Atom Power Case Study Copy Copy

Project Overview

Problem

Atom Power was relying on third party software that was expensive and hard to use. Furthermore, settings configured on their new Insight software had no way to be communicated to end user.

Solution

We created the Driver App, a progressive web app.

Outcome

The Driver App:

Removed Atom Power's dependance on 3rd party software, allowing them to price more competitively.
Provided their clients an interface to communicate customized charging policies and schedules.
Gave drivers a straightforward interface for locating chargers, understanding fees, and viewing in-progress and completed charging session metrics.

Backstory

Client

Atom Power is a tech company that provides electric vehicle charging solutions to enterprises.
Their innovative commercial solid-state digital circuit breaker has been hailed as the world’s safest and fastest for smart power and more sustainable energy distribution.

Problem

Despite having world class hardware, Atom Power was dependent on third-party software and software developed for internal users.

This set-up was problematic for a variety of reasons: the software was expensive, hard to use, lacked customization, and didn't provide a way for drivers to authenticate.

Discovering Industry Patterns

Methods

Competitive Benchmarking → understand key industry patterns
Field research → understand the charging and payment flows of competitors

Findings

Competitors commonly featured the ability to scan QR codes to begin charging and maps to browse available nearby chargers.
While our direct competitors had robust sets of features, we identified essential task flows to fit the needs of our enterprise clients.

Minimizing Design Debt

Design System Creation

To minimize development level of effort, we applied established Atom Power branding guidelines to Ionic Framework mobile components.

The design system was created in tandem with the engineering lead to ensure all modifications to Ionic components were feasible and maintained a low LOE.

High Fidelity Mockups

The lead developer had already begun development before we began the project. To maximize efficiency, we evaluated the existing design with a focus on usability and accessibility.
Given the starting point, we used the design system to apply company branding and iterate on the existing design to solve usability concerns.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Design and development of the web app were concurrent. Regular alignment meetings, detailed annotations with multimedia references, and asynchronous communication ensured a collaborative process. By the time I reviewed the app for design QA, the app matched the design specs and operated as intended.
Through ongoing alignment meetings with the lead designer, lead developer and engineering manager/business analyst, we gathered feedback and iterated to finalize the Proof of Concept (POC) for usability testing.

Usability Testing

Key Takeaways

In-person moderated testing sessions with 13 participants yielded the following feedback:

app is simple and straightforward
charging without the QR code yielded the most challenges, with some users not seeing the input field to manually input the code and other user misunderstanding the label
participants often misunderstood error messages despite feeling confident that they understood it
some aspects of the map were misaligned with user expectations (i.e. default zoom, icon and absence of location indicator)

Areas for Improvement

shrinking the QR field and altering copy for manual code entry
revise error message copy
changing default map view to be more zoomed in and using alternative navigation icon

Outcome

Saving Money & Providing Access to Drivers

In conjunction with Atom Insight software (business back end), the release of Atom Power’s Driver App in March 2024 gave Atom’s clients and their drivers complete control over their end to end EV charging experience.

For Atom Power, the Driver App removed their dependance on 3rd party software, allowing them to price more competitively. It provided Atom’s clients an interface to communicate their customized charging policies and schedules and, gives drivers a straightforward interface for locating chargers, understanding fees, and viewing in-progress and completed charging session metrics.

The launch of the Driver App is projected to save both Atom Power and its clients tens of thousands of dollars annually.