GM Energy App Re-Design

Client
General Motors
Service
Product Design, User Research, 3D Modeling, Animation
Year
2024
Overview
Our mission was to craft an industry-leading redesign of General Motors’ companion mobile app, delivering an experience that exceeds the expectations of GM Energy customers and reflects GM's forward-thinking energy vision.

Background

The home energy industry can be complex. Its helpful to have some background on the concepts and products that are referenced in the app’s re-design. Learn more about GM Energy and the industry below.
Skip This Section

What is "GM Energy?"

GM Energy is a wing of the business that leverages the battery technology used in GM Electric Vehicles to help people and businesses store & use energy. GM Energy sells Home Energy Systems and Commercial Energy Systems.

What is a "Home Energy System?"

A Home Energy System is an interconnected system of products that monitor and control a household's energy use, storage, and generation. The system helps people save money, reduce emissions, or become more self-sufficient.

Where does the mobile app come in?

The mobile app pairs with the physical products in the home energy system, allowing users to visualize the whole system, monitor it's status, and control how it operates.

GM Energy Products

Home Battery
Home Hub, Inverter, Dark Start Battery
Electric Vehicle (EV)
‍
Solar Panels
‍
EV Charger

Discovery

Our team inherited the MVP app from another team. Therefore, we chose to take time to understand and validate the existing design. Turns out, the original MVP lacked research support, and design was mostly led by the business team. We were left uncertain if the design was (or was not) meeting users' needs.

We decided to do our own research to learn about the motivations and behaviors of Home Energy System owners, and to validate the design decisions of MVP app design.

Through user research and competitive analysis, we gathered insights and transformed them into unique opportunities to improve the MVP experience.
Skip This Section

What research did we do?

3
User studies conducted
(with 5+ users each)
16
Competitors reviewed
500+
Inspiring images curated

Insights & Opportunities

We collected the insights we learned from our research. When reviewing our insights, we naturally discovered unique opportunities to improve the MVP app.
insight
Users expect relevant features when they need it.
Users feel intimidated by the complexity of Home Energy Systems, and they expect the app to provide relevant information and actions, guiding them to make smart choices.
opportunity
Use 3D and contextual UI to provide clarity.
The MVP app lacked high-quality contextual information and features.

We can use 3D to improve wayfinding clarity, and we can standardize providing helpful information across the app to guide decision-making.
insight
User Types: Passive & Active
We identified two types of users who use home energy  apps:

Passive users, who configure settings once and occasionally check system status, and Active users, who regularly monitor performance details to optimize system efficiency.
opportunity
Simplicity & Progressive Disclosure
The MVP app feels overly complex and tailored more toward Active Users than Passive Users.

We can simplify the UI to meet Passive Users' expectations while still giving Active Users access to detailed information through progressive disclosure.
insight
Motivations for using a Home Energy System
Across all of our user studies, we identified three consistent motivations for purchasing and using a Home Energy System.

Users want to save money on their energy bills, have less impact on the environment, and rely less on the public power grid.
opportunity
Measure users' return on investment (ROI)
When the MVP app was developed, it lacked insight into user motivations and didn’t provide data on how users’ system performed in relation to energy independence, cost savings, or environmental impact.

There’s an opportunity to offer users an ROI breakdown, giving them insight into how their system has or has not paid off.
insight
User Workflow: Monitor, Analyze, Control
Users typically follow this pattern when opening the app: monitor their system, analyze its performance over time, and adjust system controls as needed.
opportunity
Tailor the UI to match user workflow
When the MVP app was developed, it lacked insight into user workflow. We could optimize the architecture of the UI to match this workflow.
insight
Users want insights presented to them in a storytelling manner.
Users found a dashboard of analytics tools unhelpful because they had to analyze the data themselves to gain insights. They requested an analytics experience that automates the work and presents data in a storytelling manner.
opportunity
Create a new narrative-driven analytics experience
The MVP app used an analytics dashboard that users didn’t resonate with. We believe a scrollable, story experience would resonate more. We can simplify the UX and make it directly relevant by analyzing users’ data for them.
See more insights

Design

Using the opportunities found in Discovery, I created a series of design improvements to the experience, while still respecting the underlying functionality of the app.

Simplifying the Home Screen

The MVP home page was cluttered and confusing. I focused on removing non-essential elements and simplifying the design. In the re-design, each list item was written as a clear sentence, like a newspaper, providing a quick overview while also acting as a link to more details.
Opportunities Addressed
Use 3D and contextual UI to provide clarity
Simplicity & Progressive Disclosure

3D Navigation

By increasing the size of the home visualization, I gave room for the home itself to be the navigation menu.


‍
Tapping directly on a product navigates you to a page providing details about it, and the UI adapts to the product in focus.
Opportunities Addressed
Use 3D and contextual UI to provide clarity
Simplicity & Progressive Disclosure

Taxonomy Adjustments

I reorganized the home screen to align with users' workflow: Monitor, Analyze, and Control.
Opportunities Addressed
Tailor the UI to match user workflow

System Mode Redesign

Previously, we had to navigate through several settings menus to access the "Operational Mode," a key feature in controlling the system. This was un-intuitive and confusing.
‍
I renamed the feature to "System Mode," redesigned the UI, and moved the feature to the home page for ease of access.
Opportunities Addressed
Tailor the UI to match user workflow
Simplicity & Progressive Disclosure
Before (4 taps)
After (1 tap)

3D Home Visualization

The home visualization serves as the app’s centerpiece, requiring thoughtful design and layout. I researched architectural styles, planned product placement on the home, and struck a balance between realism and minimalism. The system is animated to reflect real-time performance, providing users with instant, intuitive insights.

Iterations

Impact Page

The Impact page measures the “impact” the system has had over a given time period. How well are things going, what could be improved, what might be changed? This page is the essence of measuring the value the system has given to the customer.

Story-Driven Analytics Experience

Home Energy System owners want to clearly understand their system’s performance. By providing insights in simple language with supporting graphs, we deliver a straightforward, engaging experience without complex filters or analytics tools. Key improvements include:

System Performance Score: A single metric to evaluate overall effectiveness over a set period.

Key Insight Cards: Highlighting essential findings from past data.

User-Centric Sections: Organized content based on research-backed metrics, explained in plain, large-text language.
Opportunities Addressed
Measure users' return on investment (ROI)
Create a new narrative-driven analytics experience

Cost Savings Breakdown

Drawing from user motivations, I introduced a Cost Savings breakdown page, illustrating how the each product in the system is creating value and saving the customer money.
Opportunities Addressed
Measure users' return on investment (ROI)
Create a new narrative-driven analytics experience

Product Pages

The Product page gives insights about a specific product, by providing access to relevant data, settings,
and controls.

Making Product Pages Useful.

We’ve introduced dedicated product pages, consolidating settings and analytics into a single, streamlined view. Each page features a consistent layout, letting users: view a contextual 3D render, check current status, access controls and settings, and explore detailed data insights.

Battery product page shown above.
Opportunities Addressed
Use 3D and contextual UI to provide clarity.

Solar & Vehicle

The Solar and Vehicle product pages follow a similar layout as above, but each with their respective data and controls.
Opportunities Addressed
Use 3D and contextual UI to provide clarity.
Solar
The Solar page features a live view of how much energy the panels are producing now and over the course of the day.
Electric Vehicle (EV)
The EV stands out with more extensive controls, requiring a unique layout. I redesigned the vehicle controls to integrate seamlessly into the 3D space, demonstrating their functionality in action.

Utilities

Although utilities such as the power grid and the home’s electrical system are not GM products, they are a part of the same energy ecosystem, and therefore also get their own product page.
Opportunities Addressed
Use 3D and contextual UI to provide clarity.
Power Grid
The power grid page also gives access the utility rate plan used by the home. The system uses the rate plan to determine when to save energy and when it use it.
Home Electrical
The home electrical page gives insight into how the home itself is pulling energy from the home energy system.