The Challenge
Power plants are complex, highly technical facilities. To make an informed decision about which location should be used, stakeholders needed an understanding of how these plants function and how the different locations will affect the capabilities of the plant.
The platform needed to present this information in a way that was fast, engaging, and accessible to non-technical audiences such as city planners and government officials, while still offering sufficient depth for engineers and other technical stakeholders.
Our Solution
We adopted a modular, tactile approach that allowed users to explore scenarios, compare options, and gradually build a layered understanding of the project.
The Block Zero Presentation Engine™ , a highly customizable platform that has built in support for combining physical and digital spaces, was used to create an interactive map. Users could place physical tokens representing power-plant features directly onto the map.
Feature tokens included:
- Waste-to-energy burner
- Carbon capture system
- Carbon storage
- Additional infrastructure (road upgrades, new bridges)
When a token was placed on a potential site, the system presented tailored information explaining how that specific feature would be affected by the chosen location. This turned abstract data into something tangible, visual, and easy to understand.
The presentation table has become a valuable tool in onboarding new engineers to the project.
How We Got There
To arrive at the right solution, Block Zero conducted a deep dive into E.ON's core communication challenges. The primary issue was information overload. Users were often presented with too much detail at once, making it difficult to extract what mattered.
Our response was to embrace progressive disclosure. Instead of presenting everything upfront, we hid most details behind user interactions. This allowed people to access only the information relevant to them, exploring the map at their own pace and uncovering deeper insights when needed.
Outcomes
The platform proved so effective at presenting complex information simply and intuitively that we were asked to expand the solution to include a desktop-friendly version. This adaptation enabled E.ON teams to clearly communicate about the project remotely by sending their clients a link, allowing clients to explore the map independently.
