FPL Energy Dashboard
Duration: 1 week | Role: Digital Experience Designer |Team: Janina Baxter (External Communications) & Katie Hoang
Tools used: Adobe Experience Manager | Methods: Current state evaluation, Competitive analysis, Qualitative user analysis, Remote collaboration
Problem
FPL is a household utility service. Their demographic is one resistant to change and not usually first adopters of new products. As FPL was slowly rolling out new energy dashboard functionality and UI changes, there was a lot of constructive criticism coming from loyal customers. The overall theme of comments were emphasizing:
UI changes neglecting common user behavior
Inability to compare energy usage
Understanding energy usage and effects
Purpose
To pinpoint common user pain points with the new layout of the energy dashboard and effectively communicate and educate users on the purpose and functionality of the upgrade.
Discover
To understand FPL’s utility customers better, I analyzed the comments given after one would finish using the dashboard. Granted, most were only inclined to leave feedback if it was negative, but there were a few early product adopters who praised the changes! After analyzing these comments, I understood users needed a better onboarding experience to the new features of the dashboard that would acknowledge the reason for the updates.
Evaluation
I began by assessing NextEra’s current dashboard to empathize with the feedback left from users.
Design
Collaborating with the external communications lead, I designed a landing page for users to be directed towards if they needed more guidance on the new UI. This informational page directly responds to user feedback and the FAQ section helps users onboard the improved dashboard with more clarity. Following the release of this page, negative feedback from users related to dashboard navigation decreased by 20%.
Energy Usage
FPL users put a lot of emphasis on efficient energy usage and prioritize energy saving tactics.
FAQ
The FAQ drop-downs coupled with annotated screenshots assure users know how to navigate the page.
Conclusion
FPL’s energy dashboard is a widely used and relied upon product in the state of Florida. It is progressive to see them make changes to their energy dashboard in a meaningful way. Seeing the real-time responses to the update was realistic to how a classic product with little updates over the years would alarm users. It was important to analyze onboarding methods of similar products to better communicate the value-added changes to users.
Improvements to be made in the future for this design:
The Energy Dashboard can advertise smart home features that help users control energy usage in their home via mobile app
The Energy Dashboard can allow users to analyze what rooms or appliances expend the most energy
The ability to toggle or analyze gas, water, and electricity usage