Bulb energy: a UX case study
Suggestions to improve the mobile app
‘Bulb’ is one of the newest energy providers on the block. Its unique selling point is providing 100% renewable electricity and 10% green gas at affordable prices.
I switched over to them a few months ago and the experience so far has been a good one. As a UX Designer I was particularly impressed with the overall experience and how smooth the onboarding process was, with really clear instructions on what would happen when during the switch.
Their website is simple and well designed, and little details like the animations in their emails actually make the whole process of paying bills an almost pleasant experience!
They also add some nice touches with their copy…
Bulb’s mobile app
I recently downloaded their Android app to make it easier to submit meter readings. The rating of the app was lower than I’d expected (3.6 out of 5), as I was really impressed by their website.
I decided to dig a little deeper to find out what the issues were and see if I could suggest some improvements to the design.
Looking at some of the comments on the Play store, it seems that Bulb had already resolved a lot of issues that had been highlighted. The ‘login with magic link’ didn’t seem to work for me though — the Bulb app just doesn’t open when clicking the link in the email.
User goals
Main reasons users would want to use the mobile app:
- Submitting meter readings
- Viewing energy usage
- Checking bills/statements
I tested the app to see if I could carry out these main tasks.
Submitting meter readings
I had no issues submitting a reading, it was straightforward and easy to do. Here is the user flow:
Viewing energy usage
Currently there is no option to view your energy usage in the mobile app. This could be a useful feature to add.
To make room for the ‘Usage’ option in the menu, I would suggest moving the ‘Account’ icon to the top right. This is where the user would expect to find it, as it is a common location for most apps.
Here’s how it might look:
Here’s how the energy usage screen could look, with a graph showing 6 months at a time in order to fit the details onto the smaller screen. The user could then view the next 6 months by tapping the arrow.
Checking bills/statements
I found my recent statements under ‘Payment’. This may be a slightly misleading label as the information under ‘Payment’ was more related to my balance and a link to my statements, rather than anything related to direct debits.
My suggestion would be to change ‘Payment’ to ‘Statements’. Any direct debit or payment information could then be added to the ‘Account’ section.
Help section
I also visited the help pages under ‘Account’ to see if there was any information on smart meters. The help articles actually directed me away from the app and to the main Bulb website. From there there was no link or option to return to the app again, without finding it again in my list of phone apps.
Something that Natwest have done really well is to incorporate the help pages into their mobile banking app itself, with screenshots and text showing where to find items in the menu for example.
I believe this provides a better user experience as users never need to leave the app if they are struggling with something or need a question answered.
This approach would potentially require more maintenance effort in the back end — to update two sets of help pages — but could be something for the future.
Summary
Overall I think the app is pretty good and the only major problem I had was when trying to use the magic link in the email.
Now that most of the issues I read about in the app store have been ironed out maybe the ratings will go up, especially when more functionality is added to the app.
I’ll end on this quote which I think sums up Bulb’s efforts nicely…
“It is not enough that we build products that function, that are understandable and usable, we also need to build products that bring joy and excitement, pleasure and fun, and, yes, beauty to people’s lives.” –Don Norman
I hope you enjoyed reading this, it would be great to hear your thoughts.
My portfolio is gemmasweeney.com if you’d like to see some of my work.
