The Housing Development Board (HDB) Branch Office experience needed to be updated for a new generation of HDB homeowners. OXD were tasked to create an experience that would be both memorable and positive for staff and customers of the branch in Punggol.

Before we could start designing a new experience, we had to develop a fuller grasp of the context. This went beyond the usual and obvious spatial requirements and included a deeper understanding of why people went to the Branch Office and how they went about their business. The OXD team conducted customer profiling sessions and on-site observation research.

Three sets of discovery journeys were made during the course of this project: discovering staff needs and challenges; discovering customer needs, and discovering the shortcomings of the designed elements of the environment in which staff-customer interactions take place. Through intense workshop sessions, the staff arrived at a tagline: Taking care of you, your family, your home, for life. A customer-centric approach was then applied in assembling the final design.

The new Branch Office uses materials and lighting to inject warmth and comfort, with clear and well-designed signage adding to the positive experience. A Host attends to customers as they arrive. There are info-graphics walls and panels to engage users as they wait their turn. Officers or Aides attend to customers face-to-face at counters that enable easy interactions while affording a degree of privacy. The HDB won the international FutureGov Awards 2014 (Service Innovation) for creating a new and improved customer experience at its Punggol Branch Office. The award is an international benchmark for public sector innovation.