Redesign of an energy modelling tool
A collaborative simulation tool enabling residents to optimise energy expenses, reduce emissions, and foster a greener, more sustainable neighbourhood.
Design brief
Challenge
Following the initial launch, the product stakeholders quickly recognised that the game required detailed explanation and expert guidance, due to its interface lacking clarity, visual appeal, and user-friendliness.
Design objective
Redesign the interface to improve its usability and visual appeal.
For a successful redesign, it was crucial to define a strategic approach with a thorough assessment of existing pitfalls of the current interface and ensure alignment with the client's objectives and expectations.
Technology criteria
A responsive web app. This design was further adapted to be used for Stella Architect platform.
Client
Social science project
Time
6 months (year 2023)
MY ROLE
Product strategy, user research, UX and UI design work from concept to high-fidelity prototypes
TOOLS
Figma, Figjam, Google forms, Usability Hub
TECHNIQUES & PROCESSES
Client management, business requirement analysis, usability analysis, user research, user flows, wireframes, prototyping, high-fidelity designs, style guide and design library
01 Analyse and evaluate
Understanding
To effectively tackle the task, I focused on thoroughly understanding the game's core concept and mechanics, assessing it in three pivotal dimensions:
Utility
Practical value of the product
Usability
Ease of use and accessibility
Desirability
Product's appeal to the user
Previous interface
The existing interface was cluttered and unclear, lacking a coherent path.
Energy sources and consumption mapping
As the next step I went on to mapping the energy input and output factors as it was essential to learn how they interact and impact energy usage and costs.
This understanding was crucial in designing the input forms and output dashboards.
02 User research
Hypothesis
Most of apartment residents passively accept the burden of high energy costs, lacking awareness of effective strategies to mitigate them.
It was crucial to identify and understand the users' pain points, needs, and motivations and how the myriad of factors could be leveraged to achieve the result users were looking for.
TARGET USER GROUP
Owners and long term tenants of residential house apartments.
“As a busy mum I don’t have the time or motivation to figure out how to reduce energy consumption or lower the energy bill significantly.”
RESEARCH METHODS
Quantitative - Online survey to investigate the general attitudes and motivations regarding energy-related issues.
Qualitative - Onsite interviews with 4 participants to delve deeper into residents' habits, needs, challenges, and motivations.
Goals and findings
Evaluate residents' awareness of their current energy costs
25% don’t know their energy consumption, often due to a lack of interest or because someone else handles the payments
33% somewhat know their energy consumption, typically having access to only one type of measurement
42% are well-informed about their monthly energy consumption, thanks to detailed billing and service provider apps
Assess residents' understanding of their current energy consumption patterns
70% are interested in both their individual energy consumption and the total energy consumption of the apartment building
30% are not interested in energy consumption causes and patterns
Evaluate residents' motivations regarding their usage of utility energy
30% focus mainly on lowering their energy consumption costs
30% consider all factors equally important, including cost reduction, eco-friendly living, and energy production
30% are also interested in generating energy in their community
Critical cost positions
Heating costs 58%
Electricity costs 22%
Car use expenses 11%
Amount of emissions 9%
Key insights
Many residents want to learn how to use energy better
They need a tool to see how different energy-saving actions work
The main reason they want to save energy is to cut costs
A tool showing savings from investment projects such as replacing windows for the whole building, might help to take hard decisions
03 Problem definition
Having conducted a comprehensive assessment of user objectives and insights derived from user research, I arrived at a following problem statement that encapsulates the core challenges and opportunities identified.
Residents of apartment buildings need a way to cut energy consumption and costs while caring for better urban environment in the long-term.
Problem areas and potential solutions
Feeling lost and helpless about energy costs
Residents think they can't do much about their high bills because of things like the energy crisis that are out of their control.
Provide an easy-to-understand overview of the most important resource consumption and its causes
Illustrate the connections between costs, consumption, and their underlying reasons
Offer clarity and instil a sense of control
Uncertainty on how to reduce costs
The high costs are evident, yet there is an absence of clarity on how to efficiently and substantially lower them.
Create a space for dialogue on energy use and production
Involve residents in assessing present state and discussing future possibilities
Enable establishing shared objectives and collaborative decision-making aimed at achieving these goals
Communication and joint decision-making
Residents face difficulties in effectively communicating and sharing information about energy resources and making collective decisions.
Offer a range of appropriate investment choices along with estimated timelines for expected returns
Provide an overview of actions to save or produce energy
Illustrate the lasting impacts of investments on energy usage and expenses throughout an extended timeframe
04 Ideation cycles
Jobs to be done and task flows
After compiling conclusions and identifying the problem, tasks could be defined and outlined with detailed process steps.
Learn your consumption sources and costs
Get an overview and compare useful measures
Get an optimal consumption projection and ROI
User journey map
Following that I constructed a user journey map with user emotions and thoughts in each step, and key actions to better understand a general human behaviour in a larger context.
Layout ideation
Layout ideation started with schematic content structure aligning with the task flows and reflecting inputs, outputs and customisable adjustment options.
05 Final design
The resulting design was created in several phases with regular user involvement, testing the overall understanding and clarity of the layout and steps to be taken, such as the ability to input required values, review and interpret results, and apply optimised plans.
With each iteration, a more optimal design version was achieved, characterised by the use of user-friendly graphics, summaries, reports, and input mechanisms, thereby rendering the interface of the tool increasingly intuitive and easy to use.
