Revitalising a Cultural Precinct Through Digital Engagement

THE CLIENT

National Heritage Board

WHAT WE DID

Stakeholder consultation & engagement
Community research & engagement
Placemaking & cultural tourism strategy
Experience & interpretive design
Implementation & data collection

Bras Basah Bugis Precinct Digital Map Experience

The National Heritage Board (NHB) plays a key role in preserving and celebrating Singapore’s heritage. As the place manager of the Bras Basah Bugis (BBB) precinct, NHB nurtures a vibrant district known as Singapore’s arts, heritage, and design hub. BBB is a unique blend of historical charm and modern creativity, attracting both locals and tourists with its dynamic mix of cultural institutions, art schools, and lifestyle destinations.

Following the pandemic, NHB sought to reinvigorate the BBB precinct, encouraging visitors to return and rediscover its eclectic mix of arts and culture. To achieve this, NHB collaborated with HOL to create a digital map—a mobile-centric, self-guided tool designed to highlight the precinct’s attractions and provide an engaging and seamless experience for visitors.

SUMMARY

Vitalising placemaking and place management

By prioritising user experience, we created a useful, engaging, and attractive digital map that welcomed Singaporeans and tourists back to the BBB precinct. Today, it continues to play an important part in NHB’s placemaking and place management initiatives for BBB

ABOUT THE CLIENT

National Heritage Board

As custodian of Singapore’s heritage, the National Heritage Board (NHB) aims to preserve and celebrate the shared heritage of diverse communities in Singapore.

CHALLENGE

Helping visitors reimagine and re-engage with the BBB precinct after the pandemic

With museums, attractions, and venues within walking distance of each other, the BBB precinct is an entertaining and enriching venue for families and groups who want to immerse in various arts and cultural activities. However, regular patrons and tourists had to stay away from the area during the pandemic. When restrictions were lifted, NHB wanted to bring Singaporeans and tourists back to enjoy the offerings at the arts centres and public spaces in the BBB precinct. The goal was to introduce BBB to new visitors and enable regular patrons to experience the charms of the area afresh. How could we help visitors reimagine the venues and engage with the BBB precinct once more?

INSIGHTS AND STRATEGY

Excitement before arrival

The BBB precinct has much to offer and there is something for everyone – children, youths, young adults, families, and tourists. Most of all, it is a haven for arts aficionados and those who want to learn more about the arts. To serve a wide range of users, we had to ensure that the map would be so accessible that even non-tech-savvy users would find it comfortable and easy to use.

Most visitors plan ahead before they visit the BBB precinct, or at the very least, they would prefer to have an idea of where they can go and what they might see. Therefore, they would appreciate having a practical, easy-to-use navigational tool to help them plan their visit ahead of time. This tool would also help to create a sense of anticipation and excite visitors even before they step foot in the precinct. Our goal was to provide a useful and aesthetically pleasing experience that befits the reputation and personality of the precinct.

Solution

A winning aesthetic

Focused on accuracy

Designing for ease of use

Bras Basah Bugis Precinct Digital Map Experience

We studied the types of digital maps that were available and found that they were simply tools that helped people to get from one place to another. The markers were purely functional, and their designs leaned heavily towards basic geometric shapes, pared-down symbols, and ubiquitous pin drops.

For the BBB precinct digital map, we did away with simple markers and instead created illustrated icons that bore close semblance to the real-life buildings. These icons were designed to evoke the precinct’s distinctive historical character and timeless quality.

However, the goal was not simply to create better looking visuals. By creating visuals that were aesthetically appealing, we wanted the locations to be more inviting and put visitors in the right frame of mind to explore. The main objective of the design aesthetic was to engage users and reduce bounce rates.

Our map for BBB is unlike artistically driven maps that emphasise style over accuracy. For the digital map to be a functional guiding tool, our users need to be able to rely on its content. So, we took extra care to represent roads and landmarks correctly and place the markers accurately on the map. This ensured that users can thus plan their routes easily. They would be able to explore the precinct with the digital map on their mobiles without confusion.

Once they enter the mobile site, users would be prompted to select an icon. Each attraction in the BBB precinct was represented with an illustrated icon to make the map visually appealing. We also designed micro-interactions in the form of a pulsating animation effect for each icon to guide users to make a selection and begin their journeys at BBB.