B2C
Company: Inspire

How I designed a dashboard to encourage individuals to upgrade to clean energy

Persuading individuals to invest in clean energy is challenging — it requires telling a compelling story about their current usage, presenting personalized data, and delivering a clear call to action, all in one experience. I was responsible for designing a journey that captivates users and converts them into paying customers.

Role
Designer
0-->1
Strategy
Visual design

Team
Another designer
Director of design
PM

Users

The target is those who are interested in clean energy, have signed up - but not yet subscribed.

Problem

How to convey a concise message: while their current energy usage is partially clean, it can be improved—and it's worth investing in. And then call to action to upgrade.

Solution

The solution is a dashboard-style landing page, tailored to each user segment, featuring modules on energy usage and environmental impact—ultimately conveying the message that upgrading can reduce the carbon footprint.

Overview

A landing page is needed for free plan users to encourage them to upgrade to a paid plan. While the exact experience is yet to be defined, it’s clear this page will play a key role in the sales funnel and conversion process.

Business goals

Increase subscriptions
The goal of this project is to increase the number of paid subscribers.

Increase conversions
The business is using the Freemium model to get users invested in the product and to see some of the benefits.

Value proposition

Affordable, flat rate
Say goodbye to unpredictable energy bills and fluctuating prices.

Clean energy
100% clean energy, offsetting carbon energy use to have a zero carbon footprint from home energy usage.

Discovery

We researched and examined user needs.

Affordability
Users are not happy with expensive and unpredictable energy bills.

Help limit their carbon imprint
Users want their energy usage to help, not harm, the environment.

Focus area

How might we design an experience that motivates users to switch to a paid subscription for clean energy?

Team brainstorming

With a cross-functional team, we brainstormed the direction and messaging for the user experience.

Addressing user needs

Based on the user needs identified in our research, we crafted a user experience per each one: affordability, environmental impact, and earning their trust.

Prioritizing key features

We identified numerous features to address the needs uncovered in discovery. Prioritizing and selecting the elements with the greatest impact on conversion was essential.

Define structure & hierarchy

Based on the user needs identified in our research, we crafted a user experience per each one: affordability, environmental impact, and earning their trust.

First iteration

Pro
This first iteration includes all the elements I identified in discovery.

Con
It lacks a coherent story and feels scattered, ultimately falling short of our goal.

Second iteration

Pro
This version gets it right by telling a linear story.

Con
The UX involves a few too many steps to provide a complete picture, making the experience still somewhat overwhelming.

Third iteration

Pro
* Contains all elements to address user needs, without anything unnecessary
* Tells a linear story, without overwhelming
* Effectively communicates the value proposition

Launch

We landed on a dashboard landing page with a linear storytelling approach, testing if it will effectively convey the essential elements to drive user conversions.

Takeaways

Prioritization strategy
Although there's much we want to communicate, it's essential to prioritize key elements. Often, less is more—it's about focusing on key points to meet both user and business goals.

Embracing ambiguity
Good design can emerge from ambiguous requirements, by aligning design decisions to the business and user needs.

Storytelling
This project highlights the power of storytelling in user experience, demonstrating that a good user experience does more than just place elements on the screen.

The power of UI
Using UI elements and well-executed UX can help in the storytelling and the user’s understanding to encourage them to take the desired action.

Next steps

Qualitative analysis
With continuous discovery, I would interview users to see if they understand the value proposition, and if the landing page is meeting their needs.

Quantitative analysis
I would monitor various metrics to assess the effectiveness of the landing page funnel page.

Experimentation
I would continue experimenting, further tweaking the user experience.

Additional Work

01

Oracle

UI Design,
web app

02

Consolidation

Case study,
mobile app