Family Exhibits

The National Museum of Qatar takes visitors on a 1.5-kilometre journey through the country’s history, blending movement, touch, and storytelling. Within that journey, the Family Exhibits bring Qatar’s heritage to life for children aged 5 to 15 through several galleries.

I worked on three of them: Archaeology, Life on the Coast, and Energy, where visitors dig up ancient artifacts, discover traditional pearl diving culture, and explore the role energy plays in country’s story. Each gallery combines interactive games, hands-on activities, and immersive projections to make Qatari’s history and culture feel lived-in, not lectured.

This was my first high-budget jump into the Middle East, and the exact moment I fell head-over-heels for exhibition design and the gritty reality of physical production. For three years, I directed the UX/UI, interaction strategy, and multimedia design across three galleries, coordinating an international network of specialists through relentless iteration.

The real puzzle was building coherence across wildly different formats: interactive modules, immersive projections, and physical-digital touchpoints in the same space. On top of that, I had to navigate a completely new culture and design for dual-language systems, balancing opposing reading directions under accessibility constraints. Basically, three years of design systems, visual design, interaction guidelines, and endless testing.

From the first wireframe to stepping on a plane for on-site installation, it was a wild ride of keeping internal teams, external partners, and timelines intact under heavy pressure. In the end, we delivered an experience where parents have fun too; a massive win, given the goal of creating quality time for families forced indoors due to the Qatari heat. Definitely a lot of lessons learned, great time spent, and incredible people met worldwide.

• Led the end-to-end UX/UI and interaction strategy across three high-traffic, family-focused galleries.
• Built a unified interaction language to seamlessly bridge software modules, immersive projections, and physical props.
• Guided a complex international network of internal teams, external partners, and specialists under tight delivery constraints.
• Leveraged endless prototyping and testing to optimize user flows, clarity, and accessibility for broad audiences.
• Embedded inclusive design principles at scale within a high-profile public cultural environment.
• Recognized with several international awards.