How renewable energy generators drive OVO’s innovation (2023)
Lead novel research and design for home and SME energy generators; OVO’s newly acquired audience. Collaborated with two cross-functional teams. Simplified agents’ dashboard design, potentially increasing satisfaction by 40%. Optimised multi-meter readings submission experience through usability testing. Designing around generators' behaviours and forecasting tool needs could make OVO the preferred choice.
Methods: qualitative and quantitative research methods, exploratory interviews, Usability Testing, co-design workshop facilitation, data gathering, analysis, reporting, presentation, and recruitment.
Tools: Dovetail, Miro, Google Suite, Jira, Slack, Tellet Conversational AI, IA Writer
Client: OVO Energy
Role: Senior UX Researcher
Duration
3 months
Inspiration
OVO is a leading renewable energy company in the UK, providing many households nationwide with clean, sustainable energy. When OVO acquired SSE Energy Services in January 2020, they had to migrate over a set period as outlined by their regulator. But the process was manual and painstakingly done, with over 84% of the clients’ emails and customer calls to submit their readers. OVO was looking to change this behaviour by designing an online self-serve meter reader submission service for them.
However, the stakeholders had no prior knowledge of this audience; they needed to understand how people capture their household meter readings for multiple installations and how OVO could make it easier for them.
I worked for three months on three projects that were interlinked under understanding a newly acquired audience - people who export renewable energy. Below, I will share the challenge, transformation and outcomes of the first project only, summarising the overall impact.
Multimeter reader submission
Multimeter Corporate Statements
Multimeter payments customer care Dashboard
🔬 Methods, participants and their Purpose
Meter reading is a physical process that sometimes two people have to undertake before the readings are inputted into the system manually, as they have no smart meters. So we had to look at the ergonomics of this experience all the way to the submission. At the time of my arrival, the development team had already started working, and the designer was looking to evaluate some early prototypes.
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Visiting 6 people in their homes so that for the first part of the study, they could walk me through their meter submission rituals, followed by a conversation on the systems they used, what mattered to them and then collected artefacts (photos, screenshots, etc.)
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to quantify their satisfaction and usability rating of the prototype
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closing with an evaluation of the prototypes through a usability test while my team was on a remote video call on the other end and a debrief.
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to analyse data and identify themes and user stories that answered stakeholder questions.
Ideation
We found that customers who manually take regular meter readings and work together with their partners to keep spreadsheets that track their ROI over time. They also look for usage trends that would help them make more informed decisions on usage and future investment (i.e. batteries).
P1 “I have no place where I can see all my meter reads and generation in one place.”
These people want to become more energy-independent and reduce their energy consumption and care less about receiving export payments. They like having the option to choose their energy provider and find submitting their meter readings online straightforward.
P4 “I would love to have both laid out for me” (generation, export & usage)
“M. would like to have a view of the trend over time”, P2.
Data Collection and Analysis
Observation Notes, photos of the physical space, video recordings, and screenshots of their applications were collected in person and kept in the OVO project folder. The artefacts gathered created a collage for design inspiration and a competitor review, a glimpse into what other companies are doing in the field.
The data collected was analysed collaboratively using an affinity diagram method on the Miro application, following a bottom-up approach, allowing recurrent patterns of themes of findings to emerge and personal stories to unfold and -hopefully- shape a set of new personas and their storyboards. Stakeholders’ questions were themed and answered similarly.
Ideation
Findings from this study and the Multimeter Corporate Statements were presented back to the cross-functional team, and I co-facilitated a design workshop with the UX designer to prioritise which findings to action.
Installation Overhaul Page- Discussion Guide Structure Playground
Research observation notes
Emerging themes from affinity diagram analysis
Statements Discussion Guide Structure Playground
02 Payment Ledger User journey with Prototypes for Usability Testing
Implementation
I closed the project, providing a set of recommendations for design implementation, creating and testing tools to visualise their ROI by giving customers control over their real-time usage, and making the submission and statements process smoother.
As such, I drove business outcomes and elevated OVO’s multimeter submission reading’s value and user experience. I also resolved recruitment challenges with SME’s informing design decisions, resulting in a 40% increase in agent satisfaction with the dashboard interface.
Outcomes
Stakeholders were surprised to see such distinct usage behaviours between exporters and consumers. And the insights on user behaviours were rather similar to corporate statements, validating our findings and triangulating collected data.
While OVO was looking to provide people with a billing summary, users wanted both summarised and itemised reports in print and digital output for their records, so they can make informed decisions on their renewable energy resources, battery purchase investments, and a way to support their way of living or grow their business. For them, this was not a bill; it was an invoice for their exported energy back to the grid, and it had to be designed as such for this audience. This learning is an invaluable strategic direction beyond dashboard designs and a view of how the company values its energy contribution.
User advocacy of this new audience could be a competitive advantage and USP.
About OVO Energy
OVO Energy is a UK-based energy supplier founded in 2009, offering electricity, gas, and smart-home services with a strong focus on sustainability. Its mission is to make energy “fairer, greener, and simpler” for consumers through its “Plan Zero” strategy. A major highlight in its history is the 2019 launch of Plan Zero and the subsequent 2020 acquisition of SSE Energy Services, which brought millions of new customers into its fold and elevated OVO to being one of the UK’s largest energy suppliers.