BC Hydro’s community marketing team wanted a way to help educate British Columbians on the great engineering feats that are the hydro-electric dams here in British Columbia. Producing clean and renewable energy, these great dams have built economies in small towns throughout the province, and helped the province become a world-class leader in sustainable energy.

“We tasked Kumu with the challenge of helping us educate the wide variety of audiences that are our guests at BC Hydro’s Visitor Centres,” said Kiran Judge of BC Hydro. “International visitors, local tourists, school groups all visit our centres with different preferred ways of learning and experiencing the centres. We wanted to ensure that regional, historical information on each dam, the science behind clean, renewable hydro-generation, and the importance of sustainability were all themes that were covered. Kumu Agency rose to the challenge and delivered an application that will be widely used not only in our Visitor Centres but will also have application in other areas of our organization. The application they’ve created is intriguing, educational, relevant and therefore remarkable for all audiences.”

Kumu built a iPad app that will be installed within the Visitor’s Centres of the WAC Bennett, Stave Falls and Revelstoke dams in British Columbia. This powerful app tells a narrative divided into three sections: the history, how energy works and energy today and in the future. The history of the dams content showcases a wonderful selection of archival footage dating back to the early 1800s, showing brave men and women who took great risks to build the dams and lay transmission towers throughout the province. A beautifully illustrated schematic of a dam shows how energy is created starting from the first drop of water, all the way through the pen-stocks, turbines and generator and out to the transmission wires, sending our energy throughout the province. Today and the future speaks to how new technology is making our energy more sustainable, efficient and more importantly, giving back to consumers the ability to control their own energy usage.

The app uses Parallax technology, which we believe is a first. Like Da Vinci’s perspective studies, four to five different levels of landscape move in perspective as you navigate throughout the scene. Touch interactions like a moving brown bear, a hooting owl, and a screeching eagle, allow little “easter egg” discoveries for the viewers learning in the Visitor’s Centre environment.

Kumu developed the concept, and was responsible for the illustration, design, user experience and technology development.