Sähkonhinta

Role: Lead Product Designer and Researcher | Client: Energiavirasto | Time: March 2018- Feb 2019 | Demo: b2b demo, Mobile demo, b2c demo

The Finnish public electricity bureau aims to create B2B and B2C online services for both Finnish residents and electricity vendors. They wanted to have a digital platform where they can monitor electricity prices from various electricity vendors while offering Finnish residents a comprehensive way to compare and buy electricity across Finland. By using Sähkonhinta, users can find numerous campaign products of electricity sellers. On the other hand, electricity vendors can easily update their prices and have a free platform to advertise their packages.

Key Achievements

In September 2019, Sähkönhinta was launched successfully for Finnish users. This project is constantly being improved according to customer feedback. We received a significant impact on user engagement and adoption. A survey conducted in December 2019 proved that the new platform was a success and users found information effortlessly across different categories. I have received multiple rewards and recognization from Stakeholders for my design work and collaboration.

My Role

I was the lead product designer and researcher for this project. I worked with an agile team and my main tasks were:

• Planned and led different workshops and interviews with users and electricity vendors to understand their needs and expectations. Also, to discover the current problems and opportunities

• Leveraged the secondary research and evaluated the current-state experience

• Synthesized the research and defined target groups, customers’ journeys, and product direction

• Translate the research findings into simple, user-friendly, accessible and innovative prototypes and interfaces

• Planned and held qualitative research such as usability testing, semi-structured interview, and observation to validate design Link to doc

• Led design meetings with developers, product owners, and stakeholders to co-create and align on product designs direction

• Work closely with developers, stakeholders to review designs and ensure the design is on the right track

Design Process

Research Phase: understand the problem

I started the project by collecting internal knowledge about the current-state products and experience. I conducted stakeholder interviews, held co-creation workshops with electricity vendors, and conducted contextual inquiries and observations with Finnish residents. I was seeking to answer these main questions.

• What is the current state? (challenges, products, opportunities, etc.)

• Who are the target groups? (needs, problems, goals,..)

• Why this product is important? (What are the values for all the involved parties)

• For what purposes and when do users interact with it? (understand the context)

• What are the business requirements/considerations?

• What does a successful outcome look like?

Key Insights From Research

• Most consumers have a very basic knowledge of electricity

• The price and energy type are the most important elements for users when they want to buy electricity packages

• The current system is complex, unusable, undesirable and users use it only when needed

• Filtering out and comparing different electricity prices is time-consuming and complex process

• The upfront education about the electricity packages can help users be confident about their decisions

Main Target group

By synthesizing the research, we identified three main target groups:

• Consumers (Finnish residents)

• Business users (electricity vendors)

• System administrators (An employee from Sahkonhinta)

Concept Design and Wireframing

I leveraged research insights and designed quick concepts to gather feedback from stakeholders, engineering and users on the overall layout and structure of the product.

Validation

The goal was to test and validate both B2B and B2C prototypes with consumers and business users. I planned and conducted 8 semi-structured interviews with consumers and held co-design workshops with 4 electricity vendors to validate the B2B product. Based on the user test feedback, I created a list of UX improvements, and we prioritized them based on the impact and the effort.

Results and Takeaways

In September 2019, Sähkönhinta was launched successfully, a significant impact was received on user engagement and adoption. A survey conducted in December 2019 proved that the new platform was a success and users found information effortlessly across different categories. The main key takeaway from this project is about: Establishing a trusting relationship with clients and all involved parties is an important part of our job as designers. Even though I did not speak Finnish, I built a trusting relationship with the client, got recognization for my design skills and received an offer for new projects