Recognizing the growing demand for electric vehicles, EFUEL aimed to address the need for effective energy cost management through a modern, sophisticated app. In this case study, I walk through the design process of this simple, yet powerful digital companion.
Before we were able to speak directly with users, I analyzed manufacturers' and third-party energy-management apps for EFUEL customers to understand the competitive landscape as well as learned from installers about what they have learned from customers.
With these insights, a big focus of the MVP was to provide a most basic tool, the spot-price graph, that would enable user to save money when they charge.
The charger manufacturers’ own apps were lacking features that would help customers with cost saving
Customers emphasized that getting the best price for charging is most important to them
Detailed ampere data wasn’t interesting or understandable to the average user
The charger controls were not as useful to users as a physical charger dongle.
Instead, the main screen showcased:
From user research, it was clear that getting the lowest price for charging was a priority for users. The spot-price graph was OK, but still required manual input. As a team, we decided to focus on a smart charging feature that would enable people to charge for cheapest automatically.
In user testing, we received positive signals about the Smart Charging feature. Our plan was to measure the usage data for this feature, to confirm after the launch of the MVP app in May 2023. For business-related reasons further work on the app was paused indefinitely.
