Home Energy monitor, an app designed to help consumers manage and track their energy consumption on their preferred time interval.
August 2022- December 2022
When we aren't aware of our energy consumption, we misuse electricity. We conducted a pre-research test to find out if such a theory is correct. Our research candidates were pleased with the concept but they needed an app that can easily help them track and manage their energy consumption.
To design an app with a minimal design to help consumers manage and track energy usage
UX/UI Designer
UX Research, Competitive Auditing, Studies and UI Design
In our pre-research we asked fifteen home owners to start monitoring their daily energy consumption, all candidates recorded their data in their preferred time interval. The results confirmed our theory, all the candidates were trying to lower their usage every day. One of the candidates said, "It felt like I was competing with myself and somehow it is very fulfilling". More outcome from this study are:
Candidates confirmed they found it tedious and time consuming to use excel to monitor theirenergy consumption.
Some candidates struggle to keep track of time, finding themselves recording data after 26 or more hours instead of 24 hours
While excel wasn't the only option to monitor home energy consumption, alternative apps proved difficult to use and ads had most candidates not willing to use them.
12/15 didn't know how to use excel, they required a template to participate while others settled for conventional method like pen and paper.
7/15 Pre-research candidates would like an app that has at least two or more South African Languages
Users would like an app with a minimal design, easy to use and navigate
Monitoring Energy consumption isn't mandatory but a hobby one grows into, users find an OTT design off-putting
Thulisiwe is home owner in the city of Johannesburg living through the rising cost of living and increasing Eskom tariffs who'd like tips on how she can best reduce her home energy consumption and keep up with the exercise.
Ben is young professional renting a property in the suburbs of Bothaville, who'd like an app to track his electricity usage as this exercise helps him reduce his energy bill and use less energy for as he cares for the environment
In Competitive analysis we discovered that many South Africans are not using smart meters but rather the prepaid meters provided by Eskom, we would like to design a country specific app. With these old metersSouth Africans can not use apps that needs a Wi-Fi communication with the meter.
South Africans need an app to manage, record and track their energy consumption without the need to but an extra product or upgrading their current meters, we also concluded our design strategy: Design an app for prepaid South African energy consumers to record and track their energy usage.
We conducted a moderated usability study in Rustenburg Civic Centre where we had 20 participants and we found the following:
15/20 users struggled to find the call-to-action button in the dashboard
Users would like to know their consumption impact on the climate than being compared to others
Users would like to know their consumption cost as well.
While designing the homepage we had to be mindful of the new insights we got from The Usability study, designing for users who wants to know their environmental impact, financial obligation and those who wants to know if they're overconsuming power.
In the dashboard, users can access features like track, buy and account, we had to design this page with many features yet not clutter it.
In this page users will get tips on power consumption and load-shedding schedules, based on their provided location
Users can manage their account
Our primary targets are prepaid Eskom power consumers, we want our users to be able to purchase power on our app
On this page, we have made it easier for users to track their power usage on three intervals.
The final design was tested and studied most South African users agree that the product will serve to their needs.10/12 users agree that the design is familiar and easy to use.
When designing an app for all ages one have to be careful that the users aren't intimidated by the design that is complicated.
