PROJECT BACKGROUND
LIFE GRID
Life Grid offers easy to install kits to supply your off grid house with self sustainable energy and water sources.
Simple assembling instructions, 24/7 support and an effortless Operational Dashboard where you can manage your energy and water supply from home and from distance.
GOAL
An Operational dashboard for Life Grid that supports self sustainable houses by collecting information and controlling solar power and rain water collecting systems.
By making entangled systems accessible for all users more people might feel inclined to move to a smaller foot print lifestyle, which would benefit their personal finances, the environment and reinsure enough energy during this current energy crises.
WHY
Many technology companies are emerging to surface with new solutions for our well being and aiming the preservation of our planet Earth while creating this expansion with more awareness of accessibility of goods and services for All.
Technology is an extraordinary and powerful tool that excites me, for that reason I found to be very alluring to design an interface of an Operating Dashboard that controls a self sustainable house.
RESEARCH DETAILS
TARGET AUDIENCE
The first step to understand who my end user was to perform an evaluation of who were the costumers of companies which supply self kits for solar energy. Understanding who seeks this technology helped to guide my focus to the right audience. To find this information I managed data from Social Media platforms like Instagram and Facebook and evaluated 33 client posts and reviews by entering in their public profile and gathered their demographics.
At this point I wasn't sure if the audience for self kit solar panels would be the same audience for water collecting systems; although my bias was telling me the audience would probably be the same as people who want to support their houses with independent and self sustainable source of energy would most likely also be interested in autonomous ways of collecting water.
However, without any known company who supplies a whole self installation kit for collection of water, I had no information on the demographics. So I decided to join Facebook Groups with thousands of owners of off grid houses and made a survey asking the off-grid users if they had water systems running their houses and fast understood that most of them use rain water collection if there is no river near their property. I got 17 answers from 18 users: leaving me the fantastic opportunity to see their public profile and once again gather their demographics.
Fast I could confirm:
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Users of self installation Solar Panels Kits were also users of Water Collecting Systems
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Users of self-sustainable sources of energy and water felt into 2 types of users according to their demographics: Working force Group and Elderly Group
KEY CHALLENGES
PERSONAS
USER INTERVIEWS
With the contacts from the survey done during the target audience research, I conducted and recorded 5 user interviews to empathise with users and tried to understand their goals, motivations, habits and frustrations. (find interview questions here)
From this interviews I understood where the market and availability (or lack) of service lays and decided to lay down how a typical day would be for both groups.
USER JOURNEY MAPS
PROBLEM STATEMENTS
After collecting and organising data from the user interviews I wrote the problem statements to help me to define the needs the Life Grid´s Operational Dashboard needs to have to be at high service to the end user.
SIDE RESEARCH
A side research was necessary to learn how Solar Power systems and Rain water systems work. This was a fundamental step necessary to be able to know where meters, controls and weak spots are and more important, how the user after installing the kits understands the systems. There will be a thought and understanding pattern on the user that needs to find continuation while using the Operational Dashboard later on. The architecture, language and pattern that grows on the user needs to be extended to this interface.
I drew the following graphics to aim my understanding of the future step. Designing the Information Architecture.
BUSINESS NEEDS
INITIAL DESIGN CONCEPTS
Life Grid expectations after the delivery of the product to the user is to the product to be as efficient as possible so the client support can be reduced almost entirely. These users need to have the best product and the best control panel possible so that the company doesn't need to send specialists to location, which according to my target audience research live remotely therefore client support can become the Achilles tendon of Life Grid.
The interface in question needs to have:
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brutally sharp Information Architecture: free from trends, decorative elements and distractions that can become obstacles during the user flow.
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follow accessibility standards to all users: there will be many elderly people using the interface, so complying with all WCAG 2 guidelines.
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provide a fast, intuitive and assertive User Flow: so the user can perform the tasks as rapid as possible, the least amount of time spend on the Operational Dashboard the better for client satisfaction.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
WIREFRAMES
USABILITY STUDIES
After finishing the Operational Dashboard low fidelity prototype I conducted an unmoderated Usability Study where 5 participants tried to complete tasks on the prototype. I divided the group in 2 groups:
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Users with experience with Solar Panels or Rain Water Systems
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Users with no experience with Solar and Water Systems
FINDINGS
Some iterations had to take place on the Fonts due the lack of visibility one user had during the usability study. The infographics had to also be iterated for a more clear reading.
After the iteration I made an experiment and took my contact lenses off to see where was an accentuation of brightness and contrast, which helped me feeling orientated during the navigation. Simulation bellow
Having - 4 Myopia, no glasses or lenses and having a distance of 30cm from the screen, I was still able to read the most fundamental information from the prototype with the new iterations.
ILLUSTRATION WORK
HIGH FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
From the research done I decided to make a high fidelity prototype as final step. Running another usability test would be very interesting to test how necessary the colour accent would be, as visually, plain black & white seems more fitting for Life Grid requests of a clean, raw and sharp functionality. Would the colour accents elevate the functionality and aesthetics? The question remains and would be answered with another usability testing.
LEARNINGS & NEXT STEPS
This project had a strong focus on the Information Architecture. As the user is in contact with the interface after the purchase of the product, there is no need for the traditional marketing and long navigation timing business goals. This types of interfaces have its own charms for sure however having a project where the business goals were the user to spend the least amount of time on the operational dashboard and completing user flows successfully, gave me the opportunity to push my skills on a direction I am passionated; a honest Symbiosis between Men and Machine.
As the project comes to the high fidelity prototype, I feel confident about the I.A. but find myself wishing for extra time to perform an extra usability study on the colour accents as mentioned before and on the buttons from the homepage; because the dark theme was chosen (as it uses less energy which is essential for Off Grid Settings) I found myself not completely satisfied with these buttons. The buttons do blend with the overall language and theme but there is a noticeable difference between those used during the usability study and those designed in the high fidelity prototype which makes me question the possible performance.
A note on the usability studies; I decided to invite 2 people who had no experience with solar and water collecting systems as I had a deep interest on understanding how far this operational dashboard could go regarding the target audience. It is on my interest that my designs perform as good as it can be for all people independently of their background and literacy. Although the sample was small, the 2 participants without experience were able to perform all tasks given effortless.