Pip's Trail

Welcome to ‘The Durian’
The Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay is Singapore’s national performing arts centre. Affectionately nicknamed ‘The Durian’, the Esplanade is more than an arts venue. The indoor and outdoor spaces are a favourite with families and school children.

Enhancing Outreach
HOL was engaged by The Esplanade to enhance its outreach programmes. Previously, when large groups of school children wanted to visit, the Esplanade would engage a large number of trained guides to lead the tours. If trained guides were not available, some groups would have to be turned away. Meanwhile, families with young children faced difficulties joining fixed-time programmes, so they explored the venue without a guide.

A Story-full Trail
Through a rigorous problem-solving process, HOL’s team determined that the most cost-effective, flexible, labour-efficient, and experiential way to enhance the Esplanade’s outreach programmes was to create a digital trail.

HOL also proposed a storytelling approach that aimed to provide visitors with the right mindset to explore. We added a quest to delight the young ones and ensure they enjoy a ‘complete’ trail experience. We designed mini-games for each station to allow visitors to immerse in the fun and learning.

Fun, Experiential and Intuitive
The games included a simple jigsaw puzzle, a word game, as well as a ‘piano’ game that gave visitors a 360-degree view of the Esplanade’s concert hall. To explain how the Esplanade maintains the cleanliness of its unique ‘spikey’ roof, we also created an amusing bird poop game. We also designed a simple quiz that incorporated AR. Visitors could customise selfies taken at the venue with stickers before sharing them on social media.
Visitors could access the digital trail in their own time and at their own pace. It was intuitive and easy to use, which made it suitable even for less tech-savvy users e.g., senior citizens. We kept the information simple but engaging for a wide demographic.
The digital trail was very welcomed by families and children and our client extended the programme from one month to one year.