degrees, one of the basic tenets of the provocation technique.

How radical could the UX get in urban development projects? Think flying cars, a moon-like sphere for night-time illumination, robotic housemaids, or hyperloop travel, for starters. And all these are being planned and developed for real.

As Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman envisaged in the Future Investment Initiative in 2017, these are “not for conventional people or conventional companies; this will be a place for the dreamers of the world.”

Just can’t get enough

To get a glimpse into the futuristic UX in these giga-projects, let us take a sneak preview into its torchbearer project, NEOM.

According to NEOM CEO Nadhmi Al-Nasr, the strategy for developing NEOM Bay relies on four key pillars. The first is to provide a living experience and an ideal quality of life for families. The second is to create a high-end lifestyle and a luxurious tourist destination. Finally, the third and fourth pillars support innovation and creative centers to achieve the city’s economic goals.

Apart from the obvious economic benefits, NEOM is situated in one of the world’s most prominent economic arteries. According to a CNBC report, its strategic location will facilitate the zone’s rapid emergence as a global hub connecting Asia, Europe and Africa.

Moreover, the futuristic city promises a pristine living experience: energy generation from renewable sources, water desalination without harming the marine environment and minimum carbon emission to preserve the region’s unique ecosystem. What’s more? Public transport will be completely automated.

A Business Insider report in 2019 also revealed that top global consulting firms McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group and Oliver Wyman were advising the government on the Vision 2030 plans for giga-projects. They pushed the provocation part of UX ideation to previously unforeseen limits like using flying taxis for commuting. The city will have more per capita Michelin-starred restaurants than anywhere in the world. In addition, it will host many robots — perhaps exceeding the human population — that will carry out repetitive and arduous tasks. The Red Sea coast will be lit up with glow-in-the-dark sands.

The giga-projects ... are ... designed to stimulate overall growth and add significant economic value.

Abdullah AlGhamedi

If that’s not enough, the project will use cloud-seeding methods to shower desert rains, holographic teachers to conduct classroom sessions, robotic dinosaurs to rove people around the park and state-of-the-art medical research facilities to modify genomes.

According to the Vision 2030 website, the region will be subject to the highest global sustainability standards, with paperless electronic transactions, procedures and processes. It is thus hardly surprising that the $500 billion futuristic city spread across 26,500 sq. km. is billed to be created as the world’s best place to live.

The Public Investment Fund program plans to achieve it by adopting the best standards of living based on best global practices in public transportation, green spaces, environmental sustainability, work-life balance, healthcare, education, sports and leisure facilities. Creating an ideal lifestyle and quality of living will be an inevitable result, positioning the region as the leading destination of the future.

No wonder this giga-project is aptly named NEOM, short for the Latin-Arabic term neo-mustaqbal, which means “new future.”

The PIF project charter also created the blueprint of the Kingdom’s iconic entertainment destination, home of activity, discovery and engagement in Qiddiya that some believed would surpass the Walt Disney World in Florida.

The world-class entertainment offerings in Qiddiya will include theme parks, motorsport and thrill activities, a sports city, events and cultural activities, and opportunities to enjoy natural beauty and wildlife. It will also include sprawling vacation homes and an array of hospitality options.

The city, spanning 334 sq. km. and being developed by the Denmark-based Bjarke Ingels Group, will also sport a funicular futuristic transportation system, a 20,000-seat cliff-top stadium, an aquatic center, and skiing and skating facilities.

Yes, you read it right — skiing facilities in the desert. It is one of the finest examples of provocative ideation that cleared the drawing board, appeared doable and is expected to commence in 2020 and complete in 2030.

And that is not all. There will also be a motor sports facility called Speed Park. In addition, Six Flags Qiddiya will feature the world’s tallest triple launch coaster, a tilting coaster, a wood-steel hybrid coaster, a record-breaking drop tower, multiple water rides, interactive dark rides and immersive experiences.

The Red Sea Project is another giga-project that builds mainly on heightened UX and applies the provocation technique a notch higher. It combines disparate attractions like coral reefs, desert canyons, dormant volcanoes and archaeological sites as one mega-destination package.

As the PIF project charter says, the Red Sea Project, spanning 30,000 sq. km., will provide five tourist experiences for visitors: sun and sand, ecotourism, adventure tourism, culture and heritage and wellness tourism. The project will also focus on renewable energy, 100 percent carbon neutrality, water conservation and reuse like the flagship NEOM project.

ROI in UX is for real

The giga-projects — right from the conceptualization stage as part of the crown prince’s grand Vision 2030 scheme — are planned to be multifaceted and globally unique in scope and ambition. It is designed to stimulate overall growth and add significant economic value.

Moreover, these projects are expected to generate significant value for PIF in the medium to long term. A couple of prime objectives are to attract foreign direct investment and maximize revenue from state-owned assets.

Also, the giga-projects are designed as integrated economic ecosystems that will support the Kingdom’s growth and act as a catalyst for investment across various sectors.

For example, as part of the NEOM project, Saudi Arabia would see the future of energy through renewable energy, transportation through autonomous solutions and food through aquatic, aeronautical and desert agriculture.

Additionally, the exceptional strategic location at the confluence of Asia, Europe and Africa, and access to the Red Sea, through which more than 10 percent of the world trade passes, is a significant feature of the project.

The project will also act as the entrance to the King Salman Bridge, linking the Kingdom and Egypt and facilitating travel and trade across the two neighboring economic powerhouses in the region. NEOM’s contribution to the Saudi gross domestic product is projected to reach at least $100 billion by 2030.

The Red Sea Project, similarly, aims to diversify and promote tourism in the Kingdom, increasing estimated tourist footfall to 1 million a year by 2030. That would create substantial local employment opportunities and increase forex reserves considerably. Furthermore, it will be treated as a special zone with its regulations and facilitated visa requirements.

The project will target the market for meetings, conferences and exhibitions, as it is witnessing remarkable growth in the Kingdom and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries. The final project development will include various commercial and private assets in the hospitality, luxury residences, retail and entertainment sectors.

It will also develop regional biodiversity and target a 30 percent net increase in biodiversity over the next two decades. The project is expected to contribute SR15 billion ($3.9 billion) annually to the GDP and create up to 35,000 jobs after its completion and launch.

The Qiddiya project, on its part, aims to redefine the entertainment notion in the Kingdom and take advantage of the promising opportunities offered by the local market. The project also seeks to enhance economic diversification, attract foreign investment and reduce the Kingdom’s spending leakage in entertainment and recreation to other regional and international destinations.  

Additionally, the project will contribute to creating new jobs and functions in the Saudi labor market. It is slated to provide the Saudi population with housing options and add approximately 4,000 residential units in 2025 and about 11,000 units by 2030.

The development of the tourism sector would create more revenue-earning opportunities for the local populace and increase the potential of forex earning manifold across multiple sectors.

According to the projected estimates, by 2030, the number of visitors is expected to reach 17 million visitors per year for the entertainment sector, 12 million for the shopping sector, and 2 million for the hospitality sector. As a result, the project is expected to contribute SR17 billion to the GDP by 2030 and provide 57,000 jobs.

Thus, we can see how the giga-projects have aided the Kingdom in designing initiatives for making the crown prince’s Vision 2030 an achievable success.

• Abdullah AlGhamedi is chairman of the board of the Saudi Customer Experience Association and an international CX Award Judge with 15 years in the IT and CX services industry