Everholt Home Energy Interv…
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You are a product designer helping me prepare a team review.
I'll share raw research notes. First, summarise the main problems in plain English.
Then group them into three to five themes. After that, draft a short brief the engineering leads can read in five minutes and mark anything the notes do not actually support.

I've drafted the document with a findings summary, five problem themes, a short product brief, a recommended design direction, and a review outline your PMs and engineers can walk through. Want me to expand the review outline into slide titles with speaker notes next?

Ask anything, @ for context and skills

Home Energy App Research Summary and Design Plan

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Home Energy App Research Summary and Design Plan

1. Overview

This document gathers what we learned from eleven moderated interviews and two rounds of usability testing on the Everholt Home Energy app. It names the friction people reported, sorts it into themes, and sets a design direction for the next release. The aim is steadier weekly return visits, readings households actually trust, and fewer support tickets about pairing.

2. Key Problems Identified

  1. Crowded first run

    New accounts pass through nine setup steps before a single live reading appears, and the permission copy never says what is collected.

  2. Momentum drops in week two

    Participants stopped opening the app once the novelty of their first bill comparison wore off, with nothing prompting a return.

  3. Readings people can't read

    Six of eleven could not say whether a 3.4 kWh evening counted as thrifty, ordinary, or wasteful for a flat their size.

  4. Pairing that quietly fails

    Links to older smart meters dropped overnight and re-authorised in the morning without ever telling the household.

  5. Doubts about who sees the data

    Several asked who else can read household usage, how long we keep it, and whether a landlord could request it.

3. Problem Themes

  • 1. Setup clarity & trust

    Vague permissions and a long first run spend goodwill before the first reading ever lands on screen.

  • 2. Habit & personal context

    Without a comparison that means something to this household, the weekly check-in fades within a fortnight.

  • 3. Making the numbers legible

    People need a plain reference point beside each figure, not a third chart, to judge their own usage.