🤝 PROJECT
Evo Energy Web + Mobile Sites
📆 DURATION
2 Months (currently ongoing)
🙋🏻♀️ ROLE
UX/UI Designer | Lead Designer
in collaboration with Carolina Muñoz
🛠 TOOLS
Typeform | Figma | Illustrator | Asana | Zoom
😎 UX METHODS
Competitive Analysis | Surveys | User Interviews | Affinity Mapping | Current State Usability Testing | Journey Mapping | Personas | Sketching | Wireframing Mid-Fi + Hi-Fi Prototyping | Usability Testing
Evo Energy
Evo Energy is a solar installation company in California, USA. It's their mission to "be the solution" by making solar energy an accessible and affordable energy option for homeowners in their community.
Opportunity
Solar energy is a rapidly growing source of renewable energy. According to the SETO & NREL, solar could account for 40% of the nation's electricity supply by 2035. Evo Energy is proof of this growth.
Founded in 2016 the company has already completed over 2,600 installations. In their expansion, digital presence took a backseat to operations and they didn't launch their first website until three years after opening.
Evo Energy contracted us knowing it was time for their web and mobile platforms to evolve and prepare for greater growth. They were looking to digitally expand and reach more potential customers.
Empowering with Research
GETTING STARTED
Neither Caro nor I had any valid knowledge about the solar industry. We began by organizing an organic
research outline and looked forward to learning about both the industry and the users.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
We compared Evo Energy's website with 5 competitors in the solar industry to pin point similarites and differences in digital presence.
💡 KEY INSIGHTS:
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50% of competitors were offering live customer experience assistance with a chat bot.
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75% of competitors offered their users education about the solar industry and how 'going solar' could benefit them
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100% of companies offered a form to request a quote.
Competitors with chat tools
Competitors with user education about 'going solar'
Competitors offering quote forms
SURVEYS + USER INTERVIEWS
We next sent out surveys looking for homeowners who have considered switching to solar energy. From our survey contacts, we then conducted five user interviews to gain a deeper understanding of their experiences exploring solar energy investment.
AFFINITY MAPPING
The next step in our research was to create a detailed map of all the comments and information gathered during user interviews. This allowed us to identify trends in feedback.
💡 KEY INSIGHTS:
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There was a lack of understanding about solar installation companies, how their services complimented each other, and exactly how homeowners could benefit from switching to solar.
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Interviewees had had poor experiences with solar sales teams in the past.
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Cost was an issue and homeowners believed it might be out of their price range.
CURRENT STATE USABILITY TESTS
We tested the current site with eight users. We moderated, prompted for their vocal feedback as they navigated the site, and took note of hesitant movements.
💡 KEY INSIGHTS:
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6/8 users were enthusiastic about the header images on the site, especially the drone video footage on the home page.
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The primary navigation links were difficult to see. 5/8 users did not immediately see them.
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When clicking the CTA to 'Get In Touch', 100% of users expected to be linked to a way to contact the company. They were instead sent to the About page.
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While reading copy, 100% of users noticed grammatical errors and 50% of users commented that some of what was being communicated did not make sense.
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4/8 Users did not like the amount of forms throughout the site. There were 3 separate quote forms and a contact form in the footer.
Understanding Users
USER PERSONA
At this point we had deepened our awareness of the market and uncovered valuable user feedback about pain points in the current website. Our next step was to solidify our understanding of the users.
Applying our research insights, we developed an ideal user persona. Meet Michael ...
Problem Definition
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Before moving into design, we used our research to clearly define the problem.
Users need comprehensive education from solar installation companies so they can make an informed and trusted decision about investing in solar energy.
My Role
LEAD DESIGNER
As Lead Designer it was my responsibility throughout the remainder of the project to ensure we maintained the integrity of the Evo Energy brand within our designs.
Evo Energy did not have a style guide and many design elements on their existing site were not consistent. I began by creating a style guide and continued updating it throughout the design phase as elements were determined. Below is a snapshot of some of these elements.
Bright Ideas
SKETCHING + BRAINSTORMING
With a firm grasp on the problem and questioning how we might be able to solve the issues, we then moved into design ideation.
💡 KEY IDEAS:
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Restructure global navigation condensing services into one page and quote into one page.
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Add a customer experience chat tool and testimonials from previous clients.
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Build out a "Why Solar" section offering users a place to explore why going solar could be a good option for them.
Solutions?
MID FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
Tightening up our initial ideations and expanding with more potential solutions, we created wireframes of our best ideas and linked them up in a mid-fidelity prototype.
GLOBAL NAVIGATION
Making things simple and clear, we restructured primary navigation to match industry standard. We also added a reduced opacity bar behind the logo and links so they were pronounced and stood their ground on top of the header imagery.
💡 OUR SOLUTIONS:
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Restructured navigation to four options : WHY SOLAR? / SERVICES / ABOUT / GET QUOTE.
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Enhanced visibility for immediate usability.
FORM REDUCTION
We eliminated seven quote forms and worked with Evo Energy to create one short form to collect the necessary information regardless of the service the user might be inquiring about.
💡 OUR SOLUTIONS:
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Strategically placed CTA buttons to "Get Quote" that would navigate users to one form for quote request.
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Removed the contact us form in the footer.
USER EDUCATION
To help users understand the benefits of going solar, we created a Why Solar section on the home page highlighting the savings, sustainability, reliability, and eco-friendliness of investing in a solar system. We also created consistent areas for each of Evo Energy's services to be explained in greater detail.
💡 OUR SOLUTIONS:
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Created cards for all four services on the home page with CTA's to Learn More which navigate users to the respective service on the services page.
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Developed an interactive Why Solar section on the homepage to highlight some benefits of swiching to solar power.
BUILDING BRAND TRUST
The current Evo site lacked unified design elements so we created a consistent design to enhance brand identity. A carousel of testimonials from previous clients was added to the home page and space was created for a customer experience chat tool and added on every page.
💡 OUR SOLUTIONS:
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Consistent design elements used throughout entire site.
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A carousel highlighting testimonials was added to the home page.
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Space for a chat bot was created on every page so users had a tool to immediately contact customer experience with questions.
MID-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE USABILITY TESTING
We tested the mid-fi prototype with five new users.
💡 KEY INSIGHTS:
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100% of users were immediately able to navigate the primary navigation.
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When asked how they would go about requesting a quote, 100% of users quickly clicked the Get Quote link in the primary navigation.
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We found no pain points in this round of testing.
Letting in Light
HIGH-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
After mid-fi testing, we brightened up our potential solutions and created a hi-fi prototype taking care to select and incorporate imagery that users enjoyed on the current site. We also finalized the color palette and incorporated new iconography.
HIGH-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE USABILITY TESTING
We tested the hi-fi prototype with five new users.
💡 KEY INSIGHTS:
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5/5 users were able to navigate the site with ease.
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5/5 users were able to request a quote through the primary navigation and the CTA's to Get Quote on the services page.
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3/5 users felt Evo Energy seemed like a company they may trust while 2 users commented they would like to read more text.
Forecast: Sunny
MOVING FORWARD
This project is currently ongoing. At the time of this case study our next steps were:
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Further establishing Evo Energy's brand and voice by writing all new content for their site.
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Iterating the mobile version to compliment desktop.
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Strategizing for development and implementation.
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Contracting with Evo Energy for work outside of UX including graphic design projects and social media updating.
As of February 2022, my resume has been revised to reflect further progress with Evo Energy.