APR- MAY 2023 / WEB / DESIGN SERVICES
NuWatt Energy Website Redesign
During this project, our team redesigned the homeowner touch points from NuWatt Energy’s website. We overhauled the home solar financial calculator flow, redesigned homeowner-facing pages, and reformatted the information architecture to be user-centric rather than service focused.
Team
2 Product Designers
TIMELINE
Mar 2023- Apr 2023 (5 weeks)
INDIVIDUAL DELIVERABLES
User research, heuristic analysis, information architecture, usability testing, wireframing (Resource Page screen), user testing
Small Company, Diverse Offerings
NuWatt energy is a small solar company started in 2008, based in Massachusetts, with offices around the country. NuWatt offers a variety of services to a diverse range of users, including solar for homeowners, solar for businesses and organizations, solar for farms (Agrivoltaics), and solar noise barriers for transportation agencies. In addition to these design and installation services, they also offer ductless mini splits and battery storage for residential clients. Although its diversity of products and services is a business strength, communicating this range of information to drastically different user groups on the website is an increasing challenge, particularly as NuWatt plans to build more digital products for different segments of their business.
NuWatt’s diverse product offerings on their homepage
Solution
Our solution for the site highlights NuWatts diverse product offering throughout the site using internal links, but organizes the navigation and content by specific user groups to make it more intuitive for users.
Our redesign uses graphic hierarchy to prioritize key content for users defined by our market research, and simplifies long text blocks with simple infographics.
Residential Solar
Our team decided to focus on the homeowner touchpoints because it was an easy win for the business. We had a limited timeframe and homeowners represent the most significant segment to NuWatt’s business, and its existing residential page was a severely outdated Wordpress site (pictured below). This was substantiated by the page’s google analytics which showed increasing exit and bounce rates.
NuWatt’s current outdated Residential Solar Page
Multifaceted Research Strategy
We conducted a multi-faceted research strategy on homeowner solar consumers to gather data, refine our project scope and guide our decision-making process. First, we conducted secondary research on our target users by looking at recent survey data on homeowner priorities when shopping for solar services, and key metrics for a solar website. Second, we conducted an audit of the homeowner-facing features on the website and compared them to those provided by their competitors. Finally, we conducted a competitive heuristic and task flow analysis of the existing website, comparing NuWatt’s homeowner-facing flows against their competitors. We learned the following:
KEY METRICS
Conversion rate: Percentage of leads that convert into customers is important because you can identify areas where you may be losing potential customers and prioritize features that will improve your sales and marketing efforts.
Customer satisfaction: Tracking customer satisfaction through surveys or other feedback mechanisms can identify areas for improvement and build customer loyalty.
What matters most to homeowners?
Energy Bill Savings
Battery storage
Financing/ Estimations
Home values
Tax incentives
Source: UC Berkeley BEACN 2021 Survey
Competitive Analysis
Individual Work
Out of 13 homeowner-facing features found amongst NuWatt’s competitors, NuWatt provided 9, which is a significant number, and second compared to the three other companies. The following diagram compares these features between companies and what pages each feature is presented on.
Heuristic & Task Flow Analysis
Developed as a Team
Finally, we conducted a task flow analysis between NuWatt and their exemplary competitors to compare how users complete basic functions. The tasks included:
Generate an estimate
Sign up for a consultation
Find financing information
Project Scope Defined
After the research phase, we defined our project scope to include all homeowner-facing touchpoints: the homepage, homeowner page, calculator flow, consultation page, and blog/ resources page were redesigned. In addition, we provided NuWatt with a proposed site map and style guide to help model the rest of the website's redesign.
Ideation to Wireframes
Developed as a Team
We created low to mid-fidelity iterations on these screens and presented them to the NuWatt team. Reconciling a simple, user-centric experience with NuWatt’s diverse user groups and variety of products and services persisted as an issue in conversations with the NuWatt team. This issue was resolved in parallel with developing the information architecture by ensuring all of the company's products and services were accessible using a simple Information Architecture, organized to prioritize users.
Homepage
Homeowner Page
Information Architecture
Individual Work
Existing Site Map
To develop the Information Architecture, we first outlined the existing website’s site map and found NuWatt’s diverse services were mostly organized under the Service drop down menu, rather than by users. In addition, user-related information like minisplits were not organized under the services menu but were given their own pages that were not linked to other associated pages. This made the information disparately organized, and hard to find and manage for users.
Card Sorting
Proposed Site Map
The proposed site map removes the drop down menu, organizes information by user types and includes internal links between subpages to increase navigation between pages.
As a part of our services, we submitted a report to NuWatt on how to retain important Search Engine Optimization when overhauling a website design. Link to report.
Prototyping
Developed as a Team
We created low to mid-fidelity iterations on these screens and presented them to the NuWatt team. Reconciling a simple, user-centric experience with NuWatt’s diverse user groups and variety of products and services persisted as an issue in conversations with the NuWatt team. This issue was resolved in parallel with developing the information architecture by ensuring all of the company's products and services were accessible using a simple Information Architecture, organized to prioritize users.
Style Guide
Before creating our prototype we developed a style guide using NuWatt’s original color palette and font style. We used these standard fonts, colors and spacing to make wireframing our new screens faster and create graphic consistency throughout the site.
Usability Testing
Developed as a Team
After creating our prototype, we did usability testing by conducting (7) moderated tests asked them to complete the following tasks:
If you’re a homeowner how would you get a quote?
How would you get a Consultation?
How would you find information about financing options?
How would you find articles on installing solar on your home?
Moderated testing allowed us to observe users' thoughts and frustrations in real-time during the process. Usability testing report link
Resources Page
Users were confused about what is on the Resources page other than blog articles. So we added a sentence below the Heading to tell users what to expect from the resources tab. Users observed that it would be nice to see a date and topic on the blog articles to make them easier to browser through and filter. So we updated the blog cards to include date published and headline about the article topic. Users also thought adding a customer support button to the resources page would be helpful so we added that as well.
Estimation Checkout
The next set of improvements were on the estimator check out page. Users observed the financing info was a bit prominent on the prototype and thought it was distracting and left the page looking unorganized. So we toned down the financing info button and tweaked the UI to emphasize the price, and breakdown.
Updated blog card
Final Handoff
Developed as a Team
Finally, we showed our findings and improvements to the NuWatt team alongside their original pages. They were thrilled with the result and felt the tension between presenting their services and creating a user-centered navigation was resolved through presenting the diversity of products on each related page. This ensured them that their original content would not in anyway be over simplified and not communicated to potential customers.
Residential Solar
Homepage
Conclusion
Throughout the project, we had the following reflections:
Analytics & Testing. If we had more time, we would monitor the improved site’s analytics using metrics identified in the research phase like conversion rates, and customer satisfaction. And google analytics such as exit and bounce rates.
The importance of research even projects with shorter timelines. The research phase helped us define our scope of work early on and keep the team focused to deliver results.