Visual Scale

– Accelerating the Electrification of Heavy Road Transport Through Advanced Visualization

En lastbil, datavisualiseringar, ser ut som att de står i en 3d-modell

Visual Scale was an innovation project with the aim of accelerating the electrification of heavy road transport in Sweden. By leveraging advanced visualization techniques and a collaborative design methodology, the project developed tools that give actors in the transport and energy sectors a clear picture of future energy needs and infrastructure requirements. The project was a collaboration between two of Lindholmen Science Park’s innovation programs – CLOSER and Visual Arena – and was carried out in close cooperation with leading players in transport, energy, and technology.

Visual Scale builds on insights and experiences from the previous project SCALE (Scandinavian road Logistics Electrified), which established a network of stakeholders and organizations to identify common needs and share knowledge about existing and future regulations, economic incentives, and system solutions for electrified truck transport.

Funders and key partners: Interreg Öresund-Kattegat-Skagerrak, Västra Götalandsregionen, Region Halland, Region Skåne, Region Hovedstaden, Region Nordjylland

“By visualizing decision paths in an immersive environment, curiosity is sparked – laying the foundation for understanding both challenges and opportunities.”

– Internal user test insight.

The Result: Clear Visualizations of Energy and Infrastructure Needs

The outcome is an innovative solution that visualizes data, scenarios, and decision dependencies to provide a clearer understanding and support better decisions regarding the expansion of charging infrastructure in Sweden. The visualizations identify when and where energy will be needed to support the electrification of heavy transport. This helps stakeholders in both the transport and energy sectors make well-informed decisions about future investments and adaptations.

An Interactive Prototype for Decision-Making

In collaboration with stakeholders in transport, energy, and the public sector, Visual Arena developed and tested a 2D prototype aimed at:

Simplifying complex data on electricity needs and infrastructure
Supporting collaboration between actors by visualizing how decisions influence one another
Allowing users to explore scenarios and consequences over time

The prototype was tested by 11 users from different industries and roles, including electricity grid operators, transport companies, and public sector decision-makers. Feedback from the tests was used to validate the solution’s potential and identify areas for improvement.

Insights From User Testing

Through a user-centered and iterative approach, the project generated valuable insights:

Clear overview of the current state: Users appreciated being able to view the current situation at national, regional, and local levels, and how factors like electricity and diesel prices influence scenarios.
Interactive exploration: Filtering and simulation functions enable exploration of barriers and levels of maturity among various actors, offering a new level of transparency and understanding.
Enhanced collaboration: Visualizing the dependencies between actors’ decisions promotes dialogue and strategic cooperation.

“Visualization makes complex relationships understandable and engaging, which is crucial for making smarter decisions.”

– User test participant.

The Prototype: A New Way to Understand the Present, Barriers, and Maturity in Electrifying Heavy Transport

The interaction in the prototype is structured as a dashboard where each component is a separate module. This allows the three main functions to be displayed side by side. The aim is to enable comparison between visualizations and direct interaction between the chatbot and one or more visualizations.

Current State + Decision Chain

A real-time visualization of the current state is presented on the prototype’s home page to give users a quick overview of the day’s situation. Users can view the visualization at national, regional, and local levels and explore how changes in diesel price, electricity price, or investment costs could influence the pace of change.

This conceptual sketch of the decision chain is intended to illustrate how different stakeholders’ decisions have contact points, which can generate both positive and negative consequences for others.

Data Collection

Data collection forms the foundation of the prototype’s three main functions — the barrier visualization, maturity visualization, and chatbot function.

Explore Barriers

In the Explore Barriers function, users can see a real-time summary of responses from the aforementioned survey (Function 3: Data Collection). With the help of filtering tools, users can analyze changes over time, navigate between different actors and locations. Filters allow viewing at a higher level (e.g. national or actor groupings) or drilling down to municipalities or individual stakeholders. The goal is to clearly illustrate which barriers different actors experience and how they vary across the country.

Explore Maturity

In the Explore Maturity function, users can also see a real-time summary of survey responses. With filtering tools, users can analyze progress over time, shift between actors and regions, and view responses from individual municipalities or organizations — including their own input.

The purpose is to create a clear picture of the maturity levels of different stakeholders, enabling more targeted initiatives, increased understanding, and collaborations that help drive progress.

AI Chat

The prototype also includes an AI chatbot where users can ask questions and have a dialogue based on the collected data and verified public sources. The purpose of this feature is to help users navigate complex information, understand key data points, and find the information they need.

The AI chat allows direct questions related to the Explore Barriers and Explore Maturity visualizations, helping users to deepen their understanding and experiment with combining data in new ways. It can also be used to retrieve information from trusted sources, supporting easier dissemination of insights and knowledge — something explicitly requested in the user interviews.

Exploring 3D Visualization in Unreal Engine

Parallel to the main 2D prototype, a 3D visualization was developed using the Unreal Engine game engine. The purpose was to explore the potential of using immersive and interactive environments to address complex challenges in infrastructure-related decision-making.

This parallel prototype highlights the strong potential for 3D visualizations to:

Act as an innovative tool to build deeper understanding of the consequences of different decisions
Offer interactive simulations that show how decisions affect systems over time
Encourage collaboration by providing a shared platform where actors can simulate and discuss future scenarios

Personer som arbetar framför en stor skärm

Although still in an early stage and only internally tested, results indicate that 3D visualization could significantly enhance decision support. Realizing this potential requires:

Integration of real-world data to ensure credibility and relevance
Further user testing to validate usefulness in practice
Development of features that enhance interactivity and user experience

With these stages, the 3D visualisation could become a powerful tool in relation to traditional decision support and work as an immersive platform for coordination and making the work of electrifying heavy transports more effective.

Porträtt av Martin med en grafisk bakgrund

“Visualizations give us the opportunity to understand large, complex systems and how they’re impacted by decisions. In this project, we create a picture of the system, its actors, and the consequences of their choices, promoting collaboration and better decision-making. When interests and incentives differ, we need interactive solutions that allow everyone to contribute to and influence the bigger picture.”

– Martin Högenberg, Program Manager, Visual Arena

What’s Next?

The results from Visual Scale show significant potential for visualization tools as decision support within the electrification of heavy transport. The next step is to further develop the prototype into a fully functioning MVP that can be tested in real-world settings — helping to enable more strategic and coordinated decision-making across sectors.