Overview

Open Access Energy is building data infrastructure to unlock the private energy market. The focus was on enabling scalable, data-driven platforms to support energy wheeling, billing, and distribution.

Year: 2023

Company: Open Access Energy

Role: Senior Product designer

Industry: Software for renewable energy

EnergyPro

The focus was on building two platforms: an automated billing solution for municipalities and EnergyPro, matching renewable generation with consumer demand.

The problem

Energy wheeling is complex, with fragmented data and manual processes making it difficult to match supply and demand, ensure accuracy, and scale distribution.

The solution

EnergyPro unified energy data and automated key processes, from smart meter integration to billing and reconciliation. This enabled accurate matching, optimisation, and scalable energy transactions across the network.

Design Features

Key features of the EnergyPro project

Proposal Management Wizard

A guided, step-by-step wizard streamlines proposal creation by automating data input, matching generation with consumption, and leveraging data-driven insights for enhanced accuracy and efficiency

User-Friendly Information Architecture

An intuitive layout with a centralised dashboard, modular navigation, data visualisations, and contextual guidance makes it easy for users to access, understand, and manage energy data seamlessly.

Dashboard Design

The EnergyPro dashboard offered a unified interface with real-time insights on transactions, proposals, PPAs, and billing, allowing users to efficiently monitor and manage energy operations.

Scalable Design System

From a product design perspective, scaling EnergyPro’s design system focused on reusable components, scalable design tokens, accessibility, and clear documentation. Continuous iteration ensured it evolved with the product.

Adapting to the ever-changing landscape of product-market fit requires constant navigation of emerging areas while recognising when certain features or aspects become redundant. Flexibility and responsiveness are crucial in this dynamic environment, ensuring startups stay aligned with market demands and maintain relevance

Approach

A holistic approach to the Open Access Energy project, from data automation and workflow optimization to proposal creation and user testing, ensuring efficient, accurate, and user-centered solutions

Culture

Embracing a startup culture, we prioritised collaboration, agility, and rapid iteration, enabling quick adaptation to changing priorities and user needs while delivering impactful, flexible solutions.

Tools

Figma, Slack, Notion, Linear

Rituals

Daily standups Retro's Design reviews

Business Requirement Workshops

Business workshops focus on planning and running sessions to gather insights on useful features, prioritise them, and understand the broader business ecosystem and business strategy.

Product Workshops

To understand product goals, conducting a UX audit and analysis of existing products, and planning product features for UX design.

Customer & User Interviews

Customer and user workshops or interviews to understand clients' needs and gather insights for shaping the product.

Information Architecture

Defining the heirachy of information based on the key components of the application and the product strategy Blueprints for navigation and sections of the applicationc

Wireframes and Wireflows

Creating higher fidelity flows and wireframes, aligning teams, and designed components based on user scenarios and goals.

Prototyping

Building prototypes to show to investors and to get feedback from customers and users

Design Systems

Developing design systems to ensure consistency, scalability, and a cohesive user experience across all platforms.

UI

Designed intuitive UI elements and new components that enhance user experience, ensure seamless interactions and consistency.

Artefacts

During this project, there were various artefacts developed, including research findings, usability testing reports, journey maps, wireframes, and design specifications. Additionally, facilitated in-person workshops to align stakeholders, uncover insights, and refine the design approach - capturing insights from discovery, problem-solving, and design to guide an optimal user experience.

Design system

Setting up new design systems to support all states and edge cases.

Style guide

Master components

variables

Wireflows

Defining workflow logic through user flows and wireframes.

Usability testing

Testing journeys with users to refine and improve workflows.