Solar City – Web Application

SolarCity approached me to build an interactive application for their website, with the goal of educating consumers about methods of increasing home energy efficiency, with a tie-in to SolarCity’s home energy audit and upgrade services.  Due to design constraints from the design of the website, this project had to deliver in a small footprint of 700×700 pixels. The final project was a self-contained .SWF file for the web site.

I started with a 3D Sketchup model of a typical home and highlighted specific areas to call out the possible energy efficiency improvements. Using a multi-point navigation system, users can traverse the house by any of three methods: rollover “targets” on the house itself with hints; a navigation menu on the right; or take the “guided tour” using the next button under the text panels. Transitions from topic to topic are an animated “fly-up”, similar to a card shuffle. Colored hairlines and architectural-style labeling connect the area of the home to the descriptive text for clear navigation.