Designing the Honors App to Be More Hospitable for Arabic-Speaking Guests
To better serve a global audience, Hilton prioritized building multilingual support into the mobile app, beginning with Arabic. This effort combined user research, close collaboration with local experts, and design system updates to accommodate language size and direction in ways that could scale beyond a single language.
MY ROLE
I led the UX, UI, and content design teams responsible for both exploration and implementation, partnering with engineers, product managers, and our localization vendor to design a seamless Arabic experience. I worked with stakeholders in the US and EMEA to build the case for prioritizing and funding the initiative, and stayed closely involved through design iterations and a measured rollout with A/B testing to validate each build.
Why Arabic, and Why Now
As Hilton committed to reaching more guests worldwide, Arabic was chosen as the first language to benefit from a fully localized, right-to-left (RTL) experience. While language localization is common, RTL support introduces deeper design and engineering challenges — including layout mirroring, cultural nuances, and script-specific typography.
Impact and Lessons Learned
Program generated 167+% of revenue target in first year.
Qualitative feedback highlights the importance of multilingual support for enhanced localization
The Arabic launch was more than a technical milestone. It proved that our design system could flex to support global needs without compromising experience quality. It also gave us a repeatable model for approaching localization, grounded in research, aligned with platform standards, and built on deep collaboration across teams and regions.
Understanding the Needs of RTL Users
Our team conducted research on Arabic-speaking user behavior, as well as best practices in digital RTL design. We evaluated Arabic-language competitors, studied native app patterns in the region, and collaborated with native speakers to understand key usability differences — including typographic rhythm, navigation flow, and culturally appropriate imagery.
Supporting Arabic wasn’t just a matter of translation. We worked to reverse navigation flows, adjust alignment and spacing, and make culturally relevant updates to imagery and icons to better reflect the expectations of Arabic-speaking users.
Building a Flexible, RTL-Aware Design System
We audited the app's UI patterns and component library to identify which pieces required flipping or contextual adaptation. This included everything from icon direction and alignment rules to updating our typographic scale and spacing logic for Arabic script. We worked closely with engineering to implement RTL logic at the component level, ensuring consistency across screens.
