Design of the Year

Encourage a new level of debate

Partnering with London's Design Museum and Microsoft, SE Studio built a digital companion for the Designs of the Year exhibition. Visitors used NFC-tap stations and Microsoft Lumia handsets to explore backstories, hear judges' opinions and contribute their own views to a real-time debate. The platform deepened engagement — particularly with younger audiences — and produced rich behavioural data on which exhibits resonated most with visitors.

Interior of a design exhibition gallery showing a long white display case filled with rows of orange-handled tools and a tablet screen, with text panels on the walls, a wheelchair exhibit on a pedestal, clocks, and visitors in the background.
Hand holding an orange Microsoft Lumia phone displaying a 2015 Designs of the Year survey asking "What do you think makes a Design of the Year?" with bar chart results: Inspires you (unlabelled %), Solves a problem 65%, Is innovative 50%, Makes life better 78%, and an additional criterion at 87%. The product category winner shown is Human Organs-on-Chips.
A Microsoft Surface tablet on a white pedestal displaying a Windows Phone image, with multiple Nokia Lumia smartphones in orange cases displayed upright in the background of a bright showroom.

The app enhanced the visitor experience and provided the Design Museum with valuable data and insights, such as identifying which exhibits guests engaged with the most and improving overall understanding of visitor satisfaction.

The experience proved popular with younger audiences, giving the future possibility of tailoring content to e.g. visiting school groups, offering a new level of personalisation.

Hand holding an orange Microsoft Lumia smartphone displaying a screen instructing users to find and tap NFC "Tap here" stands, against a blurred text background.
A hand tapping an orange NFC "Tap here" station with a smartphone, which displays an exhibition screen about the Fashion category winner Thomas Tait AW13/14, describing how designers use processes of discovery to create new methods of expression.

“We are excited that we can encourage a new level of debate with our visitors...”

— Gemma Curtin, Curator