House of Wisdom

Digital Business X (DBX)

Hassantuk

House of Wisdom

Malaffi

THE VISION: HOUSE OF WISDOM

In 2019, Sharjah was named UNESCO World Book Capital. To celebrate this great achievement, and to solidify Sharjah’s standing as the cultural capital of the UAE, it was decided to build a new flagship destination, a library, designed by the prestigious architecture firm Foster + Partners. The name chosen for the library epitomizes its mission: House of Wisdom.

Shurooq, the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority, reached out to Injazat, its strategic Technology partner, to help bring their bold vision for House of Wisdom to life, utilizing digital transformation to raise the space from a conventional library into a unique “Phygital” cultural destination.

THE CHALLENGE: A PHYGITAL EXPERIENCE

House of Wisdom was conceived as a space that would bring people from both Sharjah and the rest of the world, together, acting as a bridge between past and future, between local and global, and blending physical and digital experiences to share knowledge in a new way. A set of phygital experiences that embrace a fast-changing world, empower people, and encourage seamless interactions between human and digital.

To bring this vision to life, Injazat designed a one-of-a-kind user experience, where digital and physical are synergically integrated via multiple pillars: The Touchpoints, the Spaces, and the Digital Platform.

Touchpoints

Interactive stations, totems and OLED screens are dotted around the library, enabling visitors to find relevant information, and autonomously search, reserve, and return books. The interactive stations and the totems function via technology such as touchscreens, RFID tag readers and QR codes. Visitors may interact with robots equipped with facial recognition technology throughout the building, providing information, and offering guided tours of the library. The website and app make it easy for visitors to reserve books, Pods, event tickets and Al Jazri Lab equipment as well as providing access to the HOW smart parking service in complete autonomy.

Spaces

The library spaces are designed to respond to all the different needs of its visitors. The Kids’ Area includes a reading room, children’s tables, interactive games and a FabLab area for courses and various activities. Thanks to a tracking wristband, parents can also geolocate their kids around the building.

Several Pods are available for meetings, courses, and lessons: visitors can reserve the Pods and customize the lighting and temperature via an app thanks to NFC technology.

The FabLab is equipped with six 3D printers, a laser cutter, a Roland vinyl/circuit cutter, and a milling machine. An interactive touch wall allows users to communicate with other classes during lessons or courses.

The Exhibition Area and Auditorium are equipped to feature art shows, events, and conferences.

Digital Platform

All of House of Wisdom's services and features are made possible thanks to the bespoke, customized Digital Platform provided by Injazat: a multi-layered, transparent structure of the middleware, supporting Master Data Management, Process Monitoring, Identity Management, API Gateway and Service Orchestration. This Platform also manages the back end and Core Library systems: Support, Customer Experience, Content Management and Building Management.

Injazat: A One-Stop Shop and Global Orchestrator

As part of a long-term partnership with Shurooq, Injazat was given end-to-end responsibility for this project: from ideation to solutioning, implementation, and ongoing support of House of Wisdom’s Phygital experiences and digital platform.

In January 2020, following several months of ideation and design through the adoption of Design Thinking methodology and techniques, Injazat kicked off the implementation phase of the program by launching 6 streams and 17 sub-streams:

Our Secret: InGenius

Through Injazat’s Digital Business X (DBX) Division, we developed InGenius, a unique methodology that combines Design Thinking, Lean, and Agile principles to unlock the innovative potential of our clients and deliver the best results and solution to a problem.

InGenius develops across three phases, which were applied to the House of Wisdom case.

Exploring & Sharing

The in-depth analysis of the needs of Shurooq stakeholders and customers led us to the design of customer journeys tailored to specific user profiles (“personas”) which allowed us to ideate and design phygital experiences fulfilling the visitor’s needs and expectations at different points of their journey, before, during and after the visit to House of Wisdom.

Creating & Testing

Prototyping and breaking down HOW’s detailed service architecture enabled us to validate initial hypothesis and gather key findings to better plan our subsequent steps.

Implementing & Launching

To successfully launch the project, Injazat augmented its own capabilities with those of several international ecosystem partners and vendors with the skills, experience and also ambition to deploy the large number of emerging technologies and innovative infra/systems conceived for House of Wisdom.

In fact, one of the key factors behind the success of House of Wisdom has been the mobilization of a multidisciplinary, multiskilled, international team able to apply a learning-by-doing approach together with a human-centered perspective on innovation, ruthlessly focused on opportunities instead of problems. Leveraging Injazat’s Agile Factory framework, the team was also able to effectively engage several start-ups and take full advantage of their knowledge base and innovative solutions.

A Vision: Come True

The House of Wisdom project began as a mirage. A beautiful dream of knowledge and encounter, the heritage of a glorious past as the basis for an exciting future together.

The House of Wisdom vision has now become a reality thanks to all the people who played a part in bringing it to life: Sharjah leadership, Shurooq, Injazat and its ecosystem of valuable partners.

HOUSE OF WISDOM

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER

HOUSE OF
WISDOM