Ux / UI Design
Tera Home Energy App
A home energy management mobile app that provides homeowners with the insights they need to reduce their monthly energy bills.
September to December 2022
A home energy management mobile app that provides homeowners with the insights they need to reduce their monthly energy bills.
September to December 2022
Design sprint planning, secondary and primary research, concept creation, and leading UI design.
Figjam, Figma
Project built for the design trends course at George Brown College in the digital experience design program.
Done in collaboration with Jackson Howlet, Sowmma Roy, Carmen Skoretz, and Thanusha Kanagendran.
Homeowners have a lack of awareness of their home energy consumption and how it impacts their monthly energy bill.
The double diamond approach was used along with agile development activities during team meetings to iterate between exploring more widely (convergent thinking) and in more focus (convergent thinking).
Discussion and Domain Research
We discussed upcoming trends and domains in the world of digital experiences. We chose to focus on smart homes in the context of energy use. Through some secondary research, we found that higher "electricity awareness" was associated with more energy saving. On Reddit, there are numerous threads of individuals wondering why their home energy bill has spiked.
Observational Research
We observed 6 participants while using their home energy and asked them follow-up questions on their energy use
Triangulation
We gathered quotes from participants, secondary research statistics, and observations to form our insights.
Insights:
Lights in common rooms are more likely to be left on unattended because light usage is linked with a person’s intent to return to that room
Despite having an electricity bill every month, there is still an overall lack of awareness of household energy usage as information given about homeowners’ energy use is confusing.
Invisibility in modern technology is designed to enable ongoing use of energy and remain unnoticed in everyday homes.
How might we help homeowners reduce their home energy consumption by making them more aware of the energy they're using?
Concept Brainstorming + Voting
We brainstormed scenarios, pain points associated with them, opportunities, and essential/non-essential requirements. We created concepts and dot-voted on the best idea to solve our question.
A home energy management mobile app that provides homeowners with the insights and means they need to reduce their monthly energy bills.
Sketches
In a short design sprint, the team created sketches to understand how we envisioned features would look and function.
Journey Map
Illustrating a user's process when using the mobile app and a smart watch linked with it.
Branding
The logo represents an energy hub, a space that collects energy information.
Interface
All pages created and animated in Figma.
Home Page Visualization
All the rooms in the house are shown in the form of moving bubbles. Their colour and their size indicate energy use.
Room Information
When a room is pressed, it displays how much the room is costing you for the month and has a remote control of all devices located in that room. It also gives you extra stats and tips to reduce your energy use in your home.
Overview Statistics
Ability to see daily, weekly, and monthly stats. Tracking habits and cost long before you get your monthly energy use bill.
Home Page Options
Editing and toggle features on the app providing a more personalized and usable user experience.
Home Page
This display is shown whe the app is opened.
Room Editing Mode
When holding the home screen, room editing mode turns on with the ability to delete or add more rooms to your home. It gives you the ability to name rooms and add devices to it.
Energy Saving
With the switch on the top right toggled-on, all non-essential devices in the home are turned off.
Notifications and Widget
Tera will send notifications to either a phone or smartwatch to notify the user of devices left on and to ask them for input. Through responses from the user, Tera will learn patterns and preferences for the user's energy use.
In the example shown, the user left a straightener on when they left their home. The app notifies them of this and that their straightener was turned off automatically to avoid a potential fire hazard. A widget is located on the lock screen to provide home energy usage information at a glance.
Integration of Internet of Things Devices
Seamless connection with smart lightbulbs and smart outlets enables remote control capabilities controlled in the app through a smart watch or smartphone.
Direct integration with electricity provider
Adding the ability to be directly connected with electricity provider so that monthly bill information is accurate and not estimated (will need to take privacy/security into account)
User testing
Testing the interface would allow us to understand which option users use more and what can be improved upon.
Outcome
By introducing this app to homeowners, they can be more aware and have more agency for the energy use of their home and their monthly bill.
