Update – Designing the world’s first digital genomic garden to raise awareness of biodiversity medicine

THE CLIENT

SingHealth Duke-NUS Institute of Biodiversity Medicine (BD-MED)

WHAT WE DID

Stakeholder consultation & engagement
Audience research & engagement
Storytelling & strategy
Experience design & implementation

Experience and digital engagement strategy for the Singapore General Hospital Bicentennial Genomic Garden

The SingHealth Duke-NUS Institute of Biodiversity Medicine (BD-MED) studies the genetic, nutritional, and medicinal potential of local and regional plants. Its research seeks to translate biodiversity into applications that support human health, food resilience, and environmental sustainability.

Many of the plants studied by BD-MED grow in the SGH Bicentennial Genomic Garden at Singapore General Hospital.

BD-MED partnered with HOL to design the garden’s digital trail, creating an intuitive and personally relevant way for visitors to engage with the science behind the plants around them.

Through interest-led routes, sensory interactions and layered content, the experience encourages visitors to look more closely at familiar plants and consider them in new ways.

IMPACT

Increase in Core Research Acceleration

0 %

Published

in Cell Genomics as a Model for the Scientific Community

Featured

by the Asian Development Bank as a Key Technology Innovation

First launched in April 2024, the digital experience was featured by the Southeast Asia Development Solutions platform as an inspiring technology innovation that could help regional countries address sustainability challenges.

An enhanced Version 2.0 followed in May 2026, introducing a more personalised journey for visitors to explore the garden’s plants and their potential benefits for human health and well-being.

SUMMARY

The possibilities of nature’s gifts

Nature offers abundant therapeutic benefits, but most people are unaware of them. The virtual experience helps users recognise the potential of nature’s gifts to humanity, leading to a greater appreciation for biodiversity and environmental sustainability.

ABOUT THE CLIENT

SingHealth Duke-NUS Institute of Biodiversity Medicine (BD-MED)

BD-MED is a joint initiative by Singapore Health Service and Duke-NUS Medical School. It aims to accelerate biodiversity research to promote human health and wellness. Its three signature programmes are herbal biodiversity and medicine, food biodiversity and nutrition, and urban biodiversity and wellness.

Challenge

Closing the gap between users and scientific facts

On the one hand, BD-MED researchers were enthusiastic about sharing their scientific knowledge and discoveries with users.

On the other hand, we recognised that humans default to behaviours that would minimise cognitive demands. In a setting like a garden where users are taking a breather from the daily grind, they are an uncommitted audience.

The knowledge should be presented in interesting and relatable ways so that users would be willing to engage with it intuitively without too much effort. How could we strike a balance between hard scientific facts and accessible content?

INSIGHTS AND STRATEGY

One Experience, Two Purposes

Visitors are more likely to engage with complex content when they first understand why it matters to them.

The digital experience therefore leads with wellness, framing each plant through its potential contribution to human health and well-being. Familiar entry points such as scent, flavour, and everyday use help visitors recognise why the research matters before they encounter its deeper scientific context.

At the same time, the trail was designed as a dual-purpose platform for BD-MED. Layered plant content, genomic data, and scientific references preserve the depth needed for guided demonstrations with partners, collaborators and invited guests.

By combining an approachable public journey with credible research detail, the same experience could spark curiosity about the plants while building confidence in the institute behind them.

Solution

The right content at the right moment

Sensory discovery before scientific depth

A personalised, interest-led journey

We first examined how much information visitors could comfortably process while moving through an outdoor garden.

Scientific content was then organised into progressive layers. Each plant begins with a light sensory or interactive introduction, followed by its fuller cultural and scientific significance. More detailed genomic data and scientific references remain available for visitors seeking greater depth.

This layered structure also allows BD-MED to adapt the same experience for guided visits, moving easily from accessible public content into more detailed research for partners, collaborators and invited guests.

We tested how users moved between these layers and refined the journey around real visitor behaviour.

The result preserves the rigour of BD-MED’s research while giving casual visitors a clearer and more approachable way in.

Scientific information alone can feel demanding in an outdoor setting. The digital trail therefore gives visitors an immediate reason to pause before introducing more detailed content.

Each plant begins with a sensory or interactive prompt inspired by its distinctive qualities. Visitors might be invited to connect its aroma with a familiar local dish, look more closely at its unique flowers, or gently rub its leaves to release a stronger scent.

By drawing attention back to the plant itself, these interactions create a meaningful bridge between the digital screen and the living specimen in front of the visitor. They also give BD-MED a more engaging way to introduce its research during guided demonstrations, grounding complex science in something visitors can directly observe.

The experience begins with an introduction from the lead scientist behind the garden, giving visitors a human and credible entry into BD-MED’s work.

They can then choose from three themed trails based on their interests: Director’s Favourites, Aromatic Remedies, or Culinary Flavours. Each offers a distinct way into the garden while connecting the plants back to their potential for human health and well-being.

Visitors can begin with any plant on their selected route and complete the six stops in any order. At the end, they receive a personalised Wellness Profile shaped by their journey, with the option to explore more plants and further develop their results.

For guided visits, the same flexible structure allows BD-MED to shape the journey around the interests of different stakeholder groups while keeping the experience consistent within one platform.

I was impressed by how Angeline, Terence, and the creative team at HOL went beyond the specifications outlined in our initial work brief to develop a solution for our project. With their strong understanding of effective UX and expertise in creating memorable visitor experiences, HOL designed interactive games to make the ‘hard science’ of our research more accessible for a general audience. In addition, the shareability of the experience allowed us to expand the reach of our project. Good job to the HOL team!