Seattle Clean Energy
Network mapping
Why?
Seattle’s Office of Economic Development saw a problem of silos in Seattle’s clean energy ecosystem. This map was an exploration of systems and network mapping as a solution.
What is it?
This map is a data visualization tool which aims to:
- Support local clean energy entrepreneurship
- Visualize relationships between clean energy resource providers (e.g., funding, policies, accelerators)
- Collaboratively share clean energy stories of initiatives, programs, and organizations
How does it work?
This Kumu map is populated by a survey which was co-designed with organizations using the map.
Services
- UX Research
- Interviews
- Mapping facilitation
- Digital mapping
Relationship view (Best viewed on latest desktop browsers)
Geographic view (Best viewed on latest desktop browsers)
Prototypes and hypotheses
An initial prototype was built and used to interview stakeholders. From the interviews we learned, our initial hypothesis of Siloing being a problem and a map being a solution was partially correct. The key insight was stakeholders in clean energy wanted to be part of the mapping process.
Collaborative mapping & survey design
We held a series of events with stakeholders (Washington State, City of Seattle, Clean Tech Alliance, CoMotion at UW and the Northwest Energy Efficiency Council, and others) and did mapping events where stakeholders got to design the map, survey and data points.
Insights
We learned that maps were best created by the people who will use them, otherwise complexity was too great to overcome. When users of a map were part of the process, they have more investment and understanding of why the map is created the way it was.