Qiyas UAE: civil tech website and design system for infrastructure software

Qiyas builds the survey instruments, construction management software and asset platforms behind the Emirates' roads, bridges, metro and water networks. For the UAE edition we kept the brand, the eight templates and the token-based design system, and rewrote the market layer: Dubai and Abu Dhabi stories, RTA and DMT in place of state DOTs, AED pricing with VAT at checkout, and PDPL-ready hosting. It is written in British English, as the market expects.

Project facts

• Client: Qiyas FZ-LLC (fictional)
• Sector: Civil engineering, heavy civil construction and geospatial software
• Markets: The seven emirates, with the head office in Dubai and projects from Abu Dhabi to Sharjah
• Services: Market localisation · Copywriting · Brand adaptation · Civic tech website design · Accessibility (WCAG 2.2 AA) · SEO foundations
• Templates: 8 page templates shared with every Qiyas edition
• Stack: Hand-built HTML, CSS and vanilla JavaScript; one strings file and one theme file per market

The brief

The same system, speaking the Emirates' infrastructure

UAE buyers are government clients and their contractors: transport authorities, municipalities and heavy civil firms working on capital programmes. They read British English, buy in AED and ask about data residency before they ask about features. The edition keeps the engineering voice and swaps the proof: Sheikh Zayed Road, Al Reem Island, Route 2020 and Dubai Creek Crossing replace the US corridors, and the conference moves to Dubai World Trade Centre.

Designing for the UAE

What actually changed between the US and this edition

• Story - US edition: 48 states, founded in Golden, Colorado · UAE: 7 emirates, founded in Dubai Design District (d3), Dubai
• Proof - US edition: I-70, Juniper Valley, Northfork Line, Cedar River Crossing · UAE: Sheikh Zayed Road Corridor, Al Reem Island, Route 2020 Metro Line, Dubai Creek Crossing
• Buyers - US edition: state DOTs and heavy civil contractors · UAE: RTA, DMT, Abu Dhabi Mobility, municipalities and contractors
• Money - US edition: USD pricing · UAE: AED 1,725 a licence, AED 0 to AED 1,720 tiers, VAT at checkout, bank transfer
• Data - US edition: US hosting · UAE: UAE data centres by default; PDPL-ready hosting on Enterprise
• Event - US edition: US user conference · UAE: Baseline 2027, Dubai World Trade Centre, 18–20 May 2027, AED 250K prize
• Legal - US edition: US terms · UAE: Qiyas FZ-LLC support terms, effective 1 January 2026, applying to the UAE
• Contact - US edition: US office and support line · UAE: Office 1402, Gate Avenue, DIFC, Dubai; +971 4 555 0190; 140 service centres
• Look - US edition: Forest ink, concrete paper, survey orange; Fraunces, Public Sans, IBM Plex Mono · UAE: Sand, champagne gold and night teal; Sora and Manrope

Brand adaptation

The same Qiyas, with a local accent

The mark, the crosshair frames and the contour motif are unchanged. The UAE palette moves to sand paper, night teal and champagne gold, with a deeper bronze for eyebrows, numbers and hovers. Sora replaces Fraunces for display and Manrope carries body and interface text, so the site reads grand rather than rugged. Corners stay near-square at 2px, and the wordmark keeps Qiyas.

Homepage and key journeys

The homepage opens on a night view of the Dubai skyline with the coordinates 25.2048° N, 55.2708° E and the line The ground truth for the UAE's infrastructure. Below it: a stat row counting seven emirates of active projects, an industries carousel, the product trio and tabbed customer stories from Sheikh Zayed Road, Al Reem Island, Route 2020 and Dubai Creek Crossing. The distinctive flow is the region selector: the whole market layer (navigation, footer, contact, currency) sits in one per-market configuration file, so switching to another market swaps the edition without leaving the design system.

Compliance, accessibility and trust

• Support and maintenance terms between Qiyas Civil Technologies FZ-LLC and the customer, effective 1 January 2026 and applying to the UAE.
• Privacy under the UAE PDPL, with UAE data centres by default and PDPL-ready hosting on Enterprise plans.
• Footer: © 2026 Qiyas FZ-LLC. Trade licence (demo), Dubai. Cookie notice with accept and reject.
• Passes automated WCAG 2.2 AA checks on every page at 360, 390, 768 and 1440 px: no contrast failures, no unreachable controls, no horizontal scrolling.
• A language switcher built from hreflang sits in the header on desktop and in the footer on phones.

One system, twelve markets

Every visible string lives in one file per market, and every colour and typeface in one theme file. This edition needed no new templates or components: a strings file, a theme, regional photography and local legal content made it a different brand experience. For a civic-tech company with international plans, a new market becomes a content project rather than a rebuild.

Deliverables

• Market profile: language, formats, legal and seasonality
• Full localised copy across 8 templates, header, footer and forms
• Brand adaptation: palette, type pairing and logo descriptor
• 37 regional photographs (Pexels, credited in credits.json)
• Local legal content
• Accessibility pass (WCAG 2.2 AA, automated) and QA at four screen widths
• Portfolio media: stills, full-page captures, scroll video, OG image, brand board