Onward

EV Charging App

Introduction: More and more people are choosing to drive an electric vehicle, and with ever growing adoption rates of EVs comes the increased need to find public charging stations. But how do EV drivers know where the closest charging locations are to them, or where the newest stations are being installed? Drivers have had to rely on apps to locate stations either near them, or along their driving routes whether that be for short commutes or long-distance travel. And while existing app solutions exist, issues still remain in finding exactly what drivers are looking for based on criteria from pricing and charging speed to availability and nearby amenities at these charging destinations.

To gather more in-depth information, I chose five people who took the survey to conduct user interviews with. This process allowed me to really dig deeper into specific issues, while also extracting the needs and wants of my ideal user. As these interviews were conducted virtually, I recorded the sessions & used the journaling method to code the most common words/phrases that came up across all of the interview subjects. Since I was working alone on this project, I chose this method rather than affinity mapping which seemed more appropriate if I’d been working with a group.

Electric Vehicle Growth Prompts
Need to Find Charging Stations

Once some user stories were created, it was enough to generate user flows and my site map. And only after these steps was I finally able to get into sketching out some actual designs. Using my pen sketches and importing those images into the Marvel app, I was able to create a very rough, but clickable mobile version to perform some guerilla testing with participants.

Now, with all the data compiled, I was able to put together an empathy map and create some personas. The information from my interviews also informed my JTBD list and created the basis for my HMW statements.

Working from those initial sketches, and using feedback from my guerilla testing, I was able to add some complexity to the designs in the form of wireframes. While lacking any color and only using different shades of gray for contrast, this step in the process was the first that really informed how my final designs would look by the end of the project. And after creating screens for all my red routes, I was able to construct some wireflows to help illustrate the actual navigation across all of the primary screens.

Eager to finally incorporate some color, assembling a mood board became my next focus. Taking my color cues from green energy products like solar panels and even electric vehicles themselves, I assembled a host of imagery to bring together the elements in my style guide.

During the process of selecting colors, fonts & iconography for my app, I also used this time to create a company name & logo. After much deliberation, I selected “Onward” as appropriate for both the immediate service provided by my app to drivers who need to make it to their next destination, but also in regards to the larger mission of renewable energy paired with electric travel which aims to move humanity beyond dependency on fossil fuels and into a cleaner future for all.

With my style guide in place, it was time to bring my screen designs to life with some color. During this process I created even more screens than I had wireframes of, as the need presented itself and I was encountering routes that benefited from improved layout and/or navigation. So many changes happened during this phase, small though they may have been individually. I was concurrently testing a clickable prototype with users while implementing iterations to simplify functions. It was invaluable to see what user feedback you get even when you think things are about as good as they can be. I understand now why designs are never really considered to be “finished” in the traditional sense.

Key Findings & Conclusions: In the end, most of my predictions and hypotheses prior to actually designing screens really held up to a lot of the user testing. I would say this was the case both because of my personal experience driving an EV, but also thanks to my competitive research which inspired the proper app layout and navigation for my designs. But I was also delighted to encounter small-scale issues that could be iterated upon to create a better user experience. I never expected my app to be perfect from the start, and even now there is room for continued improvement. Those incremental changes that bolster the user experience are what makes the continual iteration process a rewarding journey worth taking!

The Problem: Most EV charging apps are proprietary, meaning they are apps created by & for the charging networks they are associated with. And while it is possible to still find other networks’ stations and even access them using a “guest” session, I wanted to create an app that was network agnostic and would show drivers all the charging options available to them.

The Solution: Creating an app that draws data across all networks to show every charging option available is what EV drivers want. And beyond that, having clear search criteria to narrow down results will help drivers find the charging stations that are a best match for them at any given time. A special focus of the app will be to make searching for nearby amenities an option, which is a lacking function in other apps and came highly requested in my surveys and user interviews.

The Designer’s Role: For this particular project, I conducted every stage of the design on my own; from primary and secondary research, through user interviews and testing, to sketches and wireframes all the way through to high fidelity prototypes. I look forward to working with a group of designers where duties can be delegated & methods like brainstorming and affinity mapping can be conducted with a team.

Phases of the Design Process & Journey: After establishing the problems to address and outlining some potential solutions, I sent out a screener survey to individuals who fit the demographic of people who would use an EV charging app. These people were sourced from online groups dedicated to EV discussions, as well as a few individuals I had already established relationships with around the topic. The survey results were tallied and gave me the first visual look at the issues my app designs would address.