Chargepoint Home
Project and Role
ChargePoint Home is a connected charger that users can install at home for charging their electric vehicles. I designed the status and settings screens in the mobile app to help people monitor the status of their charger, and configure its settings. My responsibilities included: designing the interaction, creating prototypes in Invision, and creating the visual design.
Design
The goal was to design an app that helped drivers monitor their charger, and change its settings easily. The design shows the status of the charger prominently. To make the app feel alive, the LED status on the charger is mirrored in the app, which users found delightful.
Drivers get cheaper rates for charging when they charge at the off-peak hours of their utility. We wanted to make it easy for people to take advantage of this. Based on their location, users are educated about utility plans that will save them money, and they can pick their utility plan. If users are unsure about their utility plan, a phone number is conveniently provided. The schedule is simple to set up, as the off-peak hours are automatically populated based on the utility.
After releasing the first version, we received feedback from users that they want to set a manual price, as sometimes the rates we were getting from an API weren't accurate for their situation. I designed a manual rate entry screen to help with this.
Impact
The engineering team from a major auto manufacturer praised the app as "polished" and having "nice touches".
The product has a 4.5 star rating on Amazon, and the set up and configuration in the app is rated as very simple:
"The ChargePoint app is a nice addition to monitor usage."
"Nice EVSE with integration with the chargepoint App. Makes it very easy to see the state of your car's charge."
"Like all features, like scheduling based on your rate plan, wifi etc. Highly recommended!"
"I love being able to schedule my charge times through the app instead of through my car. I also love that I am able to see the energy I used."