UX Design for Arabic (RTL) Apps: Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Most users in the UAE and the Gulf switch between Arabic and English apps all day, so they notice immediately when an app was designed in English and then "flipped" into Arabic. An arrow pointing the wrong way, a price with its currency in the wrong place, a translated sentence nobody would actually say: small details that make an app look less professional and reduce trust at checkout. These are mistakes we see often, with a way to avoid each one.

1. Mirroring everything, or nothing

In an Arabic interface, the start moves to the right: the menu, the back button, the order of items in a row, the scroll direction of horizontal lists and the progress bar in checkout steps. But not everything is mirrored:

• Mirror: back and next arrows, icons that show direction such as "send" or a side drawer, and step indicators.
• Do not mirror: logos, video and audio playback controls, clocks, checkmarks, the numbers themselves and real photos.

The simple rule: mirror what expresses the direction of movement in the interface, and leave what has a fixed shape in the real world.

2. Numbers, prices and English words breaking inside text

When Arabic text shares a line with numbers or Latin words, their positions can swap: the currency symbol lands on the wrong side, a phone number's order flips, or punctuation jumps to the start of the line. The technical fix is to isolate these parts with their correct direction in code; the design fix is to agree on one fixed format, such as "240 درهم" in Arabic and "AED 240" in English, and use it on every screen.

Western or Eastern Arabic numerals?

In the UAE, Western numerals (1, 2, 3) are widely used in apps, invoices and number plates, while some audiences prefer Eastern Arabic numerals (١، ٢، ٣) in certain contexts. What matters is choosing one and using it consistently across the app, while input fields accept both, because keyboards differ.

3. Weak Arabic typography, or Arabic treated like Latin

Arabic letters need more vertical space because of dots, diacritics and descenders, so line height should be larger than in English. Common mistakes:

• Adding letter spacing, which breaks the connections between Arabic letters.
• Animating text letter by letter, which separates connected letters. Animate words or lines instead.
• Using a very thin Arabic typeface at small sizes, which is hard to read on a phone.
• Relying on the system's default font without checking how it pairs with the English one.

4. Machine-translated copy

Literal translation produces sentences that are grammatically correct but sound odd to users, the Arabic equivalent of "Proceed to perform the addition of the item to your shopping cart". Users expect a short, direct phrase: "Add to cart". Write interface copy in Arabic from the start, in simple Modern Standard Arabic that everyone understands, and keep Gulf dialect for marketing and notifications if it suits your brand. Review error messages in particular, because they are the most forgotten text in any app.

5. Designing to the length of the English text

Arabic text can be shorter or longer than English depending on the sentence, and fixed-width buttons cut words off or leave odd gaps. Design components that grow with their text, and test the longest phrase in each language, not just the ideal one in the mockup.

6. Forms that do not suit UAE users

• Phone: default to the +971 country code for UAE users, accept numbers in their different formats, and keep the field left-to-right.
• Email and verification codes: always left-to-right, even in the Arabic interface.
• Name: accept Arabic and English names, and do not force a strict Western first/last name split.
• Address: UAE addresses rely on area, building and a map pin more than postcodes, so do not make a postcode field mandatory.

7. Ignoring the local calendar and week

In booking and appointment apps, remember that the weekend in the UAE is Saturday and Sunday, while in Saudi Arabia it is Friday and Saturday. Start the week in a way that suits your market, show dates in an unambiguous format, and plan for seasons such as Ramadan, when working hours and order times change.

8. Images and content that do not reflect the audience

Generic images of people and places that look nothing like the UAE and the Gulf weaken the feeling that the app was made for this market. Use photos and illustrations that suit your audience, and make sure illustrations with a direction, such as a person walking or an arrow in a diagram, work both ways.

9. An English-only store listing

Your app's screenshots and description on the App Store and Google Play are the user's first experience. If your audience is Arabic-speaking, prepare Arabic screenshots and copy that show the actual Arabic interface, not the English one.

10. Testing with placeholder content

Designing with Latin placeholder text does not reveal Arabic problems. Test with real Arabic content: long names, prices, addresses and error messages. Then test on real devices with the device language set to Arabic and to English, with enlarged system font sizes, with a screen reader and in dark mode.

11. Gestures and motion going one way

Swiping back, browsing a photo gallery and moving between screens should all follow the language's direction. In an Arabic interface, users expect the next screen to arrive from the left and the back swipe to start from the right edge. Motion going the other way confuses them without their knowing why.

How a development team avoids these mistakes from the start

Most of these problems are solved by an early decision about how the app is built. Instead of setting spacing and alignment as "left" and "right", developers use "start" and "end" properties that follow the language direction automatically; these are supported in iOS, Android and Flutter tooling and in CSS for websites. Icons are prepared from the beginning in two sets: those that mirror and those that do not. Copy lives in separate language files reviewed by an Arabic writer, not inside the code. Adding or editing a language then becomes organised work rather than screen-by-screen repair.

A quick pre-launch checklist

1. Back and forward arrows point the right way in both languages.
2. Prices and phone numbers display in the correct order on every screen.
3. No letter spacing on Arabic, and comfortable line height.
4. All interface copy and error messages reviewed in Arabic.
5. Buttons fit the longest text in both languages.
6. Phone, email and code fields are left-to-right.
7. The store listing is in Arabic with screenshots of the Arabic interface.

Next step

At Comedia we design interfaces in Arabic and English together from the first screen, not as a later translation, and we test them on real devices before and after development. Experience across more than 200 apps means we know these details before your users notice them. See our UI/UX design service and our mobile app development service, and if you are comparing agencies, read how to choose an app development company in Dubai. The first consultation is free, so get in touch and we will review your app's design.