Overview
Introduction
I was given an 8 hour design challenge from C3.ai, an Enterprise AI company, to create a dashboard for their IoT products- specifically sensors at home that can measure energy consumption. Given the time constraint, I was unable to conduct alot of user research, but I focused on defining the assumptions and tradeoffs, as well as iterating through various designs of dashboards.
Design Challenge
In the near future, sensors measuring energy consumption will be ubiquitous in the home, from smart fridges to climate control to lightbulbs. Design a dashboard that helps homeowners understand their current energy consumption and how they can take action to optimize their carbon footprint.
My Role
All aspects done by me (Interaction Design, Visual Design, User Research)
Duration
About 8 hours (I spent a bit more time afterwards to iterate my design)
Solution Overview
Design Process
Phase One: Discovery
Background Research
First, I wanted to do some background research in the realm of Internet of Things, big data, sensors, and artificial intelligence to understand the domain I was working with. I did literature reviews and guerrilla research.
Some of the questions I asked:
What are sensors and how do they work?
Competitive Analysis: What are companies that are doing the same things? What is our unique value proposition?
What products also use IoT? What are the pros and cons of them? (Competitive Analysis)
What are some ways to visualize data and what are the pros and cons of them, as well as the appropriate usage?
Competitive Analysis and SWOT Analysis
I next did a competitive analysis to see where the product-market-gap is and to think about it’s relative advantage over other energy tracking devices.
After mapping them out, I saw that there was an opportunity gap in the market for a product that was more analytical, and could operate on all devices. Another thing that was was interesting was that all of them functioned as mobile products, which is good for convenience, but may not be right for showcasing more information.
In particular, Sense, was interesting because it seemed to be the most consumer-friendly product in the market, with an easy UI and flow and tracked devices. It also seems to do tracking of devices to help users be more eco-friendly and economical.
INTERVIEWS AND PERSONAS
After doing background research, I sought to gain a deeper understanding of homeowner’s goals and pain points in the realm of trying to save energy and costs. I interviewed 3 users from ages 22-50. I then created a persona to specify the user.
I asked questions like:
How are owners currently tracking their energy usage?
What are some challenges that are identified in the current method?
What goals and priorities do users have in energy consumption?
How important is being eco friendly? How important is cost to you?
Insights
After interviewing, I listed some insights. What was interesting was that two of the users said they felt guilty whenever they forgot to turn off the lights not because of the costs, but because of the environmental damage. This shows that the users cared alot about the environment and the economics involved.
The main takeaways were:
Home owners equally prioritized on environment and costs, with costs being a bit more important
Home owners felt that the existing energy bill had a lot of clutter, and would like to get information and tips at a glance, as well as even having incentives to lower energy because they cared about lowering their costs and carbon footprint
Home owners found it difficult to get data and track their energy costs by themselves because they would have to input data which requires manual labor
Phase 2: Evaluation
Journey Map
Next, I mapped out a journey map to organize what was particularly problematic and what design opportunities were there. The main takeaway was that there was alot of confusion when not knowing the information. For example the questions the users had in the journey included: What exactly do we need to do to lower costs? Why the costs are high (who is using the most energy? Which devices are taking up the most energy? How are their actions are impacting the environment? All these were related to information dissemination.
Affinity Diagram
I created an Affinity Diagram to organize key insights, embody the voice of the user, and visualize problems and opportunities. After grouping the quotes from my interview based on similar concepts, I found three main themes and things I should tackle.
Concepts:
Support cost saving and sustainability initiatives (most important priorities for homeowners)
Make it easier to understand how daily actions contribute to impact of cost and environment
Break down devices to see how it affects cost and environment
Assumptions and Tradeoffs
Next, I thought about the assumptions and tradeoffs were made to limit the scope of the outcomes.
Assumptions:
The user would prioritize getting high level insights on things rather than understanding the data science and nitty details of things
The user would like to set goals (environmental or cost-based) and see how their progressing towards it
Trade-Offs:
Having high level insights may not satisfy the more technical users who want to know exactly what each things mean and how they got to it
Being able to set goals and see how you’re progressing towards it can be a way to push users to keep going, but it might spark reactance to those who aren’t doing well
Having more simplified language versus more a more “scientific” language can leave users being confused on how things are calculated.
Phase 3: Concept Testing
Phase 4: Design
Synthesis
I eventually went with concept 4, an easily accessible dashboard with personalized cards that can show insights, track devices, and control devices through a dashboard. Because it focused on solving the issue of information dissemination, the main problem that was found in the interviews, I thought it best solved the issue of homeowners not knowing the transparency of their usage in their energy bill.
I then came up with three design principles that my design must have before moving on to the design phase.
Design Principles:
Easy to understand and intuitive
Understand how each appliance use impacts money and environment
Get actionable recommendations
Functions
After analyzing user scenarios, we came up with the following main 6 functions of the app that follows the design principles above
Final Design Concept
User Flow and Information Architecture
Dashboard information architecture
First, I wanted to create an interface that showed one complete flow. This is a flow about importing your bill and adding/customizing your goal. After that, I listed out the most important things through user research that needed to be in the dashboard. Those included having an insight heavy, environmental and cost geared information. I then created an information architecture to map out the things needed in the dashboard, the things users prioritized on, as well as the hierarchies.
Features of Final Design
View Breakdowns
Add Goals
Analytics of individual household devices consuming energy
Turn off lights remotely from outside your home Using AI or Scheduling
Analyze and Control all your IoT Devices
User Testing
I tested my prototype on 2 users, giving them tasks to customize their goal, and asking them directed questions, such as “What are your initial thoughts on the design?” “Would this feature give you value? Why or why not?” “Is this confusing? Why or why not?” After getting their feedback I iterated my design.
From their feedback, I changed these main things:
Changing the spot graph in device usage to a pie chart because pie charts are better for comparison of many things
Combing graphs of timelines, and adding two different views - cost and energy in “Analyze Devices”
Changing the visual design of trees to look more like trees than weeds
Further adding customization for setting your goal
Iterations
Design System
Reflection
Overall, I thought doing this 8 hour challenge was a good exercise for me to make confident decisions, user test in a strategic way that valued both time and quality, and design in a short amount of time. I definitely would want to further continue this project, and improve the visual design - choosing a more fun font for a homeowner to engage in and invest in playing with motion design and colors.
If I had more time I want to:
Do more user research (survey, concept testing, usability testing, diary studies) and iterate my designs
I want to think about personalizing content (cards, sustainable information) using AI and perhaps integrating chatbots into the home to make it easier to use
I want to explore some more data visualizations on environmental impact and predictions and explore ways to humanize the data
Iterate to make the design easier to code