Design Jam: Hydro One
The Challenge:
Hosted by Humber College, Hydro One asked teams to design a fun educational app that engages users of all ages, informs customers about energy consumption, & has the potential to go viral.
The Solution:
A mobile app incentivizing change through community engagement while providing personalized data for smart schedules, energy use, goals & tips. Selected as a winning solution by the Hydro One panel.
Duration: 6 Hours
Team: Evguenia Anchakova, Tony Ferraro, Yash Goud, Fabrizio Sacco, & Celine Wong
Role: UX Researcher & Designer
Tools: Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Sketch
P R O C E S S
U N D E R S T A N D
We spoke to 5 people who manage their household’s hydro bill. 3 were Hydro One employees & 2 were Hydro One customers.
Questions Asked:
4. In what ways could your household be incentivized to reduce energy consumption further? Why would this work?
5. (Employees only): What are the major inquires of customers Hydro One faces?
6. How would Hydro One benefit if employees were relieved of answering repetitive inquiries?
What are current frustrations you have understanding your hydro bill?
Why is depicting spikes of energy consumption throughout the month not helpful in understanding your hydro bill? What information would be more useful?
How would you evaluate your household’s effort to reduce energy consumption? Why are you (un)motivated to do so?
I D E A T I O N
Themes Emerged
Smart Schedules simplifying data visualization.
Education & Tips using gamification.
Community Engagement with goals & incentives.
I find sketching to be particularly helpful for quick invention & concept exploration. It helps in group discussions & critiques.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
How might we incentivize meaningful change amongst communities to take action in energy conservation, educate consumers on energy use in a fun manner, and provide household consumption data.
KEY FEATURES
Billing Data & Energy Use
- Consumption bills explained to customers.
- Identifies places/ times to save.
- Overview of monthly/ weekly/ daily usage on dashboard.
Smart Schedules
- Smart schedules providing tailored hydro schedules based on registered appliances.
- Simple, visualized data based on consumption.
- Anticipates smart homes: Nest, Ecobee pairing.
Lightning Tips
- Educational videos, tips, tutorials & quizzes.
- Activities completed add points to community goals.
- Resources & info about Hydro One.
Community Engagement
- Encourages change with community incentives & goals.
- Individual goals are given to contribute to a greater cause.
- Map displays communities’ progress for competitive edge.
Solution Sketches
Our team combined various sketches and rough sketches of our proposed solution were made. Discussed were:
Onboarding
Flows
UX/UI Components
P R O T O T Y P I N G
THE SOLUTION
All-star team fuelled by adrenaline & Tim Hortons.
Hydro One’s design jam hosted by Humber College.
R E F L E C T I O N S
Value of time-boxing activities to progress the team, and prevent myself from overthinking.
Stakeholder pitch: be concise, engaging, confident and highlight key features that address existing or future problems.
Team work makes the dream work! Our team communicated and worked smoothly together. Listening to each other’s ideas and being able to separate individual tasks allowed our solution to be ‘completed’ within the given time frame.