DIGITAL & STRATEGIC
UX DESIGN PRACTICE
DIGITAL PRODUCT
Exploring the use of concrete in the design of Wave Energy Converters
How might we make Arup’s specialist knowledge available to allow developers to make a stronger business case for concrete Wave Energy Converters (WECs)?
After being commissioned by Wave Energy Scotland to conduct research into the use of concrete for Wave Energy Converters (WECs), Arup was tasked with finding the most suitable way to share this knowledge with developers and engineers.
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Arup developed Convex (Concrete Viability Explorer), a digital tool that allows developers to explore the use and viability of concrete WECs. The viability of floating concrete devices is assessed by asking users to enter their design parameters before calculating the technical feasibility, cost, and carbon impact of using concrete versus more traditional materials like steel.
Convex makes Arup’s specialist knowledge available to WEC developers in an intuitive and interactive way. The tool helps them build stronger business cases for the use and adoption of concrete WECs. Since its launch, over 500 users have accessed the tool.
“I see [Convex] as an educational tool on state-of-the-art use of concrete”
- AWS Ocean Energy
Wave Energy Scotland commissioned Arup to lead on the Concrete as a Technology Enabler (CREATE) project. The project aimed to demonstrate the potential of concrete to enable cost reduction in Wave Energy Converters (WECs). Stage 3 of the project included the development of a digital tool for use by the WEC sector to explore the viability of using concrete in buoyant WEC designs.
As part of a multidisciplinary team, UX designers worked with engineers and software developers to research and design the tool. The team was led through discovery activities based on a UX approach to understand the current WEC developer workflow, focusing on how and when they choose materials. The challenge was to structure the tool in a way that gave WEC developers a solid starting point for considering concrete early in the design process.
The team interviewed potential users, gathered user needs and synthesised findings into a report as well as created user journeys and information architectures to gain a better understanding of the structure of the tool. Based on these insights, low and high-fidelity wireframes were prototyped and tested with users using an iterative process which allowed for the refinement of the interface.
Explore Convex here