Electricity Value Network

 Art Direction, UX, Design

The Energy Industry must undergo a massive digital transformation to survive. But how will an analog industrial business that has mostly gone unchanged for nearly a century learn to embrace digital?

The Goal

GE is at the forefront of this revolution. As the world's first and only Digital Industrial company, GE is guiding customers through the transformation, enabling them to thrive in the modern global economy as viable digital businesses. But in order to tell their story, they need to explain the value of going digital to an industry that can be stuck in the past. 

GE approached First Person to design an experience for the Exelon Spring Innovation Expo that visualized the Electricity Value Network, and how every industry is enhanced by technology, as well as connected to each other.
 

The Result

To highlight how machines are seamlessly integrated with technology, First Person designed several live experiences marrying physical scale models with interactive augmented reality technology. The experience captivates customers by teaching them the value of GE’s offerings using industry themes and use cases relevant to the customers interests.

The model was received so well that Christopher Crane, CEO of Exelon took time to enjoy the experience. It was so successful at explaining complex engineering stories that GE asked to expand on the experience, customize it for more shows across the world, as well as turn it into a stand-alone application.

At trade shows there have been hundreds of interactions with the Electricity Value Network model and games. First Person Interactive models have traveled to 14 countries, been translated into 6 languages, and helped increase software and service sales by 100% in 2016.

I've worked on a number of GE projects, learning about the industry, and translating their complex engineering accomplishments into visual design that tells a digital story. From Keynotes, to show-floor interactive experiences, I've spent years diving deep into GE's digital transformation. My role was to work closely with internal GE teams to understand what information needed to exist on screen. I spent dozens of of hours interviewing GE employees about each industry and revising wireframes to make sure visualization and stories were accurate. 

I first created the flow for each industry, outline how we would get from an

attract loop to each  individual story. The Physical model was divided into four equal wedges, and each accompanying monitor housed two stories for a specific industry. In the center of our 3D model was Transmission & Distribution, which didn’t have a monitor on our pie-wedge setup, so it had to be accessible from all screens. 

I was in charge of directing another UX designer, and we worked together to translate industry information into visual cues, data visualization, and story-flow that would later be turned into animations that integrated with augmented reality cameras as overlays on top of our physical model. 

After finalizing wireframes, I worked with our art director to turn some of our 2D imagery and data visualization elements into beautiful designs. I personally was in charge of owning the process for several stories, and helped art direct motion graphics and 3D designers on animation cues and design, as well as making sure the narrative was correctly rendered. 

I worked closely with the development team to plan out each button click, and to guide them in how the flow of the app would come together. During install, we realized our ground monitor designs were slightly off, so I was tasked with correcting the design. I also helped test our experience throughout, and problem solved when changes were made to our story flow to accommodate new or changing information.