Helping energy innovators power ahead

Annex worked with AER to name, brand, design and build the Energy Innovation Toolkit website.

The Energy Innovation Toolkit is a service offered by the Australian Government to help launch new energy business ideas into the market. It helps energy innovators orient themselves in the complex energy market, understand energy regulations and which energy sector stakeholders need to be contacted. Innovations are supported to become reality through proof-of-concept trials, which provide relief from regulatory barriers.

‍

Energy Innovators were finding it hard to understand complex regulations relevant to entering the Australian energy market with their new ideas, and didn’t know which government entity to turn to for clarification.

AER came to Annex with an idea to build a 'first stop shop' for Energy Innovators to see the licensing, authorisation, and registration requirements that apply to their business model, and for directions to further information. We partnered with AER to help them better understand the problem to be solved, then name, brand, design and deliver a website that would meet the needs of Energy Innovators.

‍

The website is key to the promise of providing a clear path into the energy market, with helpful and targeted information backed by the expertise and independence of the AER and government partners. The information architecture, content, and visual design are balanced to suit the needs of those that understand energy regulation well, and those that don't

Informed by the insights gained from Discovery, the team developed an Information Architecture (IA) and supporting navigational structure that makes it easy for Energy Innovators to find relevant information and tools they need to achieve their goals. We designed a consistent structure and set of components that took into consideration requirements for both the first release and future state content.

‍

‍

We built a tool that helps Energy Innovators orient themselves in the complex Australian energy market. It’s a complex conditional form that our team built within Drupal, based on supplied inputs, that makes it easy to see which energy regulations may apply to a project or innovation idea. The tool is an essential part of the service, which our development team made incredibly easy for website administrators to manage the complex logic behind the scenes.

‍

To support the strategy of making energy innovation easier, the brand is deliberately restrained and to the point. From the logo to the graphic elements, the tone is informative, approachable and modern – every choice is focused on providing access to clear and understandable information.

The gradient provides the brand with vibrancy and is given maximum impact by pairing it with simple white space. A clear tone of voice makes the brand feel helpful and trustworthy, with impactful illustrations inspired by diagrams and schematics of early stage ideas, that add a contemporary feeling to the brand both on and offline. The custom illustrations and icons that help engage energy innovators and effectively communicate the often complex information about entering the energy market in Australia.

‍