DCC | Alysia Pickup

Connecting customers to smarter energy for a greener tomorrow

UX DESIGN • VISUAL DESIGN • APP DESIGN

The DCC are transforming Britain’s energy infrastructure by building a network of smart meters to help customers measure energy consumption and for energy companies to predict supply and demand. All in the bid to help us make use of renewable energy and help Britain become carbon net zero by 2050.

At present, customers do not engage with their smart meters and some have little understanding of the sustainability benefits of smart meters.

Our task was to design an app that would encourage users to install a smart meter, educate them on the sustainable benefits and provide tools for existing smart meter owners to understand more about the network.

ROLE

I was responsible for conducting all the UX activities throughout the project. This includes research, sketching, workshop
facilitation, wireframes
and usability testing.

SKILLS

User Research
Client Workshop Facilitation
Wireframes
User Flows
Usability Testing
UX Documentation

TEAM

UX Designer, UI Designer,
Project Manager, Account Director

Gathering our insights

Angus Flett, the CEO of DCC, wanted to explore the idea of creating an app to encourage customers to install a smart meter.

DCC is predominantly a B2B business, so exploring a product to help customer directly was very new to DCC. We started the project by gathering insights from Angus and the DCC team to understand what they wanted to achieve, and how we could engage with B2C audiences.

"There has to be a specific reason for users to download the app [...] Harnessing our data is something i feel that's definitely beneficial."

- Head of Customer Engagement,
DCC Team

Stakeholder Interviews, Findings Spreadsheet
& Interview Facilitation

Defining the
App Goals

From the stakeholder interviews, we had some ideas over what they wanted to achieve with the app. Collaboratively we defined these goals so we had clear guidelines to measure against when we design the 1st iteration.

Exploring the landscape of app design

Myself and the UI designer carried out research on app design, finding inspiration and understanding how users are encouraged to download and interact with mobile apps.

App Inspiration & Research

Framing the right problem for the right people

DCC's audience research was mostly based on B2B audiences, so for that reason we worked on a set of proto-personas that would outline the needs and behaviours of different types of homeowners.

The Proto Personas - Design Studio

Working collaboratively
to find an
effective solution

Using the problem spaces and proto- personas, I facilitated two idea generation workshops with the
DCC team to explore how we could encourage customers to install a smart meter and learn about the DCC.

Remote Client Workshop - Miro

Finding our focus area & prioritising our ideas

After the design studios we affinity mapped all of the ideas from the sketches to consolidate the thinking of the team. In a separate workshop session, I facilitated an idea prioritisation session.

Idea Prioritisation & Affinity Mapping

Designing the
1st iteration

The workshops gave us a great foundation to build our core concept for the app. We created the 1st iteration using a paper prototype, then moved to wireframes to develop the details needed to define the technical requirements of the features.

We used the wireframes and
user flows to discuss what possible outcomes we would need to consider with the DCC smart meter engineers.

Onboarding

Dashboard

Smart meter checker

Learn

Wireframes & Technical Requirement Documents

Assessing the appetite for the DCC app

We ran 2 rounds of usability testing with 5 participants per round. The first round assessed the concept, and the second round assessed the usability of the features.

Prototype - Round 1 Testing

Usability Testing - Findings Spreadsheet

Identifying how to improve the design

Based on the findings, I wrote a list of UX / UI actions that addressed the key learnings that we had identified from the usability testing.

This was implemented into the 2nd prototype that we tested again with the same 5 participants.

UX / UI Testing Actions Document

Testing Actions

Iterating on our testing insights

Based on the 1st round of testing we implemented the most important design actions to improve the overall usability and concept. This led us to complete the final app prototype that we shared we the client.

Usability Testing - Round 2

What our testing participants said

The result

Most consumers are unaware or disengaged with smart meters and have little knowledge about their sustainable benefits.

The DCC Smart Meter App provides consumers with all they need to know about the network. It showcases sustainable benefits and helps smart meter owners understand the network and

its benefits.