TAMM is Abu Dhabi's government super-app — a single digital platform that unifies hundreds of government services for residents and citizens of Abu Dhabi. Think of it as a digital city hall: everything from business licensing and vehicle registration to health services and utility connections, all accessible from one app.
I joined Xishe at the very beginning of this project, when TAMM existed only as a concept and an ambition. My role spanned the entire design lifecycle — from primary research and ideation through wireframing, prototyping and final UI — alongside co-creating the Abu Dhabi Digital Design Language System with the Abu Dhabi Digital Design Authority.
Building a super-app from zero is one of the most complex design challenges that exists. TAMM needed to serve an enormous range of users (residents from over 180+ nationalities, with varying digital literacy), cover an enormous range of services (with completely different underlying systems), and do so within the visual and interaction guidelines of the Abu Dhabi government brand.
There was also a meta-challenge: the design language system itself needed to be created. There was no existing framework to build on — we were creating the foundations at the same time as designing the product on top of them.
I led the primary research phase, which included:
A critical insight: most users didn't think in terms of government departments — they thought in terms of life events. "I'm starting a business." "I just had a baby." "I'm moving home." Organising services around life events, rather than departments, became one of TAMM's most distinctive design decisions.
Working alongside the Abu Dhabi Digital Design Authority, I co-created the TAMM Design Language System (DLS) — a comprehensive system of foundations and components that would enable multiple teams to design consistently across the entire platform.
The TAMM app launched with hundreds of government services, a life-event navigation model, personalised dashboards based on user profile, Arabic and English support with fully RTL-adapted layouts, and an accessibility-first design approach.
I worked closely with Senior Leadership throughout the project to ensure we were delivering the most value for end-users — making difficult prioritisation decisions and maintaining design quality under the pressure of a high-visibility government launch.
TAMM is the project I'm most proud of in my career, because of its scale and its real-world impact. Millions of Abu Dhabi residents now use an app that I helped design from the very first line on a whiteboard — that's a profound privilege and responsibility.
The life-events insight was the most transformative research finding I've ever had. It fundamentally changed what we built. It's a reminder of why deep, unhurried research — listening before designing — is not a luxury but the foundation of everything great.