Chicago Training Center Kiosk

The Power of Solar is an educational kiosk built by M1 Interactive for ComEd’s instructional facilities. The application is targeted towards school children on field trips to teach them about solar energy. There were four separate installations of this experience: ComEd’s Chicago Training Center, ComEd’s Rockford Training Center, the Shedd Aquarium, and ComEd’s Youtube Account.

The kiosk was initially created for ComEd’s Chicago Training Center (CTC) in their Smart Energy Hub exhibit space. The CTC kiosk is double-sided: each side has two monitors mounted above a sliding touchscreen on a curved rail. One side has the story for Community Solar, and the other side has the story for Private Solar. Both stories have separate tracks for Grades K-3 and Grades 4+, creating four unique stories. The application is driven by the movement of the tablet on the rail and its position relative to the monitors. The CTC kiosk was later installed at ComEd’s Rockford Training Center (RTC).

The installation content was also adapted for Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium. The Shedd installation required significant rework of the original CTC project. I had to adapt the illustrations and animations from two displays and a tablet to a single touchscreen. The Shedd kiosk only displays the Private Solar story but maintains the activities of the original CTC kiosk. The educational content was later retooled for distribution on ComEd’s Youtube Account to increase accessibility during COVID-19.

I owned creative direction over the entire project. I built this project using Unity. I wrote the software for app flow, gameplay, and sprite animations. All 2D illustrations and UI assets were created by me with Adobe Illustrator. I took an established concept and created new designs based on the approved art style. I created storyboards and the entire visual flow of the app. I designed and directed the animations, and I also integrated the voice-over audio files. I updated the software and art for subsequent installations based on their new hardware requirements.

Chicago Training Center Kiosk