PIQ Energy
team:
Irene - Product Designer Tom Nudell Ph.D. - CEO, Engineer
Dio Stamatiadis - Cofounder
role:
User Research
Prototyping
Usability Testing
impact:
End-to-end Web Application
PROBLEM
Power grid simulations are needed to set up renewable energy generators - but its a complex process.
Energy engineers are spending hours manually running complex power grid simulations. Afterwards, the static inputs and outputs are haphazardly stored in the company’s system, making tracing steps difficult. Overall the process is tedious, time consuming, and disorganized.
This sparked the question: how might we design a streamlined experience that uses PIQ’s simulation engine to make the study process faster, painless, and more organized for energy engineers?
UNDERSTAND
Generator Development is Iterative, Collaborative, and High Stakes
First I sought to understand the current state of the development process.
Running Generator Studies Involves Back and Forth Between Many Personas
Next, I sought to fully understand how the various personas interacted with each other throughout the development process.
DISCOVER
What are the personas and their pain points and goals?
Manager
Goal: lead team and submit proposals for development with confidence
Pain point: Study files are unorganized, making it hard to view input and outputs of studies
Developers
Goal: Run studies and share results with their team
Pain Point: Running studies is manual and tedious. Study artifacts are not well organized.
Consultants
Goal: Run studies and generate reports for their clients
Pain Point: Running studies is manual and tedious. Report sharing is not centralized
Independent System Operator
Goal: Review proposals by running studies
Pain Point: Running studies is manual and tedious. Study artifacts are disorganized
DEVELOP
Wireframes and User Flows Were Developed
DELIVER
Creating a visual design system
Material UI components and designs were utilized to accommodate limited engineering resources bring a clean, modern look to an industry where interfaces often feel outdated.
Designs are Locked !
Reach out to irene.pham99@gmail.com for more information!
Next Steps for PIQ
PIQ’s web application is being developed at the moment! As the company takes on more pilots and adds more study types user feedback sessions and design iterations will continue. Features . requested in user interviews that were tabled due to engineering capacity will be designed and implemented.