Energy Insights
Managing energy consumption through data-driven insights.
Duration
Jan 2024 - March 2024
Team
Kanika Bansal
Chandan
Pratyusha
Kavya Margoni​
Tools
Miro
Figma
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My Role
Conducted interviews with 10 key stakeholders to identify the core problem and led the UX design for the MVP’s data visualization.
About the Client.
Energy Insights is an IEDC-sponsored program to deploy free, smart manufacturing pilot projects to Indiana’s small-medium manufacturers. Each pilot project will provide participants with a lightweight, but scalable hardware and software package.
Image by StorySet
How might we enable plant managers to easily view the contributing factors to their monthly demand charge so they can make informed decisions and save on their energy bill?
My Impact.
Identified Core Problem
I identified the key issue manufacturers face: "difficulty in understanding contributing factors to their energy bill".This insight emerged from an extensive process involving stakeholder interviews, desk research, and literature reviews. By persistently asking "why," I was able to pinpoint the core problem
Successful Implementation
I designed the "Peak Load Overview" screen, which is now actively used by the client and integrated into their dashboard. This demonstrates my ability to not only identify key issues but also create effective data visualizations that address these problems.
Design Process.
Business
Needs
6 Stakeholder Interviews
Key Trends
Market Scope
Market Study
User Research
Qualitative data analysis
Affinity Mapping
User Persona
Journey Mapping
3 Literature Reviews
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Ideate & Design
Story-boarding
Brainstorming
Sketches
Prototyping
Wireframing
Test
Think-aloud user testing
Collecting feedback
Market Scope.
Rise in energy management
Energy management industry estimated to grow from $31.75 billion in 2023 to $82.34 billion by 2030
32%
High energy consumption
32% of total U.S. energy consumption is used to power manufacturing plants.
Key Market Trends.
Sustainability
Investors are showing a preference for companies with sustainable practices, including efficient energy use.
Technology Advancements
Integration of advanced technologies such as IoT, AI, and ML for real-time monitoring, predictive analytics, and automation in energy management.
Regulatory Changes
Adapting to regulatory changes like Incentives for energy efficiency measures Compliance with sustainability standards.
Business Needs.
Understanding key market trends and demand helped me grasp the current business environment, allowing me to identify crucial business needs.
o1
Educate manufacturers around energy savings opportunities and how to use their energy data for sustainable practices.
o2
Integrate advanced technologies to deliver a customized and user-friendly interface at low cost.
o3
Deliver insights that allow the participants reduce costs and/or improve other high-priority business KPI’s.
Market study
In this competitive landscape analysis, we looked at companies which used new & up-coming technologies as well as the well-known and trusted companies in the energy management domain.
We identified a critical market gap that our solution would uniquely fill—providing both high efficiency and cost-effectiveness for manufacturers of small-medium scale plants.
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Target Audience.
I conducted user interviews with 5 stakeholders, aged 20-40, to gain diverse perspectives. The biggest challenge we faced was recruiting interviewees, but I overcame this by speaking with 5 stakeholders who directly interacted with our users and by conducting 3 literature reviews to gather additional information to support interview findings.
Plant Manager
Martin is a plant manager at a small scale manufacturing plant. He has 20 years of experience in manufacturing.
Roles & Responsibilaties
Monitor machine health and make informed data-driven decisions to optimize energy management.
Improve manufacturing processes to increase efficiency and reduce waste.
Goals
Save money on electricity bill. Make smarter decisions to save energy and optimize processes.
Concerned about this months high energy bill.
Martin plans to investigate and save money
He walks over to the energy dashboard
He finds it difficult to understand which utilities are contributing to the peak-demand.
Overwhelmed by metrics ,graphs and technical components.
He realizes he needs a better dashboard to understand the root causes of the bill spike.
A day in Martin's life
Martin's Needs.
Gain insights from complex technical data
Demand charge data interpretation & comparison
Electricity Consumption cost
calculation & savings
How might we enable plant managers to easily view the contributing factors to their monthly demand charge so they can make informed decisions and save on their energy bill?
What is Demand Charge?
User Needs
Feasibility
Viability
At 12 pm all 5 lights are turned on at the same time and the demand is 500 W which is the peak demand for the day.
The highest 15-minute period of demand over a billing cycle is known as the Peak Demand.
Depending on the rate structure, demand charges can be anywhere from 30% to 70% of a monthly electric bill
Two types of demand:
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1. Daily Demand
Peak demand typically occurs during the hours when the facility is operational, and production is in full swing.
2. Seasonal Demand
The diverse seasonal weather patterns of the United States affect electricity demand
Design Approach
Desirability
Viability
Feasibility
User Needs
Business Needs
Technology
Target Solution Space
By taking this approach, we wanted ensure that our solution is not only innovative and technically sound but also highly desired by the market and economically sustainable. This approach ensured delivering a product that is both effective in solving user problems and successful in the competitive marketplace.
Using the value proposition canvas to ideate
Value Proposition Canvas by Strategzer
The Value Proposition Canvas provided a clear framework that ensured alignment between our product and the market. By mapping out customer pains, gains, and jobs, we could tailor our products and services to meet these specific needs.This approach enabled me to refine our value proposition, ensuring a product-market fit that directly addressed the functional, emotional, and social demands of our target audience, ultimately leading to a more compelling and valuable offering.
Key Value Propositions.
Breakdown of utilities contributing to peak demand.
Intuitive user interface.
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Cost of the demand charge based on the chosen pricing plan.
After ideating various gain creators and pain relievers, I selected the top three value propositions that would address user needs and drive business value
Solution.
Our solution leverages Energy Insights Starter Kit to seamlessly collect data from IOT devices across the manufacturing plant. This data undergoes sophisticated analysis, allowing the kit to generate intuitive graphs.
These visuals highlight key metrics such as the peak energy load of the month followed by a breakdown of the utilities that contributed to the peak load.
Additionally, real-time electricity cost is monitored based on the plant’s current pricing plan.
This should enable the manufacturers to make smart decisions!
Storyboard of the solution
User Flow.
Final Screens.
How does this work?
Click to expand
Click to expand
User Feedback.
For usability testing and feedback we attended the smart manufacturing roadshow to meet first hand with our users and integrators(who would be developing the product).
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We spoke to 1 user and 2 integrators and got feedback for our solution.
3/3
3/3
They believed that the dashboard
encompassed crucial information.
3/3
They mentioned that the
dashboard offered valuable insights on their usage.
2/3
Concerned about the calculations
of prices for energy consumption
Reviews.
"The utility demand visualization will be very helpful to the manufacturers!"
Benson Houghland
Opto 22 CEO
"We are already using the peak demand concept for our dashboard!"
Rebecca Gillespie
Energy Insights Managing Director
"The concept is interesting, it definitely provides important information"
Integrator
Inductive Automation
My Takeaways.
Understanding of the IOT Ecosystem
Gained insights into the interconnectedness of various system components and how data flows within the ecosystem, enhancing the effectiveness of the dashboard's integrations and functionalities.
Business Value Propositions
Learned to align my design concepts with core business objectives, ensuring that the visualizations and metrics directly support strategic decision-making and performance tracking.
​UX Design Importance
Focused on creating user-centric dashboard interfaces, prioritizing ease of use, intuitive navigation, and clear visual hierarchies to improve user engagement and data accessibility.
