My job was to set the technical and design framework from scratch. I led the UX engineering, built core components for the Emirates Group Design System, and helped a multicultural team put the standards in place that the wider program would run on.
The challenge
The desktop client agents used was old, slow, and hard to scale. Calls ran long, agents fought their way through complex booking options, and the tech held the whole call-centre team back from growing. We set out to replace it with a modern web platform that got out of the agent's way.
My role
From day one I helped shape the solution and led UX engineering for a specialised, multicultural squad. What we built fed the four agile squads working on the rest of the product.
The Emirates Group Design System was still young. I led the push to extend it, designing and specifying the custom components the booking flow needed, accordions, form steppers, range sliders, and the rest.
I worked with the research team to turn what agents told us into concepts and interactive prototypes, and wrote test scripts so our decisions leaned on data, not hunches.
I set the front-end standards for the whole program: a scalable CSS architecture (SMACSS with BEM) and style guides for templating and JavaScript, so a big, diverse dev team could stay consistent.
I also helped define the skills our front-end teams needed as things grew. The component library and standards became how we onboarded and mentored new people, which is a big reason the team could scale.
Outcomes
ResConnect launched as a modern, web-based booking platform for Emirates' global call centres, and gave agents a tool that finally got out of their way.
The design-system and standards work was a big part of how the broader Emirates team scaled capacity by 80% on related projects, and the components and style guides carried into every web app the group built afterwards.
Shared components and clear standards lifted consistency and code quality across every squad. But leading a multicultural team into clear, collaborative workflows mattered just as much as the technical side. We shipped a product, and we left behind a better way of working.