ROLE
TIMELINE
ORGANIZATION
TEAM
PLATFORM
TYPE
RESPONSIBILITIES
How Might We ...
Begin to educate and motivate British Columbian homeowners to begin considering cleaner home energy and guide them through each step of their unique home retrofit journey.
Dev Team Composition
1x
Service Designer (Me)
2x
UX Researcher/Strategist
2x
Full-Stack Developer
1x
QA Engineer
1x
Product Manager
1x
Product Owner
3x
Project Advisor
User interviews were conducted to kick off the process. From the CleanBC Mailing List, participants were sent out a survey in order to assess homeowner’s awareness and knowledge regarding retrofits, identify their motivations and drivers, assessing the barriers to adoption, and the overall reception of this new proposed service.
High Interest & Awareness, but Low Uptake
RESPONSES :
125 Responses
DISTRIBUTION :
ISSUED BY :
CleanBC, Better Homes
ISSUED ON :
Apr 1st - May 31st 2024
Of the 125 responses, an overwhelming 97% of homeowners was interested in this new proposed service. Of the responses, 84% of homeowners have heard or have considered home energy effiency retrofits at some point, however only 19% of participants have actually made any retrofits.
Educational, Step-by-Step, Value Proposition
In a follow-up question regarding the possible reasons why homeowners haven’t made any energy retrofits yet...
Many homeowners cited a lack of home retrofit knowledge and home energy efficiency knowledge as the primary reason behind the slow adoption. Results suggests providing an comprehensive, step by step guide in walking homeowners through their retrofit journey is the clear value proposition that the BC Home Energy Planner provides.
Given the insights from the user research, I developed 3 core UX strategies that would inform my user flow and wireframe ideation, addressing the top 3 key reasons that is currently stopping BC homeowners to move forward with home retrofits.
UX Strategy #1
Progressive disclosure presents information and actions within time, and in context, allowing users to manage the complexity of a product.
UX Strategy #2
User research revealed that many homeowners are unclear about the retrofit process and lacks the relevant knowledge to follow through with the energy retrofit process.
UX Strategy #3
During each step of their journey through the BC Home Energy Planner, homeowners should know exactly which step they are on and what step is next.
After multiple iterations and consultations with public sector stakeholders, as well as research into the underlying calculation model, alignment on the structure of the BC Home Energy Planner was reached and illustrated through an user flow.
Several rounds of co-design workshops within the dev team was conducted to brainstorm ideas collaboratively. Working closely with development teams and product managers, I ensured that the front-end UI provided sufficient affordances for the backend to compute an accurate energy model.
Drawing inspiration from existing provincial tools used across different ministries, I began my ideation process by sketching low-fidelity wireframes in Procreate. Once the concept received stakeholder approval, I transitioned to high-fidelity wireframes, designing within CleaBC’s design system and developing new UI components native to the planner in the process.
Extensive remote user testing on homeowners was conducted on our high fidelity prototype prior to the pilot launch in 4 different cities within B.C.. I attended all user testing sessions taking on the role of support/observer during the testing sessions.
Prior to the testing, as the designer, I prepared an assortment of test materials in the form of interactive prototypes and comparison tests on different UI components and copy. Collaborating closely with the UX Researchers in the development team, we planned out our test-session scripts and established key metrics we wanted to achieve.
Validate the user flow and whether the planner addresses user goals in an intuitive and effective manner.
Identify areas and pain points that do not align with homeowner expectations within the user journey.
Uncover ambiguity that exists in the UI and UX copyrighting and test assumptions made during the design process.
Following homeowner testing, using notes and recordings from the testing sessions, I worked together with 2 the UX researchers to produce a findings report.
High Priority
Missing Full Legal Name
People in the first pilot community were often failing to obtain an access code due to omitting middle names from the “first and middle name(s)” field.
None of the five participants entered their middle names.
“The only time I put in my middle name is government stuff like passports.”
“I’m a rule and direction follower, if I saw the field details, I would have provided the middle name.”
Medium Priority
Intimidating Home Energy Plan
The dense content along with the suggested Plans and Rebates on separate pages led to an intimidating experience for homeowners.
From the exit interview, participants said the Home Energy Plan required the most concentration.
“For a homeowner focusing on the savings, I highly prioritize the rebates page. It’s all about cost at the end of the day.”
“The home energy plan is suggesting a lot of upgrades for me based on my answers, I don’t know where to begin. ”
Lower Priority
Access Code Dispatch Confusion
Participants thought they were going to receive their access code by mail as the CTA button for the Mailing Address page was "Request a new access code".
All five participants made a remark regarding the mailing address
“I thought I already typed in my phone number for them to SMS my access code to me. ”
“I don’t want them to be sending things in the mail. Oh this is for something unrelated.”
EMCR in BC oversees all aspects of emergency management for the the province, including mitigation, preparation, response, and recovery.
Shortly after the release of the pilot program, EMCR approached us to integrate content from PreparedBC into the planner by highlighting how certain home energy upgrades can help homeowners prepare for extreme weather events near the homeowners area, and serve as an intuitive entry point to other climate readiness resources provided by EMCR.
Wildfires
Landslides
Droughts
Earthquakes
Tsunamis
Floods
Avalanches
Extreme
Heatwaves
Severe
Weather
Hazardous
Spills
Extreme
Winters
Disease
Outbreaks
Power
Outages
NEW
Seamless Integration of Climate Resiliency Content
Common weather events and hazards in the homeowners area is added as an addition block within the plan overview, educating homeowners to become more aware and resilient of the common weather events and hazards that may occur near their home.
NEW
Climate Hazard Resiliency tied with Retrofit Upgrades
Home improvements and maintenance, big or small, can help protect homeowners from extreme weather events and hazards. An extra tab was added within each energy upgrade card component to show how each upgrade can help.
The BC Services Card is a government-issued identification assigned to BC residents that provides access to government services.
In preparation for the BC Home Energy Planner’s provincial launch, BC Services Card login was integrated in order to simplify the onboarding process and handle the significant influx of homeowners accessing the tool.
NEW
BCSC as Primary, Access Code as Secondary
The onboarding flow had to be altered by allowing BCSC login to assume the primary flow while the Access Code became the alternate flow.
NEW
Encouraging BC Services Card Account Sign-Up
Explainer component added providing an introduction to the BC Services Card Account and encouraging homeowners to enrol.
NEW
Designing the entry and exit points to and from BCSC External Login
BCSC Login integration’s backend was done by an external team. During the integration, I worked closely with that external team within the BC Government to design the relevant entry and exit points to and from the planner. e.g. failed states.
01.1 User Research
User interviews were conducted to kick off the process. From the CleanBC Mailing List, participants were sent out a survey in order to assess homeowner’s awareness and knowledge regarding retrofits, identify their motivations and drivers, assessing the barriers to adoption, and the overall reception of this new proposed service.
Leveraging Design for Positive Social & Environmental Change
Being given the opportunity to use design as a catalyst for positive change towards a more sustainable future, and to create a solution for a real-world problem that can truly make a difference for the masses feels beyond-rewarding.
Reading homeowner feedback during the pilot program was especially rewarding, as it was gratifying to see first-hand how my design made a real-world impact. It was even more fulfilling to watch my own family and friends engage with the service I created, taking the opportunity to learn about their home’s energy efficiency and retrofit upgrades available. Knowing that this tool made a difference in encouraging B.C. homeowners to take meaningful steps toward fighting climate change made every design decision feel worthwhile.
Championing my Design to a Diverse set of Stakeholders
Throughout the entire design process, the project regularly required me to effectively communicate the design and its value proposition to the public in a concise manner to different branches and ministries of the BC government.
This was particularly relevant when designing for the addition of the BC Services Card Integration and Climate Hazards from the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness (EMCR). Collaborating with cross-functional public and private development teams often required me to become the “middle-man” in communicating design concepts and solution across sectors, ultimately driving the project to a successful, user-focused conclusion.
Understanding the Bigger Picture
I learned to achieve a balance between aesthetics, usability, compliance, learning to work within constraints while still delivering functional and engaging user experiences.
Public sector digital products are subject to strict regulations and standards. This project has taught me to take a holistic view of the program and account for external factors that may not have been a priority in previous projects. Government projects are often part of larger systems. Understanding how the project fits into and impacts broader systems and policy goals introduced many constraints that I had to design within, but helps in designing solutions that are scalable and sustainable.
05.2 In The News
01.1 User Research
User interviews were conducted to kick off the process. From the CleanBC Mailing List, participants were sent out a survey in order to assess homeowner’s awareness and knowledge regarding retrofits, identify their motivations and drivers, assessing the barriers to adoption, and the overall reception of this new proposed service.
