Advancing Global Health Through Immersive Storytelling

THE CLIENT

National Centre for Infectious Diseases

WHAT WE DID

Stakeholder consultation & engagement
Audience research & engagement
Storytelling & strategy
Experience & interpretive design
Implementation & data collection

The NCID Phygital Gallery

The National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) plays a crucial role in the global fight against infectious diseases, driving critical efforts in prevention, management, and research. NCID’s work is not only vital for safeguarding Singapore but also for strengthening global health security against emerging threats. In an effort to capture its global impact and foster deeper connections with both staff and visitors, NCID envisioned a gallery that would transcend traditional displays.

HOL partnered with NCID to bring this vision to life, creating an engaging gallery that would serve as a dynamic space for exploration and connection. The goal was to craft an experience that would resonate with visitors, showcasing NCID’s pivotal role in global health, while also enhancing the pride and commitment of its dedicated staff.

IMPACT

Visitors attended the virtual experience within the first 3 months

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Engaging

Visitor Experience

Staff Morale

Boost

The NCID Gallery was thoughtfully designed to be an interactive and immersive space that showcases NCID’s critical contributions to global health. Through the creative integration of phygital elements—blending physical and digital experiences—the gallery reinforces NCID’s reputation as a forward-thinking institution, allowing visitors to engage with its history, achievements, and ongoing efforts in a compelling way. The gallery serves not only as an educational tool for visitors but also as a source of pride for the staff, reinforcing their connection to NCID’s mission, especially during the challenging COVID-19 pandemic. This gallery has set a new standard for visitor engagement in healthcare institutions and underscored NCID’s pivotal role in the global fight against infectious diseases.

SUMMARY

Inspiring and engaging space

The gallery was subsequently noticed by the mainstream media and the ground-breaking experience was featured in The Straits Times, The Business Times, Channel 8 News and Channel News Asia.

ABOUT THE CLIENT

National Centre for Infectious Diseases

The National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) is a national institution making waves in global healthcare. To create greater awareness of the NCID and what it does, we created a brand experience in an elegant gallery space to showcase its rich history and the important role it plays in protecting Singapore from infectious diseases.

CHALLENGE

No-touch interactivity

The corridors and galleries at Singapore hospitals are often adorned with flat vinyl stickers, featuring content-heavy graphics that communicate the hospital’s history and achievements. These static displays come across as old-fashioned and boring and are not effective in capturing eyeballs and engaging intended audiences. Although NCID wanted greater interactivity in the new space, it was highly concerned about the possibility of infection in the gallery. This limited all interactivity options enabled by touch. How could we create an immersive, engaging experience for all?

Solution

A gamified phygital experience

Emotionally resonant storytelling

Incorporating an elegant design in a functional public space

We evaluated the requirements for a no-touch, gamified phygital experience, so that we could address NCID’s concerns about potential infections in the space. The NCID Experience drove higher audience engagement with gamified augmented reality (AR) experiences that visitors could easily access from their personal mobile phones.

In most organisations, there are few opportunities for the general public or even staff to have face-to-face interactions with the CEO or a senior doctor. However, these leaders play an important role in defining the hospital’s brand identity. We thought it would be important to give visitors an opportunity to enjoy emotional, human-centred connections with NCID through its key leadership personnel.

Another idea we had was to allow visitors to enjoy a more personal experience of the history of NCID. Some of the activations we designed included the colourisation of an old black-and-white photograph that visitors could engage with through gamification. We created an informative ‘chat’ to engage visitors in the digital storytelling. We used a Q&A format that featured a historical figure replying in his real voice. Finally, we created interactive 3D models of viruses and bacteria and the NCID Building (in the form of a hologram) that visitors could rotate and explore.

NCID wanted an inspiring design that would be aesthetically pleasing and functional at the same time. We conceptualised a walking experience out of a long corridor in the gallery space and blended the design harmoniously with the building’s existing features. In the process, we ensured that wheelchair and hospital bed access would not be disrupted.

“The HOL team spared no effort in researching past records to creatively tell the story of our humble beginnings. A no-touch but still immersive experience was important for us. The team took in our requirements, strategised and executed the augmented reality interactives beautifully.”