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NDA — shown with discretion. Brand elements blurred or omitted. Delivered as subsidiary contractor in collaboration with Feature Works / P3 Group.
Case Study · 2022
Terabase · Solar Energy · Web Platform

Lighthouse
Platform

A spatial asset intelligence platform for solar construction — live site graph, component-level tracking, connection mapping, and multi-project progress monitoring for EPC teams managing GW-scale builds.

Role
Design Lead
Duration
9 Months
Platform
Web · Desktop
Industry
Solar Energy
Deliverables
Stakeholder Research · Graph IA · Full UI System · Interaction Prototype · Dev Handoff
GW+
Portfolio capacity tracked
6
Screen types across platform
4
User roles in one IA
01 — The Problem

Solar farms are complex graphs, not spreadsheets

As Terabase's QC Inspector matured, a deeper problem emerged: EPC teams had no spatial understanding of their site's health. They could log observations, but couldn't see how components connected, where progress was stalling, or how one delayed string affected an entire block.

Lighthouse was the answer — a graph-native web platform that treats a solar farm as what it actually is: a network of trackers, strings, combiners, and inverters, all spatially arranged and temporally progressing through construction milestones.

01
No spatial visibility
Project managers couldn't see the physical layout of their site in one view — they worked from spreadsheets that had no concept of spatial adjacency or component hierarchy.
02
Graph complexity
A single utility-scale farm contains thousands of nodes — trackers, strings, combiners, inverters, transformers — each with directional connections that must be visualised without overwhelming the user.
03
Progress gaps invisible
Without a temporal layer on top of the spatial graph, teams had no mechanism to see which zones were on schedule, behind, or blocked — until a foreman called in.
04
Multiple roles, one tool
EPC leads, Owner reps, Foremen, and Super Admins each needed different resolutions of the same underlying graph — from high-level portfolio dashboards down to single-tracker inspection.
05
Data from QC Inspector
Lighthouse had to ingest and surface the observation stream from QC Inspector in context — every defect positioned on the graph, not just in a list.
06
Performance at scale
Rendering a graph of 10,000+ nodes in a web browser required design decisions that respected technical constraints — level-of-detail, progressive disclosure, and smart abstraction.
02 — Approach

Graph-first design, stakeholder-validated

The design process started not with screens but with the data model. Weeks one and two were spent with the Terabase engineering team mapping every entity type and relationship in the solar farm graph — before a single wireframe was drawn.

This was followed by stakeholder interviews across three EPC projects to understand the resolution at which each role actually works. The insight: nobody needs to see everything at once. The design challenge was navigation of detail, not display of detail. Progressive zoom from portfolio → site → block → string → component became the core interaction model.

01
Data Mapping
Collaborated with engineering to map the full entity graph — all node types, relationships, and directional connections before designing.
02
Stakeholder Interviews
Interviewed EPC leads, Owner reps, and Foremen across 3 active projects to define the resolution each role needs from the platform.
03
IA & Navigation
Designed the progressive zoom model — portfolio → site → block → component — and validated it against real job-to-be-done scenarios.
04
Graph UI System
Built a component library for graph nodes, edges, status overlays, and selection states — all designed to scale to 10,000+ elements.
05
Prototype & Handoff
Interactive Figma prototype tested with four stakeholder groups. Full dev handoff including edge-case states and responsive behaviour.
03 — The Designs

Six distinct screen types, each serving a different resolution of the site graph — from the fully-populated component view down to individual tracker inspection and multi-week progress schedules.

lighthouse.terabase.energy / project / solar-farm-az-01
Lighthouse — Populated Site Graph
Populated Site View — Main Dashboard
The primary view showing a fully-populated solar farm graph. Each node represents a physical component — tracker, combiner, inverter — with live status overlays from the QC Inspector data stream. The left panel surfaces project-level KPIs; the graph canvas is the primary navigation surface.
lighthouse.terabase.energy / view / connections
Lighthouse — Connection Mapping View
Connection Mapping View
Directional edges rendered between all connected components. Allows EPC engineers to trace the full electrical path from tracker to inverter — critical for diagnosing incomplete wiring or flagging physical installation gaps.
lighthouse.terabase.energy / view / component-ids
Lighthouse — Component Name Labels
Component ID Labels View
Each node rendered with its physical asset identifier — the label language used on-site by installation crews. This view bridges the digital graph and physical world, allowing field teams and platform users to speak the same language.
lighthouse.terabase.energy / site / block-c / string-14
Lighthouse — Component Detail Zoom
Component Detail — Zoom Level 2
Drill-down to string level within a block. At this zoom, individual tracker nodes are fully visible with status colour-coding — grey for uninstalled, amber for in-progress, teal for commissioned. Selected nodes surface the component panel with observation history from QC Inspector.
lighthouse.terabase.energy / progress / definitions
Lighthouse — Progress Definitions
Progress Definitions Panel
The configuration surface where project leads define completion criteria for each milestone stage — what it means for a tracker, combiner, or inverter to advance from one status to the next. Forms the semantic layer underneath all progress reporting.
lighthouse.terabase.energy / progress / schedule
Lighthouse — Progress Schedule View
Progress Schedule View
A temporal overlay on the site graph — showing milestone completion over time per block and zone. Allows EPC leads to compare planned vs actual across multi-week construction windows. Colour bands surface where delays are compounding before they become critical path issues.
"
The graph isn't a visualisation of the data — it is the data. Every design decision was about making that network navigable at the resolution each role actually needs, not flattening it into a table.
— Design principle, Lighthouse platform
04 — Outcomes

A single source of spatial truth for EPC teams

Lighthouse replaced a collection of disconnected spreadsheets, static CAD exports, and verbal progress updates with a single platform that every role on a project could read at their own resolution. EPC leads moved from weekly status calls to self-serve dashboard reviews.

The integration with QC Inspector meant that every observation captured in the field appeared in context on the graph — no manual import, no reconciliation. The spatial and temporal layers of construction were unified in one product.

Graph-native navigation
Progressive zoom from portfolio-level overview to individual component inspection — the same model that field crews use to physically navigate the site.
Live QC integration
All observations from QC Inspector surfaced on the graph in real-time post-sync. Defects are spatially located, not just listed, enabling faster resolution routing.
Progress at a glance
Milestone status visible on every node with colour-coded overlays. Schedule view surfaced delays before they became critical — removing the weekly status call from the PM workflow.
Role-appropriate resolution
Four distinct roles — EPC Lead, Owner Rep, Foreman, Super Admin — each served by the same underlying graph rendered at the fidelity their job actually requires.
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