Role

UX Researcher
Product Designer

Team

Pavan Suresh
Sibanu Bora
Deep Patel

Skills

User Research
Interaction Design : Wireframing and Prototyping
Visual Design

Tools

Overview

In order to make our current way of life more sustainable, we must reduce our energy consumption and carbon footprints. In light of these issues, I collaborated with five other UX designers as we created IMENCO, a mobile application that helps users limit excessive power usage by allowing them to schedule individual appliance usage, providing them smart controls to remotely regulate their appliances, and showing them real-time insights.

My Contribution

I carried out the user interviews, was involved In the Ideation, and moderated the user testing sessions. Based on the feedback from the user testing I worked on the final prototype. I also created the visual design system for the application.

Skip to Final Design

Understanding the problem

Electricity production and consumption have contributed to almost 31.3% of the total pollution in the US. Additionally, studies indicate that 35% of home energy consumption in the US is wasted.
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So our problem statement was;

So how might we design a solution for people to easily manage and track their electricity consumption so that they can consume energy efficiently and help them reduce their spending habits?‍

In order to investigate the problem, we conducted both quantitative and qualitative research aimed at identifying factors influencing electricity consumption patterns while also pinpointing common user pain points.

We identified four key challenges that users faced when it comes to electricity wastage.

Lack of awareness

Management Issues

Lack of Intrinsic Motivation

Comfort above sustainability

Formulating the idea

With a deep understanding of the users' pain points and problem space, we began to ideate. We wanted to come up with as many ideas as possible, so we conducted multiple design sprints. During the first phase of ideation, we focused more on exploring different concepts rather than getting bogged down by technicalities. During the second phase of our ideation process, however, we brought user scenarios into focus and used them to analyze the ideas based on their feasibility, effectiveness, and practicality.

Let's use some user scenarios to better understand the challenges faced by our users and how we intend to address them.

User Testing

After thorough discussion and feedback from mentors and industry experts, we began developing the wireframes for our proposed solution. With these wireframes, we created an initial prototype. Additionally, we recruited 12 participants to conduct usability testing on our prototype. Based on the user feedback, we went through four significant iterations before finalizing the design.

Here are some of the issues that we discovered during user testing, as well as the approaches we took to address them.
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We achieved a 42% increase in task completion rate during the final round of user testing compared to our initial prototype.

What ' We ' could have done better

Therefore, I went ahead and began working on those issues and conducted one last iteration on the final product design.

Learnings

Implementing Accessibility

Recognizing the significance of acknowledging various user needs, I tested my designs against the WCAG 2.0 guidelines to ensure accessibility while adhering to AA standards. It entailed taking into account each user type and addressing their needs in potential product performance challenges.

Navigating Team Dynamics

Navigating diverse challenges, from project-specific issues to team dynamics, provided valuable insights. Emphasizing soft skills—communication, adaptability, and attention to detail—proved integral for successful project completion.