Overview

This case study includes a usability test and UX/UI Design I did for Virimodo (Previously Social Solar) as a Product Designer and Usability Specialist. Virimodo is an environmental-tech company connecting renewable energy providers to energy consumers and providing free energy analytics for both types of customers.

The detailed case study is to be uploaded. Feel free to view the prototypes now. Live site is under development.

Creating Investment-Winning Web Design

As the product is still at its development stage, there’s no large amount of customer engagement yet. However, the website prototype, branding guidelines and the pitch deck that I designed have helped the company win fundings from National Science Foundation and successfully request connection approval from Con Edison. 

The company is currently pitching on Veterans Business Battle as a Semi-finalist.

Core Team

Conducting Usability Testing with 9 Users for Previous Site

Please view the slides for details of the usability testing I conducted for the initial sign-up process. I ran the user tests with 9 users. The feedback from users was helpful and considered as the key standard when redesigning the website. A comprehensive usability report was created, here is a brief summary of it.

Setting Up the Goals

How I Did It

What I Tested & Tasks Used for Testing

Who I Tested With

How Users Felt About Green Energy

Why People Would Not Invest In Green Energy

How People Felt About The Site & Prototype

What People Liked About the Website

What People Liked About the Prototype

Usability Issue #1: Users couldn’t go back and review the previous step when signing up.

Usability Issue #2: Users were confused about what exactly they’re signing up for.

Usability Issue #3: Some pages in the plan selection process and sign-up areas contain jargon or industry language/terms that may create confusion.

Usability Issue #4: Repetitive information is required for the registration process.

Adding Free Analytics Feature to Sign-up Workflow

In this new sign-up workflow, in addition to enhancing the usability for current features, we wanted to provide free analytics for their energy consumption by asking them to upload their energy bill(temporary solution) or connect their ConEdison account to Social Solar.

Designing Data Analytics Dashboard

This is the energy analytics dashboard I designed for Social Solar customers. Social Solar provides free energy analytics to allow users to compare energy plans and choose renewable energy providers.

By using the energy consumption analytics, users are not only able to track their energy consumption for each month but also compare their consumptions with other Social Solar users and the average consumption in their areas.

One issue happening to a lot of energy bills is, the consumption shown on your bill might be the assumption based on the average consumption in your area instead of your actual consumption.

To help users be aware of this, I put an error check section that can let users know what doesn’t look right with their bills.

To further educate users, we put videos to educate users the importance of renewable energy and how much they can save for the environment by using it.

Lastly, to sell the product, we allow users to select one from the ideal energy suppliers recommended based on their geographic data.

Click on the image below to view online prototype.

Creating B2B Service Management Dashboard

I designed this dashboard for energy suppliers. They pay for Social Solar to sell their products to customers. They can track their subscription status, user activities and both overall and individual energy consumption. They can also share their accomplishment on social media.

Click on the image below to view online prototype.

Engaging Users Through Marketing & Digital Experience

As I am still helping the company overcome many front-end challenges, we are starting to engage users using marketing campaigns and web widgets. Since renewable energy has been such a big topic, I believe a bright future is waiting for Virimodo.

Creating a Design System for Future Use

In case new designers join the project, I put together a design system and a style guide to make sure designs can adapt the existing elements quickly and efficiently.