Powerswitch
Problem
As part of the final project for the Master of User Experience Design program at Victoria University of Wellington, 3 other students and I teamed up with Consumer NZ to improve the user experience of their power cost savings estimate website, Powerswitch.
Project
Almost half of the people who come to Powerswitch don’t reach the results page. This is because people can’t or won’t enter the data the system asks for in a series of questions to provide a cost savings estimate.
Consumer NZ believes that by making a ‘fast track’ pathway, more people will get to the results page, find a cheaper power provider and switch to those providers via the Powerswitch site.
How might we make a ‘fast track’ path and process clearer
to people who can’t or won’t
enter their details, while reassuring them that the results are still reliable and reflect their power needs ?
Research
We conducted internal and external desk research to help inform our primary research and concepting. We held key stakeholder interviews and also held user interviews which tested the current Powerswitch user flow and website usability.
Concepts
From our research, we wanted to explore the following ideas during concepting.
1. The number of questions being asked before getting to the results page
2. A non-linear process of data entry
3. Multiple pathways for multiple users
From these ideas, we came up with three concepts that we turned into paper prototypes for quick usability testing.
We conducted the tests with six participants, all renting in Wellington city (three per workshop).
Testing
Each Participant started with a different concept to test. We spent 15 minutes allowing the participant to use the prototype and discuss what worked well and was challenging. We then changed prototypes until participants saw each of the concepts.
Usability Workshop Process
How do people find the experience of each concept?
How do people feel about the number of questions in each concept?
How do people feel about the results based on the questions they answered ?
Do people want to save their results and details?
Objectives
Analysis
We found that people were curious about why questions like ‘What insulation do you have?’ were asked and wanted to know how it affected the results.
1 The number of questions being asked before getting to the results page
Our interpretation from low fidelity usability tests.
While participants found the non linear concept fun, it wasn't fit for purpose. we were told by Powerswitch later that people must answer all the questions for the model to work, so having a non-linear process would not work
2 The number of questions being asked before getting to the results page
3 Multiple pathways for multiple users
Knowing that the process is a major barrier currently, we thought it wasn’t right to create multiple pathways to address them upfront. Instead of making a fast track for some users, we think it’s best to make a fast track for everyone for now.
Concept Wireframes
For Mid Fidelity User Testing
Taking what we had learned and our interpritations from our initial low-fidelity user testing we further explored and refined the three concepts and made digital interactive mid-fidelity prototypes for testing.
Outcome
Based on all the research and testing completed in this project, our ‘fast track’ solution has two parts.
1 A reordered user flow
2 Updates to the user interface (UI)
When Consumer NZ briefed us, they told us that almost half of the people who use Powerswitch never make it to the results page.
Some of the user flow steps are barriers, leading to people abandoning the site.
Outcome
Instead of making a 'fast track' for some users, we've decided to make a 'fast track' for everyone.
This could get more people to the results page.
This also makes the results page a stage in the process rather than the final destination.
1 Re Ordered User Flow
Outcome
2 UI - Home Page
Outcome
2 UI - Questions
Outcome
2 UI - Results Page
Learnings
Conduct usability tests on the hi-fi designs
Implement recommended changes on the live site and see how they perform
Next Steps
How might we connect the current billing process to the new CTA on the results page?
How might a sign-up/create account work from the billing process? How might we encourage people to sign-up?
How might two CTAs work on the homepage after improvements are made to the billing section?
Future explorations
The project outcome seemed simple, a shift around of a user flow and update some UI. Getting that flow right along with correct UI changes was crucial the success of the outcome. One implementation would not have worked without the other.