THE CHALLENGE
ENCOURAGE & INCENTIVIZE EV OWNERS TO BE BETTER "GRIDIZENS"
Most EV owners charge between 5-7 pm, which worsens the capacity strain on utilities; and fail to charge during wind or solar peak times, which means lost revenue for all types of power providers.
We were tasked to create a native app within 3 weeks to encourage electric vehicle owners to schedule off-peak charging events by incentivizing where, when, how long and at what power levels they will charge.
TIMELINE
3 week sprint
TEAM
Shelby Hamilton
TOOLS
Figma
Illustrator
Photoshop
Google Suite
RESPONSIBILITIES
UX Research
UX Design
Lead UI
Product Management
CLOUDCHARGE NETWORK
INNOVATING A BRIGHTER FUTURE ONE LEVEL AT A TIME
A cloud-based solution for grid optimization through gamification
THE NEXT BIG THING
CloudCharge Network is a cloud-based solution that collects real-time user data to help plan and design optimized charging events to alleviate stain on power providers and electric vehicle owners.
"Wow, I can't wait to challenge my friends."
THE PROBLEM
GETTING FROM A TO B
Most EV owners are aware of their environmental impact but few understand the implications of plugging in when pulling in to their homes for the evening. So the big ask is how might we encourage them to be better, more aware, more conscious users with little to no extra effort?
*PRO TIP: IF CHOOSING TO BUY AN ELECTRIC VEHICLE IN THE FUTURE, ALWAYS KEEP THE BATTERY BELOW 80% AND ABOVE 20% FOR OPTIMAL BATTERY HEALTH.
EV owners need a way to avoid charging their batteries during peak hours because it will help balance energy demands and reduce carbon footprint.
-HP SINGH, FOUNDER
“It is far cheaper to incentivize behavior and change behavior than it is to deploy more capital equipment, you know, more substations, more transformers, more power plants, that’s very expensive. You know, it’s just cheaper to incentivize behavior.”
DISCOVER
WHO’S IN THE RACE?
Before we go jumping the gun and peeling off the start line too quickly, we had to do research. Seeing what others have done, are doing, what’s successful, and what’s not by industry standards and market trends was an imperative part of our design process.
We looked at 30 different companies for a general introduction into the field and then focused on analyzing five main competitors before looking to our users for insight.
TOOLS: BUSINESS AUDIT, C&C ANALYSIS, HEURISTIC EVALUATION, USER SURVEYS, USER INTERVIEWS, TASK ANALYSIS
1
Provide an Effortless Experience
Design an interface with live and
interactive data
2
Incentivize Off-Peak Charging
Incorporate gamification to expand target audience and ensure retention
3
Smoke the Competition
By not only anticipating user needs, but exceeding them with a robust native app
HOW MIGHT WE...
ENEL X
NIKOLA
CONNECT
✅ BATTERY DISPLAY
Enel X offered a great UX experience focusing on battery display, history logs, savings, and offset charge events.
✅ SYSTEM STATUS
Nikola soared above the competition with strong UI, visually rich displays and clear system status indicators.
✅ CUSTOMIZABLE DASH
Nissan EV Connect allowed users to design their own personal experiences through interchangeable widgets.
COMPETITORS
EXCELLED AT OFFSETTING CHARGE EVENTS
Here we found offsetting a charging event was a favorite feature to leverage by our contenders, but no one was offsetting it to optimize.
And while we searched high and low we only saw one competitor who was offering incentivization by way of converting charge points to real dollars, payable by PayPal directly. No one was rewarding good behavior.
CLIMATE CONTROL ANYONE?
Through feature inventory listing we saw our competitors had done a lot of heavy lifting for us. They deduced users loved customization from their bios to dashboards to displays, users wanted full autonomy with tons of visually rich data.
COMPARATORS
SHOWED UP AT THE PUMPS
To further our research, we cross-examined comparators within our niche and outside. On our road to understanding, we saw high demand for apps geolocating public charging stations.
And while our target demographic is specifically at home chargers, offering this feature would still benefit our users on the go by reducing the dreaded range anxiety.
USER RESEARCH
WHO'S DRIVING THIS THING?
To further our research, we cross-examined comparators within our niche and outside. On our road to understanding, we saw high demand for apps geolocating public charging stations.
And while our target demographic is specifically at home chargers, offering this feature would still benefit our users on the go by reducing the dreaded range anxiety.
COMPARATORS
WHO'S DRIVING THIS THING?
In order for our users to remain in the driver’s seat, we conducted a variety of surveys and interviews to analyze their behaviors, pain points, and new opportunities within the current consumer marketplace.
Using Survey Monkey we reached out to 44 participants.
USER RESEARCH
WHO'S DRIVING THIS THING?
To further our research, we cross-examined comparators within our niche and outside. On our road to understanding, we saw high demand for apps geolocating public charging stations.
And while our target demographic is specifically at home chargers, offering this feature would still benefit our users on the go by reducing the dreaded range anxiety.
USER INTERIEWS
GETTING BEHIND THE WHEEL
Due to circumstances, in-person joyrides and donuts were out of the question, but luckily with technology, we were able to phone in a couple of favors. We talked shop with EV users digitally via Zoom, about the ins and outs of ownership. Here we gained insight into their daily charging, driving, and app use habits.
These guys got it, 4/5 users consciously choose to charge at off-peak times. Already being great gridizens, we needed to ensure that our designs exceeded their needs and added value to their daily lives.