Building the first digital version of the world’s largest expo

World Expo 2020 had to continue a long-standing tradition of showcasing the latest technologies and innovations from around the globe. DOGSTUDIO/DEPT® had to maintain this history while creating an immersive, virtual desert hosting the 35th edition. 

Expo visitors were used to exploring the venue’s vast spaces, so the team was faced with the challenge of creating a modular experience that still enabled all 192 participating countries, pavilions, and art installations to shine in their own unique way. With Dubai as the host city, the team created a digital experience that embodied the liveliness of this location while being close to physical reality.

As with any expo, visitors are used to attending at different times of the day and joining different events. To recreate this experience in the virtual expo, the team created a daytime and nighttime mode, and had scenery and UI illuminating in the virtual desert from 18:00hrs onwards in Dubai local time. 

To create the digital replica of the Expo, the landscape, thematic pavilions, roads, flags, stations, hotels, and venue surroundings were carefully modeled from images and sources, including existing unoptimized 3D models. 

Within nine months, the team of designers built an interactive content platform integrated into a Webgl-based universe, offering 6 months’ worth of content that was adapted across desktop and mobile, some of which were uniquely and exclusively designed for the digital version of the expo to enhance the visitors’ experience.

Attendees were able to visit individual pages for all participating countries with their custom-designed pavilions. The team included relevant recommendations to maximize user engagement.

For the first time in the World Expo’s history, a global community was given access to more than 200 custom-made 3D pavilions and two parks, all housed in one exhibition centre. Our team of designers included traditional Arabic architecture and patterns, serving both as a muse and an ode to the rich heritage of the Emirates for even the simplest of elements, such as a divider or bullet point. 

Animations, custom notifications, recommendations, engaging elements and more than 30,000 events ensured that visitors had a different experience every time they entered the virtual expo during the six month event.