Olivia Raines
Case Study:
Budgeting Utilities
Decided to explore the possible pain points users have with paying and budgeting utilities. This was a solo project.
User Interviews & Affinity Mapping
Goals
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Discover the process users take to pay their utility bill.
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Uncover the pain points users may have with their current payment process.
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Understand how utility bills affect user's overall budget.
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Learn when users know their utility usage and if the timeframe contributes to their pain points.
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Problem Statement
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Homeowners need to be able to save money and budget utilities more efficiently so they can insure they are able to manage their household budget stress-free.
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How Might We Statements
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How might we create a way for homeowners to budget utilities more efficiently?
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How might we make paying utilities easy while on the go?
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How might we develop a way that the usage of utilities are updated daily and available to be viewed by homeowners?
Ability to Budget Utility
Tracking Utility Usage
Saving Money
Convenient ways to pay bill
Personas
"There needs to be a way to adjust my utility usage to fit my budget"
"I want to make sure we have enough money to pay for utilities."
Joan
Age:
Job:
Family Status:
30
Hospital Nurse
married, two children
Joan is a full-time nurse who lives in Atlanta with her husband and two daughters. She lives in a 3 bedroom 2 ½ bathroom house and finds it difficult to budget her utility bill every month. For two months they were forced to tap into savings when the utility usage was more that she expected. They realized that there was a leak in the house. As of now she has to take time out of her busy schedule to sit in front of a computer to pay the utility bill. After paying utilities, she then set a budget for the remainder of their money.
Adam
Age:
Job:
Family Status:
24
Teacher
Married
Adam is a full-time 6th grade teacher. He recently graduated college and married his now wife. They live in Alpharetta, Georgia in a small 3 bed 2 bath house. As a new husband who is trying to navigate living on his own place for the first time and trying to stay on top of paying bills, he has anxiety about not being able to set an accurate budget for utilities. It can sometimes cause a strain on his new marriage because of the anxiety attached to the unknown. Even though they haven't had to tap into savings yet, the fear still present.
Needs and Goals
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​Easier and faster way to pay the bill while on the go.
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A more efficient way to budget utilities every month
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A way to track utility usage throughout the month before the bill is posted.
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Frustrations
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​​No way to track the usage of utilities to make sure they are within the set budget.
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Needs and Goals
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Need to be able to budget utility bill​.
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Wants to know utility usage before the bill is posted.
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Frustrations
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​Never knowing how much the utility bill be until it is posted online.
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Not having the capability to set a budget for utilities.
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Feature Prioritization
Features
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Utility usage tracker​ that will update to show the utility usage in real time.
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Tips for saving money on utilities which will be a pop up notification on the phone when usage is getting close to set budget and there will be a screen where you can manually search for ways to save on the utility bill.
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Utility usage budget setter will allow you to set a specific budget for utilities separately and collaboratively.
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History screen will show data of past utility usage.
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The payment feature will not be included in this app because of the legal attributes that comes with partnering with all utility companies so customers can pay through the mobile application.
High Impact
Low Effort or Expense
Utility Usage History
Tips on how to save on utilities
Set budget of Utility Usage
Track utility usage in real time
Place to pay utilities in one app to increase convenience
High Effort or Expense
Low Impact
User Flow
Signing Into the mobile application
Open App
Have an account?
yes
Login to app
Input email
and password
no
Create an account
Connect monitor to app
Install monitor
Sign in
Input name, email, password, address
no
Do you have utility monitor installed?
yes
Connect Monitor
to app
Viewing devices that contribute to utility usage
Open App
Have an account?
yes
Login to app
Input email
and password
no
Create an account
Sign in
Input name, email, password, address
Sign in
Home screen
Install monitor
yes
Do you have utility monitor installed?
no
Connect Monitor
to app
Connect monitor to app
Device
View Devices being used
Sign in
Home screen
Device
Utility Usage History
Low-Fidelity Wireframe Sketch
Home screen
Sign in
Utility usage details
View Devices being used
Set budget of Utility Usage
Tips on how to save on utilities
Open App
The brainstorming process assisted with contriving various ideas and quickly hand sketching potential screen designs. The sketches presented to the right are my initial ideas.
Low-Fidelity Wireframe
I created a digital wireframe using Figma using the quick sketches I created. I also added more screens because I realized that there needed to be screens for settings, creating an account, setting up the monitors, and a way to add devices.
Usability Testing
Goal
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The goal is to​ test the user's ability to navigate mobile application and view the details of the utility usage and add devices to the app.
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Task 1
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Show me how you would add sprinklers to the app to see how much it is contributing to your water usage.
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Task 2
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Show me how you would view which utilities are contributing the most to the utility usage.
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Participants
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Four participants attested to the usability testing of the mobile application. They were between ages 26 - 49. They are all familiar with smart phone applications and have lived on their own previously.
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Results
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50% of the participants didn't have an issue with completing either task. 25% of the participants didn't complete task 2 and made 2 errors by clicking the setting icon and history call to action button. 25% of the participants made an error while performing task 1 by clicking the setting icon first.
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Conclusion
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Based on the participants results, the wording of the call to action buttons were unclear. Ex: "view details" needed be selected in order to view details of the utility tracker and view which of the utilities were contributing more to the utility usage. The verbiage contributed to participants having a challenging time completing task 2. I also observed that there needs to be a different icon for settings. Participants went to settings when asked to complete task 1. When later asked the reasoning why they viewed settings first instead of the box that stated devices, it was stated that the icon for settings looks like a menu icon. The settings icon needs to change to something that better resembles setting icons other applications have.
High-Fidelity Wireframe
After viewing the results from the usability tests, I decided to change the wording of the call to action buttons to better explain what to expect before pressing the button.
After consideration and feedback from a usability testing participant, I decided to add a few questions in order to populate a suggested utility budget.
Usability Testing
Goal
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The goal is to​ test the user's ability to navigate mobile application and create an account, set budget for utility usage, and add devices to the app.
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Task 1
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This is your first time in the app and you already have your utility monitors installed. I want you to connect monitors to app and view the home screen.
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Task 2
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Set a budget for how much utilities you desire to use for the month.
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Task 3
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Add sprinklers to the app to see how much it is contributing to your water usage.​
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Participants
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Six participants attested to the usability testing of the mobile application. They were between ages 26 - 49. They are all familiar with smart phone applications and have lived on their own previously.​
Results
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66..7% of the participants were able to complete Tasks 1 with no issues. 40% of the participants were able to complete task 2. 60% didn't complete task 2. 50% of the participants completed task 3 without issues and 25% completed the task with a 33.3% miss-click rate. 25% didn't complete the task.
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Conclusion
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Based on the participants results, the wording of the setting utility budget button was unclear which contributed to participants inability to complete the task or initially having issues with competing the task.
What's Next
Improve​
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The screen that ask a series of questions in order to populate the utility budget. I would like more detailed questions that can contribute to the utility usage.
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The history screen and how the information is displayed. I would like to allow the user have the ability to choose the type of graph they understand.