Product Design
Electrification for all
SPAN is a hardware start-up crafting experiences that harness power through a smart panel, ev charger and mobile app.
context
About SPAN
SPAN enables homes to get clean energy faster, cheaper and more easily. Impacting climate change is their passion, to do this they've developed a smart breaker panel that supports the all-electric everything. | SPAN
Role
As a Senior Product Designer (first hire), I designed for both of our mobile applications and owned the design strategy and product direction of the Installer app. and user experience; utilizing a steady and opportunistic improvement with each new feature addition. | Fall 2022 - Winter 2023
Product
I shipped four new features for SPAN Drive owners to enhance the MVP user experience and introduce novel functionality. Additionally, I worked closely with engineering to improve our Installer app. and introduce two new features, most notably enabling PowerUp with a core-flow redesign.
Design (Internal)
In addition to creating our Figma design system, I owned and introduced design ops and cross-team collaboration processes, from copy writing, design QA, and bug-bashes, to user research.
at a glance
Drive 1.1
SPAN had just launched a new EV charger featuring level 2 dynamic charging, charging the EV with maximum available power while throttling down on demand to support the home's energy needs. I was responsible for communicating its potential and activating its success within the homeowner app experience with a simple visual.
Users are introduced to a novel function through a dynamic visual interlude.
Behind the scenes
Problem
Post-launch, 80% of SPAN Drive owners found the 'Charge Dynamically' mode mysterious and needed clarity on its functionality to trust activating it, in addition, prospective owners desired to see this feature's agency.
Process
Within two weeks, I explored how our existing design system skeleton could be adapted or expanded to support motion, and how these visual patterns would be extended to accommodate upcoming Drive features (of which there were five!).
Ultimately the final design was chosen for its simplicity in mirroring the main home screen power flow design and after integration led to such vast adoption that 'charging dynamically' became a default mode.
Product Goals / Outcomes
Visualize functionality at a glance
Homeowners are given a simple explanation of "how it works" complemented with a dynamic story of power balance.
Communicate nuance
Marketing and sales utilized the visual to make dynamic charging tangible and reinforce the value of service upgrade avoidance.
Demonstrate Home + Vehicle power tango
The uniqueness of SPAN's dynamic solution is expressed with romance.
Extend design langauge
Leverage pattern-recognition to build familiarity every chance we get.
Charging dynamically made clear through a power flow tango.
Drive 1.1
To further personalize and enhance the homeowner charging experience, we introduced scheduling charging via a utility rate plan. The design solution had expansive technical and interaction design integration challenges: encompassing settings, onboarding and setup flows, and setting charging time windows with conditional feedback.
Oops! You caught me!
I'm currently constructing these case studies and updating them incrementally in the next few days. Anything below this bar is an incomplete preview of some fun and technically complex 0-1 projects. Thanks for your patience!
at a glance