Panels, videos, data visualizations and a tablet app to explain the connection between the “food culture” and the “energy culture” at Enel Pavilion at Expo. A journey to understand how Enel learns from nature to keep “Growing Smart Energy”.

I was the UX designer for this pavilion: working on the storytelling for the visitor experience, the combination of different media and contents and all the interactions available in the pavilion.

Find the right metaphor to explain why an energy company is at Expo Food District

We had a hard time trying to find the right storytelling for the whole visiting experience at the Enel’s Pavillion. First we tried to compare energy and food calories, but I preferred to put the numbers aside and to develop a concept based on Enel’s values and a simple metaphor.

It’s not a coincidence that “cultivate” and “culture” share the same linguistic root and with the invention of the Smart Meter and the Smart Grid, Enel became the leader of a new “energy culture”. Thus to develop such an innovative energetic system is like growing a fruit tree: planting the seed of innovation, growing the infrastructure tree, sharing the fruits.

The metaphor was essential to tie together multiple contents on multiple media, in order to create a unique, remarkable story with multiple voices.

The "control room" at the centre of the pavilion was composed by two huge screens: the vertical screen was hosting the data viz, while the horizontal one was showing a contextual content. 

All around the screens a kinetic installation was creating a choreography following the animation of the data visualisation.

For the Acquario di Genova I collaborated in the design of an interactive installation to visualise how dolphins were moving along the coast.

Using a projector and a simple panel to interact with the data viz, we decided not to use a flat surface but to enhance the geography using multiple layers, recreating a 3dimensional effect.

At the Hotpoint Innovation Area at Salone del Mobile the visitors can have a look and directly experience the kitchen of the future.

For the Hotpoint Innovation area I worked with the creative team to design different experiences with Hotpoint kitchen series.

I also designed the UX of the digital touchpoints: for the tablet and the interactive table.