A Customer Proposal for OpenSolar
Client:
Solar Installers and Sales Professionals
My role:
Research
User Flows
Wireframes
High fidelity screens
Overview
OpenSolar provides Solar Professionals the tools to rapidly design and sell Solar System solutions to their customers via its free App. These systems can include panels, inverters, batteries and more, with a view towards greatly expanding the offering in the coming years as more products become electrified.
At the centre of OpenSolar's product offering is the Client Proposal. This is an automatically generated document based on the system designed by the Solar Pro. It generally includes an itemised list of equipment, a visual representation of the system overlaid on a satellite image of the customer's property, the saving benefits, the environmental benefits, payment options and system pricing. The proposal template can be fully customised by the pro to include more or less information as needed, as well as to display the pro's company branding.
As UX Designer at OpenSolar, one of my roles was to re-imagine the proposal design, which in it's existing state was insufficiently equipped to match the future direction of OS as a provider of not just solar systems, but a wide range of electrified good and services.
We studied 10 of our Competitors’ Proposals
One of my initial research tasks was a comprehensive feature review of 10 proposals from OpenSolar's key competitors, looking at commonalities across them, and what components and design decisions warranted exploration for our design.
What features are our Competitors Including?
The analysis below audits what features are included in competitor proposals and how frequently. This was key in the discovery of essential features to be considered for the OS base proposal template, and also what features were being missed by our competitors, and offered opportunity for differentiation.
Proposal Narrative and Structure
Based on consultation with Subject Matter Experts and insights from interviews with Solar Pros, we created a narrative arc that formed the basis for the proposal's structure.
Competitive Analysis - Graph UI
At the proposal's core is the communication of financial and energy saving benefits to its customers. Part of our competitive analysis included the the study of how charts and graphs are used to present this information.
Proposal Chart UI
We created a series of charts to demonstrate cost and energy savings, using a consistent colour-based UI, with desaturated blues and greys representing cost and power consumption, and bright gold gradient representing savings and power generation.
OpenSolar Proposal - High-Fidelity Design
Our final high fidelity design allowed for full customisation of both branding and content by the solar Pro, with logos, colour schemes, fonts and imagery custom defined.
