The use of digital tools (e.g. digital laboratories) and innovative examination formats aims at improving the practical relevance and competence-orientation of engineering education. The integration of digital laboratories offers the opportunity to include more complex and practice-orientated examination tasks that are better aligned with the requirements of professional practice. Following a design-based research approach the project DigiMatLabExam is introduced. It aims to integrate digital laboratories into a course and e-exam on fundamentals on materials technology. Based on this approach, the problem and solutions known from theory as well as the state of the art are presented. First conceptual and didactic developments are introduced. Additionally, an overview of the mixed methods evaluation design is provided to examine the effects of the integration. Finally, the paper provides an outlook on further developments of the project.