WAYFINDING & VISITOR NAVIGATION
THE DAYS OF BUILD IT & THEY WILL COME ARE OVER
TAKING NAKHEEL MALL TO THE NEXT LEVEL
NAKHEEL MALL WAYFINDING PROGRAM
CLIENT
Nakheel Malls
LOCATION
Palm Jumeriah, Dubai, UAE
PROJECT TYPE
Retail Mall, Hospitality & Entertainment Destination
WHAT WE DELIVERED
Destination Navigation Strategy
Audience, User Group & Journeys Analysis
Destination Narrative, Concept & Creative
Signage & Wayfinding Technical Design
Development Of Budgets And Phasing
Design Custodian & Tender Support
Roll Out & Implementation Support
PROJECT APPROACH
When we were approached to reimagine the Nakheel Mall we found the complete opposite. After 18 months of continual customer complaint and frustration we stepped in to develop an entirely new strategy and design that greatly improved the visitor experience while boosting operational efficiency, staff productivity and customer satisfaction.
DESTINATION OVERVIEW
Nakheel Mall represents Palm Jumeriah’s premier retail destination experience, strategically positioned on the trunk of the iconic Palm Jumeirah it sits as the master-planned island’s commercial and social anchor. The 300-outlet mixed-use destination integrates premium retail, dining, and entertainment programming with luxury hospitality through its seamless connection to the St. Regis Hotel, creating a sophisticated ecosystem that serves both local residents and international visitors.
The mall’s unique positioning as a food meets fashion destination attracts culturally diverse, affluent consumers seeking authentic brand experiences and elevated lifestyle programming.
Key differentiators include direct monorail connectivity providing seamless access from mainland Dubai, The View observation deck offering panoramic perspectives of the Palm and Arabian Gulf, and the St. Regis Garden rooftop plaza featuring al fresco fine dining with unparalleled island vistas.
THE VIEW
The View at The Palm is a stunning new public observation deck towering 240 metres above Palm Jumeirah, on the 52nd floor of The Palm Tower. The attraction will be the only location in Dubai offering the unique experience of spectacular views of Palm Jumeirah, the Arabian Gulf and the Dubai skyline, along with an interactive experience about the making of Palm Jumeirah. Visitors to The View start their journey at the roof plaza of Nakheel Mall. From there, an elevator, complete with a floor-to-ceiling digital sea, sand and sky experience, takes them on the three-minute ascent to the observatory at the top of The Palm Tower, where they can marvel at the island beneath them and enjoy 360-degree views of Dubai.
Visitors to The View start their journey at the roof plaza of Nakheel Mall. From there, an elevator, complete with a floor-to-ceiling digital sea, sand and sky experience, takes them on the three-minute ascent to the observatory at the top of The Palm Tower, where they can marvel at the island beneath them and enjoy 360-degree views of Dubai.
DEEPACHIKA
The word depachika is a Japanese term used to describe the enormous space dedicated to food beneath Tokyo’s grand department stores. This is nicely articulated at Nakheel Mall across a stunning collection of eateries and gourmet food stalls that is a must visit for any foodie in Dubai.
ST. REGIS GARDENS
St. Regis Gardens sits atop the mall where stands as an expansive roof top garden showcases an unwavering commitment to delivering exceptional culinary experiences. Featuring a collection of six remarkable restaurants – Trèsind Studio, Chez Wam, Aretha, Signor Sassi, LEÑA, and Hanu – these venues are thoughtfully integrated throughout the area to deliver one of the city’s most aspirational dining hot spots.
WAYFINDING AUDIT
From a poor conceptual foundation and inconsistent execution throughout the mall, we found issues in the parking garages where conflicting directional information, inadequately positioned signage, and unmarked entry portals created visitor confusion while the interior navigation suffered from incomplete messaging, poor information design and key wayfinding elements positioned beyond optimal viewing distances. These fundamental errors conspired to transform what should be an intuitive retail environment into a frustrating navigational battle for guests.
The lackluster visual appeal of existing scheme did little to reflect Nakheel Mall’s luxury positioning while even more alarming, there was a complete absence of intuitive wayfinding support provided across key transition points including vertical circulation between parking levels, elevator identification, and connections to premium amenities like the monorail station, The View and the St. Regis Roof Top Gardens.
A FRESH START
Being positioned in the heart of the Palm Jumeriah, The Nakheel Mall speaks to an aspirational audience that appreciates the finer things in life. While the ability for visitors to explore the mall with confidence is a paramount consideration, we also firmly believe that the wayfinding tools should be visually appealing and speak to the destination offer in order to extend the brand values of the mall.
For the interior wayfinding we developed a bespoke, anchor based modular system that reflected the destination’s premium character, taking on an eclectic Gatsby theme with the use of crisp black and white information design housed in an elegant rose gold frame suspended by slender braided stainless support cables.
This design language evolution extended to maximizing the navigation potential of existing atrium spaces, transforming these prominent architectural features into dynamic orientation moments that celebrate the mall’s distinctive spatial qualities.
Our initial intervention focused on undertaking a complete redesign of the car park navigation system, establishing intuitive directional flow that eliminated confusion at the critical decision points across all 3 levels of the parking domain. This foundational improvement extended to strengthening vertical navigation tools throughout the mall, creating seamless circulation support that provided visitors certainty between all parking levels and the mall itself while greatly reducing dependency on staff assistance. Our enhanced lift lobby EGD activation completely transformed the parking and mall interface providing a much welcomed uplift to both orientation and the mall’s destination branding objectives.
A key element of our role was to create a bespoke set of pictograms and revamp the information design to be adopted across all navigation tools. This, along with the strategic enhancement of visitor information kiosks and orientation mapping created more engaging, user-friendly navigation resources that now serve the mall’s diverse international audience in a more effective and intuitive manner. Externally we coordinated between client and RTA to optimize external approach signage ensuring that the navigation experience begins before arrival and maintains consistency throughout the complete visitor journey from highway approach through to destination departure.
During the implementation phase, we took a staged approached which maintained operational continuity through retaining the existing back-of-house and amenity signage minimizing disruption while ensuring immediate improvements to the key visitor experience elements were completed. This tactical approach supported the broader strategic objective of developing long-term information and wayfinding transformation to position Nakheel Mall as a visitor centric destination while radically reducing the level of customer dissatisfaction and boosting guest convenience.
ST REGIS GARDENS
The final part of the project was the develop the visitor navigation across the St Regis Gardens roof top area directing guests around the beautifully manicured space allowing visitors to explore and find their restaurant of choice.
THE VIEW
During this exercise we also developed the signage and graphics for the visitor journey to and around the View, leading guests from within the mall through and up to the main entry point and then within the View itself. This included developing a range of EGD measures and courtesy messaging.
In taking on this important wayfinding project for Nakheel, we were able to deliver a cohesive navigational response across multiple assets covering a wide range of experience types where the effective application of navigation principles was crucial in providing a positive outcome and enhancing the overall visitor experience.
We were delighted to help our partners in turning around a highly problematic wayfinding situation that for more than 18 months had been the source of mounting complaints and measurable decreases in visitor satisfaction scores and delivering significant improvements to visitor experience metrics, destressing car park usage for guests and boosting operational productivity.
This project was delivered as a part of our wayfinding strategy and design services.