Parent Eco

BACKGROUND

This project focused on designing an app to solve the target users' energy-saving problems using a smart meter.

Climate change
Global climate change has been an environmental issue for many years. To reduce domestic energy consumption in the UK, the government believes that every British household should have smart meters that provide better information about their energy consumption (Zheng et al., 2013). The smart meter, from the users' perspective, offers potential benefits:
✔️ Users can estimate bills from the collected information, allowing them to manage energy consumption to reduce their electric bills.
✔️ Users can use the energy more precisely by getting information on electricity usage habits from the smart meter.
✔️ Users can switch or delay the operation of significant consumption electrical equipment to less expensive hours by using the smart meter.

Target users

This family is a young couple married in their mid-thirties and it consists of David, Sarah and baby Oliver. Here are some background information about this family:

They are both busy and active and recently welcomed a newborn baby.
They are financially constrained and their daily routine revolves around caring for Oliver. For example, household chores, noisy activities and meal times are scheduled to avoid Oliver's sleeping time.
They are environmentally conscious, viewing energy as a convenience, and are interested in investing in new windows, a boiler, a tumble dryer and a dishwasher.
They are willing to invest in convenient facilities for the sake of efficiency.
For this family, making the right decision is crucial, and they do not want to be rushed. While they aim to save on electricity bills, they would not want to spend a lot of time and effort to achieve this goal and they will always put their baby in the first place.

ROLE

UX Designer

User Journey, User Flow, Persona, Wireframing, Storyboard, Digital Prototyping, User Testing
Figma, Marvel, and Miro

2 months

THE PROCESS

1

Discover

2

Define

3

Develop

4

Testing

5

Deliver

discover

INITIAL PROBLEM STATEMENT

Discover

How to motivate them to take action to reduce energy consumption? Why might they struggle to reduce? I listed down the COM-B (capability C, opportunity O, motivation M, behaviour B) model to see if there is an opportunity to encourage them to take climate action (Figure 1).

I chose an assumption which is about new parents developing new habits to create a how might we statement:

'How might we design a mobile app that utilises smart meter data to encourage families with a young baby who lack time to change behaviours so that they can use less energy in their homes and feel reassured they are taking good care of their babies?'

Define

Persona

The persona illustrates patterns of behaviour, goals, and motivations specific to the target users. In Figure 2, I created a persona representing the app's target user. Sarah had been selected as the primary user, and certain assumptions have been made regarding her end goals and experience goals. Through this app, I aim to solve the problems she faces by using a smart meter to reduce the negative impact of energy consumption while she takes care of Oliver, making the app become her daily assistance.

Define

Pain points

Sarah's pain point is that being a new mother without sufficient childcare experience, especially in establishing bedtime routines at night, she often faces disruptions in sleep due to the baby's crying during sleep. This frequent interruption can lead to frustration, as she may not understand the reason for the baby's crying. Additionally, the time and energy required for taking care of a baby reduce the time for household chores and consume her physical and mental energy.

Key insights

Mothers always want to take good care of their children and feel a sense of responsibility and unconditional love towards them. Therefore, if the child encounters some health problems, mothers often feel self-blame and lack confidence in the capability of looking after children. Additionally, this will affect her physical and mental condition.

Secondary research

According to Ofgem, the average British household has 2.4 people living in it and uses 2,700 kWh of electricity and 11,500 kWh of gas (Figure 4). This works out to 242 kWh of electricity and 1,000 kWh of gas per month (British Gas, 2023).

The efficiency of a boiler can affect how much the energy bills are. The Energy Saving Trust estimates households could save between £200 and £355 a year by upgrading to a more energy-efficient boiler. Thus, this family is concerned about buying a new boiler to save energy and bills (Figure 5).

Figure 5. How much you can save by replacing the old ones

How is energy used by new parents with a newborn baby?
✔️ Over 75% of new parents reported a noticeable rise in their electricity consumption (Smart Energy, 2023).
✔️ The E.ON research shows that four in 10 tumble dry more often.
✔️ Almost a third put on ‘significantly more’ loads of washing (E.ON energy, 2023).
✔️ They watch on average three and a half more hours of TV and listen to three more hours of radio a day.
✔️ A tumble dryer is one of the most energy-hungry appliances in the home; cutting down on just one load a week could take around £30 off the electricity bill.

What to focus on and how to solve the problem?
Focus on the target users' goals and pain points and find a relationship between saving energy and new mothers caring for their babies.

Temperature is one of the factors in having good sleep. Focusing on adjusting the optimal temperature for the baby to maintain their physical health and reduce the frequency of disturbances to the mother's sleep.

Oliver is 3 months old and Sarah is trying to set a bedtime routine as she will soon return to work. It's December and the weather is cold at night. She is worried about if Oliver is warm enough but not overheating. Experts recommend maintaining a temperature of between 16 and 20 degrees Celsius both in summer and in winter (Pampers, 2023).

UX Vision Statement
Based on user pain points, new moms often feel frustrated and confused when their baby is crying during the night. In this family, Sarah needs to set Oliver's sleep schedule, find the right sleep temperature he likes and ensure he has a good sleep. In addition, she needs to manage household energy usage effectively to strike a balance between saving energy and taking care of her baby.

'I believe, there is an opportunity to design a mobile app for a new mother lacking experience in childcare that encourages them to adjust energy usage, and overcomes their worries about the baby's health and household energy consumption so that they are reassured that the home environment is optimised in line with the baby's need.'

develop

Develop

Start Designing!

The experience of using my app will be:
Reassuring – helps new parents develop confidence.
Trustworthy – the app feels like an experienced caregiver that the new parent can trust.
Empowering – parents feel more in control of their children's health.

Key features

Monitor: By combining it with a sensor on the baby's wrist, Sarah can accurately monitor the baby's health, including heart rate and sleep duration. Sarah can also monitor household energy usage, and expenses through this app.
Feedback: By getting feedback about how well the baby sleeps, Sarah can determine the temperature at which the baby is most comfortable.
Identify: As mothers are busy taking care of the baby during the day, leading to delayed household chores, the smart meter can provide real-time energy consumption data for each household appliance. This information helps identify off-peak times, allowing for energy conservation during those times.

User Journey Map

Storyboard

Site Map

User Flow

I chose the baby's sleep temperature adjustment as the main user flow and created a low-fidelity prototype.

'As a new mother, I want to be alerted if my child is too hot or too cold so that I am reassured that the room temperature remains optimal for my baby’s health and use energy efficiently at the same time.'

Testing

Usability Test

Lo-fi prototype

I used an app called MARVEL to create a low-fidelity prototype and conducted a user usability test with a student who studies at Loughborough University in the UK. A participant in the usability test needs to use the app to adjust indoor temperature. While this participant may not represent the target user of the app, which is a limitation of this test, even without fully possessing the mindset of a new mother caring for a child, the participant was able to complete the given tasks related to the overall user flow of the app.

Feedback from participants

During the testing process, some steps confused the participant, leading him to spend more time figuring out the next steps in completing the tasks. Therefore, I have made modifications to the interface design and the sequence of screens based on the feedback.

Deliver

Evaluate and Iterate

Through participant feedback, the user flow and screen sequence have been modified. Starting from receiving the notification, a new prompt to connect the baby sensor has been added. By linking the sensor, it is determined that the indoor temperature is a bit high for the baby, triggering a notification to lower the temperature. The user chooses to adjust the temperature to the recommended indoor level, and finally receives feedback on effective energy usage, completing a process that both saves energy and ensures the baby's comfort.

Final design

Lessons Learned

I classified the opportunities within the COM method based on a risk and uncertainty matrix, identifying the highest risk and most uncertain opportunity which is assuming they might use a tumble dryer during the off-peak time instead of during the day. The off-peak time is normally a 7-hour window between 11 pm - 8 am (E.ON Next,2024). If this assumption fails, the app's feature of identifying off-peak times might not be a priority for them. Therefore, additional user research for energy savings and expenditure reduction would need to be explored in energy utilisation.

The practices for improvement include, first of all, conducting surveys and research on users to identify whether mothers would delay household chores until the evening due to daytime childcare responsibilities, determining the percentage of users following this pattern, and assessing the impact of childcare on the timing of household chores. Secondly, redesigning user scenarios, collecting feedback, and adjusting the design direction. Third, modifying the testing prototype, redesigning user interfaces and features, through redefinition, and identifying the user experience design that best meets the needs of new mothers.