Assigned to Electrify America client team as a design intern, I contributed to multiple projects. Working alongside researchers and product designers, I made impacts on new app features, charger screens, and much more.
Senior Designer & Mentor: Shadiah Garwell
Design Intern: Michael Perez-Gelinas
Users are going through complicated methods to calculate how much their electric vehicle is costing them to charge at home. How could we address this with a data tracking method in app?
61% of EA users use the EA app with their home charger, thus justifying the user base for this new feature.
I shadowed 20, one hour user testing interviews, and took notes on the issues that users had with the home charger app experience. Among the 20 interviewed, half mentioned wanting a way to calculate their spending.
I completed user interviews, competitive analysis, and a user flow.
Customers like having the charge history for reference and approximately half of them refer to it regularly to extract kWh data in order to calculate cost.
One customer suggested an ability to calculate savings by entering gas prices.
Multiple customers say they discuss costs with friends and family, and felt it would be helpful to have a way to calculate cost by putting in the amount they pay per kWh
and dates.
Another customer sends usage data to his utility provider who pays him back for low-demand time usage.
Quotes from the Interviews
Design and test a cost/savings calculator that is a “word of mouth” marketing mechanism. Customers consistently shared that they want this functionality. On our end this was a high value to low development lift feature compared to many other net new features being added.
The prototype begins from the home section of the EA app, and leads to the cost estimator via settings.
If you want to try it out yourself follow the link to the Figma prototype!
Working with a dedicated researcher was new for me, rather than conducting my own direct research. I was able to collaborate with an industry expert and hash out ideas and find a user centered solution.
Since this was an established design system, I had to work with predetermined components and propose my new ones following correct design guidelines. I also gained valuable experience in spearheading my own feature within a larger client team and processing work quickly.
Things I learned throughout the duration of the project.
Since this feature is yet to be integrated, conducting user testing would allow for more iteration on
the feature.
It wasn't a main priority of the feature, but taking the same concept and applying it to public charging would include the rest of the EA user base.
Expanding the data entry options into previous vehicles, such as gas powered, would allow users to compare their new savings to past spending.
If I had more time on this feature.
Working with a user researcher, I culminated results and designed a Journey map that guided the design of this new feature. The goal was to culminate the results of over 20 user interviews into a presentable and clear page. It took many iterations and trimming down to essential information.
