Dwell

Live energy efficiency reports for the home and personalised DIY green improvements plan

Overview

Context

Masters project in partnership with GenGame • Duration: 9 weeks • 2020-21

Deliverables

Hi-fi UI • Presentation

Role

Individual project supported by tutor at Loughborough University

The Problem

Humanity faces a direct existential threat from climate change. Part of the solution has to be cutting our domestic energy consumption which makes up for over a quarter of the UK’s usage.

Jump to outcome

Process

Discover

Research Phase

The Brief

This experience design project was created in the context of climate crisis and how we can design solutions that lead to more efficient domestic energy usage. It was in response to a brief set by GenGame:

Design a mobile app that utilises smart meter data to reduce the negative impact of domestic energy consumption.

In particular, using smart meter data to create a meaningful engagement with energy usage and to reduce consumption.

Approach

This project was conducted with a Lean UX approach, prioritising assumptions that were used to rapidly generate and develop design ideas. Concepts were then tested and iterated by involving users in experience prototyping.

5W1H tool used to generate assumptions. Assumptions allowed for quick ideation and making of concepts followed by experience prototyping to quickly test the concept and iterate.

Target User

For this project, First-time Buyers were my target user. After unpacking my assumptions, it was reasoned that owning a house is a rite of passage; they are transitioning into a new life-stage with new aspirations and are open to new responsibilities. This presents an opportunity to encourage new energy habits.

Existing Insights

To start the project, I used exiting initial insights from the LEEDR project. These were about the user's desire to make their home feel right for them, and how this is often an ongoing DIY project. But also, the inertia around making energy efficiency improvements because of perceived complexity, extensive research and a fear of getting it wrong.

Reframing

To guide the start of this project I reframed the question as…

How might we leverage the user desire to create the perfect home in order to incentivize good energy habits.

Research

To build empathy with the user I interviewed two First-time Buyers about their energy habits and home improvement goals. Remote interviews allowed me to gain rich data but also steer the conversation if it got off track and it allowed me to see them in the context of their own homes. My questions were around 3 main areas;

Their motivations for home ownership and what that meant to them.
Goals and pain points around improving their homes.
Attitudes, behaviours and pain points around saving energy.

Define

Synthesis Phase

Data Analysis

I made sense of my data visually and extracted insights, goals and pain points using various tools such as affinity and empathy maps. During this Data-Synthesis stage I started building a proto-persona.

Interviews were transcribed and data analysed using a variety of techniques.

Key Insights

First-time buyers wanted to improve their house, including making it more efficient, as it was an investment for the future. However, they were unsure at how best to improve their homes, lacking experience and confused by conflicting advice …But they were keen to learn these new skills and were reluctant to hire contractors. They considered their home unique, an expression of their individuality. On the contrary to my initial assumption that energy saving would be financially motivated, participants were primarily motivated by doing the right thing environmentally. While no one enjoys paying bills, their energy costs were not a key concern in their lives.

Persona

Throughout the process, I refined and developed my persona. The final persona for the target user is shown below as four slides.

UX Vision Statement

There’s an opportunity for a mobile app for First-time Buyers who now have more agency and a desire for a unique experience of home, who also want to be more energy efficient BUT lack the knowledge and practical skills to do so.

Develop

Ideation Phase

Ideation and Making

I used my insights for Ideation using techniques such as Crazy8s. In the Making stage I worked on site maps, task flows and developed low fidelity wireframes.

My initial crazy8 idea was an ‘app that gives an energy efficiency check-up on your home and suggests improvements’.

Bodystorming

In parallel to the Making phase, I started prototyping. This was about the experience the app created, not usability. I started by storyboarding the scenario, focusing on the user’s emotions, informed by their experience goals and emotional pain points.

I started testing the experience by bodystorming. This helped me put myself in the shoes of the user and make sense of the scenario. Here I was prototyping the initial user’s data input at the onboarding stage. I wanted to know how much information could be asked before it felt like a chore and likely for the user to give up. I found that it was best for this stage to be as brief as possible, with an option to skip – further information could be asked for in future as the user uses the app more frequently.

Experience Prototyping

But I wanted to know if this scenario was realistic; whether it would actually be meaningful for the user. I prototyped the experience with one of my original participants. I acted out the experience and then we iterated it together. Due to COVID restrictions this was done remotely.

The key questions I wanted to answer were; Was teaching the user DIY improvements enough in itself to make them feel empowered? And also, how the emotional pain point of being demotivated could be overcome?

Through iterating the experience, the participant described the frustration of not really knowing if they had done the right thing when making home improvements; if they had actually made a difference. This made clear to me that I had to introduce a form of validation to the experience, a confirmation that you’d done the right thing. This would make the user feel empowered and motivated for continued action.

Deliver

Implementation Phase

Hi-fi UI Design

The scope of this project was mainly focused on concept development and experience design. However, using the insights gained from the experience prototyping, I designed high fidelity UI screens (see below) showing the user flow.

Outcome

Concept Statement

It’s for First-time Buyers developing their own unique experience of home, who want to improve their house and make it more energy efficient.

Experience Design Principles

Empowering, encouraging and reassuring.

Design Principles

Authoritative, easy to understand and bespoke.

Functions

Inputs

Dwell’s inputs are smart meter and weather data, along with user inputted information regarding the structure of their home including floorplan photos.

AI

AI is used to create a digital twin of the house along with its disaggregated energy usage.

Output

The digital twin can then have different energy saving strategies modelled against it, comparing to similar houses and learning patterns of success over time. This produces an Energy Efficiency Score and a comprehensive energy report on the user’s house. Based on this report, Dwell generates a bespoke plan of efficiency improvements personalised to the user’s home. Each improvement has a detailed and easy to understand step-by-step guide.

Reasoning Statement

Dwell can offer a personalised experience by suggesting the most relevant efficiency improvements for a user’s unique home and energy habits based on smart meter data, inputted data about the structural condition of the house and the weather.

Context Scenario

To express the narrative of the user’s experience I put together a detailed context scenario storyboard, shown in slides below.

Evaluation

Task Goals

Task goals have been achieved. Laura has improved her house, making it more efficient – and she’s leant how to do it herself.

Experience Goals

She’s empowered with new skills and has control and independence over her home. She’s reassured that she’s got the right advice for her house. She’s proud of what she’s done and appreciates the admiration from friends and family. She’s encouraged by the positive results and that her home is becoming more sustainable.

Emotional Pain Points

Laura now feels confident about how to save energy. Her feelings of guilt have been replaced with motivation and conviction. She still can’t afford to do everything she’d like to, but Dwell has shown her how simple changes can make big differences.

Conclusion

Dwell meets user’s needs as well as encouraging the DIY improvements needed to transform houses into green homes and limit emissions. Challenges would be around the implementation of reliable AI that could give user’s true insights about their homes. The route to viability would most likely be pushed as part of a package from an energy provider to their customers.

One of the main considerations going forward should be the privacy of the user’s data. Dwell would accumulate very specific data about user’s homes so this data would need to be safe-guarded with users in control at all times.

Shortlisted

This project was among those shortlisted to be presented to GenGame due to its innovative and meaningful use of smart meter data.

Reflection

This project benefitted from rapid researching, iteration and prototyping. No idea was too precious; the user’s experience goals acted as a guiding light for the project and led to some great, unexpected outcomes.

I realised how much there is in a word; deciding what you call a function dictates how the user will interact with it. For instance, whether you call something an ‘upgrade’, ‘Improvement’ or ‘optimisation’ matters. Next steps would involve card sorting and co-creation exercises with participants to really articulate concise terminology for Dwell’s functionality.