Momen Zakaria

As an experienced designer, Momen helps organizations build the structures, capabilities, and human-centered experiences needed to operate and grow in complexity — from establishing services, products, and business-model innovation capabilities to redesigning national-scale public services across government, telecommunications, healthcare, finance, and entertainment.

His path into design began unconventionally. Holding a BSc in Chemistry and Physics, he taught himself design before it became a profession for him — starting with Photoshop, then learning front-end development on the job at GulfSIP in Egypt as a UI Designer and Front-end Developer. That dual capability — designing and building — gave him an early edge that has shaped every role since.

In 2014, he relocated to Saudi Arabia, joining Umm Al-Qura University as a Senior UX Designer and Front-end Developer. Over five years, he delivered 20+ projects spanning government, healthcare, education, startup, and civic sectors. Notable work from this period includes a crowd management system for 17,000+ buses during Hajj, the foundational UX design of Hashtails (later rebranded as Lucidya, one of the leading social listening platforms in the Middle East), and becoming a founding design member of Ynmo — a special education management platform he has continued to shape for nearly a decade, spanning platform design, design systems, front-end architecture, and UX writing.

In 2019, he moved into consultancy at HUED, a pioneer in innovation and service design, where the focus shifted from craft to service design and design research. As Manager, User Experience and Design Research, he led 16 major projects for Saudi government entities and enterprises. Flagship engagements include a comprehensive employee intranet for a governmental entity and a 26-KPI executive dashboard for a leading GCC telecom operator. He also established HUED Digital — the firm's design-to-implementation arm — and led business development across 25+ entities.

He joined PwC Middle East in January 2022 as Manager, Experience Consulting, where his work operates at the systems level — building the organizational and operational infrastructure through which innovation and experience happen. PwC-era engagements include refreshing the strategy and operating model of a government innovation center of excellence, establishing product management and innovation departments from the ground up, designing enhanced customer journeys for major telecoms, and leading a workstream producing proof-of-concept experiences for multiple government entities in both Saudi Arabia and Qatar. In 2023, he led Riyadh GovJam — bringing together 120 participants to tackle 20+ government challenges through design thinking and service design — and in 2025, he did the same for Qatar GovJam.

In parallel with his practice, Momen is a committed educator and community builder. He has mentored 600+ designers across 12 countries, created the first Arabic-language UX Writing course, and reached 3,000+ learners through programs on almentor.net and HUED Academy. He organized the local Saudi event for World Information Architecture Day 2021 and served as a Career Counseling Specialist at Udacity and as Executive Director of Media at various NGOs.

He is currently pursuing a Master of Design in Strategic Foresight and Innovation (SFI) at OCAD University — driven by a purpose to bridge innovative methodologies and strategic foresight, acting as a catalyst for transformative change. His research centers on integrating systems thinking and system design to transform public services and policies.