Electric car charging - IOT app

The challenge

The electric vehicle (EV) industry is taking off, and we were approached by Chargemaster who has recently been acquired by BP. Our challenge was to develop an app that would enable owners of at-home EV smart chargers to take advantage of the smart functionality.

Our initial research focused on getting a good understanding of habits and existing routines for EV owners, especially those who regularly use a home charger. This helped us form a view of their motivations, frustrations, needs and wants when it comes to their home-charging experience. We also talked to several potential EV owners so that we could also understand their expectations around the future of this industry, and what it would take for them to switch. We found that, when it comes to home-charging, the level of involvement from individuals varies in terms of scheduling their charging sessions and tracing the cost of charging. Our research revealed that certain users preferred to set their car to charge at very specific hours to save them money, sometimes determined by a late-night energy tariff. Other users were intimidated by the details required for creating schedules according to times and tariffs, and so would prefer to simply arrange for their car to be fully charged and ready to drive in the morning.

With all of this in mind, it became clear to us that an app aimed at these customers would need to provide two different approaches to scheduling charging sessions. We collated and mapped our findings into current and ideal user journeys, and used them to inform the design of our initial wireframes (low fidelity, skeleton-style screens). We turned these early wireframes into clickable prototypes and tested the two approaches to scheduling, as well as the layout of the app, with target customers.

We tested the initial prototype with home chargers in an attempt to ‘prove or disprove’ the two different scheduling styles. Users were introduced to a basic ‘charge me til’ version – for those simply wanting a full charge in the morning – and an ‘advanced’ version – for those with stricter charging requirements. After testing with several different user groups, our approach proved to be well understood, and we continued with the direction of this concept. However, we did find that there was a general misunderstanding around the naming conventions used, such as ‘charging blocks’ and ‘‘charging schedules’.So we took this feedback on board and simplified the messaging, while also working closely with the in-house content design and marketing teams to streamline the experience and keep the tone of voice on brand. As we refined the journeys and the experience through testing, we began to increase the fidelity of our prototypes; moving from concept to product design. We explored a few directions for the look and feel of the app and decided on a light, refreshing and clean look. Our intention was to help elevate the brand to a more modern and innovative style, that customers will be used to seeing from forward-thinking companies in other industries. We used colourful graphics to portray a vehicle’s current charging status at a glance and replicated the style for setting an alarm on your phone for the charging schedules, which can be turned on and off quickly and easily. Within 36 business days, we released the fully functioning app to Google Play and Apple App stores.