Reimagining Energy in SoCal
Timeline: 5 month engagement
Project Objective
Energy is a basic necessity of life but most of us don’t entirely understand how it works and with little choice in provider, it’s easy to feel confused and powerless when it’s time to pay your monthly bill. Our client, one of the biggest energy providers in SoCal, wanted to flip the script and build a new relationship with its 3.6 million customers putting them in the driver’s seat.
We partnered with the client to completely re-design their ‘My Account’ app and web experience. The new design empowers users to take back control of their energy usage and their bill with meaningful data, simple tools and total transparency.
My Role
I joined this multi-disciplinary team as an Interaction designer (UX). I was responsible for creating user journey frameworks, designing the concepts from our research, collaborated with the team on re-structuring the information architecture of their website and app. Additionally I created key screens in different breakpoints and finally collaborated with our lead designer to build a style guide.
The Challenge
The main challenge of the project was to design a platform for diverse users across Southern California, which required a lot of considerations when it comes to brand messaging, interactions and visual design.
How can SDG&E create a digital experience that empowers users to take back control of their energy usage and their bill?
The Approach
We kicked of the project with an immersive discovery phase that included 9 stakeholder interviews, 7 call center agent shadowing and interviews and 48 Dscout user entries with over 300 entries. The resulting research analysis helped us inform the mindsets and overall common themes.
Ideation Workshops
We had two co-creation workshops, one with the customers and one with SDG&E stakeholders and employees. The workshop not only allowed us to find and validate our final concepts but also allowed SDG&E’s customers to feel heard.
Research Primary Themes
Our qualitative research in SoCal showed us how the customers perceive and engage with our client. Three primary themes emerged:
01. Energy, the invisible resource…
Without real-time data integrated into their day-to-day, customers aren’t confident that their efforts have an impact on their energy usage. As a result, customers create workarounds to lower their energy usage.
02. Cared for, or trapped?
SDG&E’s relationship with its customers is perceived as purely transactional; this leads to very few opportunities to make the customer feel cared for. This leads to customers feeling trapped in a rate or in a service, with no clear alternatives or recourse.
03. Words, actions, and context matter…
We found communications to be a key component of the overall customer satisfaction, It is not necessarily the what, but rather the how you deliver the message, how timely and useful it is, its perceived value and the intent of it.
“There have been times when I’ve questioned how high my energy bill is and felt trapped, unable to change providers.”
“Develop an app to help us look at my acct. when my electricity is up a tier... please let me know before charging me. …Show me ways to decrease my bills. Allow me to help decrease my electricity bills however it takes.”
North Star Vision & Concepts
Based on findings during the discovery phase we created a North Star Vision. This was a representation of the future state customer experience, unconstrained by current technology, internal processes, or other limitations. The North Star Vision aligned all actions to customer expectations, basic needs, and pain-points, while re-inventing the future of the service based on current business goals and KPIs.
We identified five key Moments That Matter: Start Service, Move Service, High Bill, Credit and Outage.
Style Tiles
Using style tiles, we presented three design directions to the client. All directions were created to embody the spirit of the company and the community it served.
Chosen Direction: Human Touch
Human Touch addresses the user's desire for a more honest and authentic experience. The combination of artfully composed photography with hand-drawn illustrations shows that our client is as thoughtful and strategic as they are relatable and human.
The style tile above was selected by the client
The Result
The result was a deliverable that included responsive designs for the ‘My Account’ web experience as well as mobile and tablet designs for the self-service app. We also created a design system to support the development and future expansion of both products. The final design makes it easy for users to execute tasks, understand bills, and most importantly monitor their energy usage over time.
Outage
During our research we were surprised to find how many users wanted SDG&E to be better at proactively communicating outages. This dedicated page allows users to view planned and unplanned outage maps, sign up for alerts, report outages and get restoration updates.
Pay
Users can easily view and pay bills as well as manage payment methods such as auto-pay.
Track
Real-time data allows users to monitor their energy usage and manage their bill each month while long term data provides annual trends and seasonal insights.
We wanted to visually guide users if they were on peak/off-peak hours by changing the background color and illustration to fit the time of day (morning, afternoon, evening).
Design System Sample
